My name is Blue and I’m an addict and alcoholic. Everyone
calls me Blue mainly because my hair is blue ~ LOL. I was born and raised in a
small island called Treasure Island Florida. My parents were well off and I
grew up in a good household. We lived on the water ~ had a pool, a hot tub and
a boat. We were always out on the boat every weekend fishing, diving or just
partying on some of the islands out in the Gulf. I thought this was normal.
This is how everyone was raised. My parents had parties at their house almost
every weekend. Alcohol was everywhere. I remember learning how to mix drinks
when I was 7 years old. I was very involved in swimming. I joined my first swim
team at age 4. I practiced all the time and eventually I qualified for the Junior
Olympics. One of my favorite things to do was when we went out on the boat and
my parents went diving, I would wait on the front of the boat for my dad's
bubbles to come up the anchor line. When I saw him I would fly off the boat and
swim about 15 feet down to meet him and breath off his respiratory. I was about
5 when I started this. I also was very much into art and at 10 I started to
teach myself how to play the guitar.
When I was 6 my parents allowed my great uncle to babysit me
and my younger brother. My uncle raped and molested me for 3 years. At age 7 I
had my first drink. It was exactly what I was looking for. Something to numb
the emotional pain I was feeling. By the time I was 11 I had to have surgery on
my leg because of a cyst that formed and became very painful. I was put on pain
meds and absolutely fell in love. Those pills did for me what I could not do
for myself.
There is a park by my parents’ house that I hung out at all the
time. I would draw or practice my guitar. I wound up meeting these kids who were
a lot older than me. They were 18 to 21. They introduced me to pot and cocaine.
I became able to socialize in ways I never could imagine. I could talk to
people and laugh and have fun. I thought I was important. One of those guys,
who was 21, took advantage of me by raping and beating me so badly that I spent
months in the hospital with broken bones and internal bleeding. He even
fractured my back. I was an emotional wreak. Not long after I turned 12 one of
those older boys got me hooked on heroin. He shot me up and then showed me how
to do it. I thought I had found the love of my life. It numbed everything I
wanted to be numb. I no longer had to feel those feelings anymore. I no longer
had to be alone with myself and my own thoughts. I found my best friend. I
found my way over the next couple of years to many other drugs and occasionally
alcohol.
At 15 I went from private school to public school. Although I
was in a magnet program for visual arts. 100 people tried out and I was 1 of 6
that got accepted. I also started my first band. I played lead guitar and lead
vocals. Through one of my shows I met Billy. I knew at this point in my life
that I was gay but I also knew that my family wouldn't have been ok with that.
So I forced myself to be with men. Billy I thought was the one guy who was
going to change everything. And boy was I right just not in the way I
thought. Billy was extremely abusive. He
fed me drugs constantly which I
did love. I was always high but even the drugs didn't make what he did to me
bearable. He beat me and raped me every day for a year and a half. He allowed
his friends to beat and rape me. He locked me in a dog cage. Normally naked. He
would electrify the cage so if I touched it I would get shocked. Sometimes he
would just put the wires right on me and leave it on long enough to burn my
skin. He made me eat and drink out of dog bowls. I was not allowed to look
anyone in the eyes. If I did I got punished badly. I had to kneel next to his
chair in the living room like a pet and I always had to walk a step behind him.
Sometimes he would keep me locked in the cage for weeks at a time. He would let
me out and my legs would so bad I wouldn't be able to walk. He starved me and
when I got away from him I weighed 87 pounds. He got arrested on a drug charge
and my friends got me out of the house and hid me.
I bounced from friend’s house to friend’s house. Sometimes I
slept on the streets. For a couple of months I got involved with another guy
who was very controlling and abusive. But he wasn't anything like Billy, so I
thought I was doing well. Only he forced me into prostitution. I did that for a
couple of months until I got hooked up with a major drug dealer who lived 2
hours south of me. I started selling drugs in the clubs for him. I was selling
about 1,500 x pills every weekend. Yet my addiction was so bad I had no profit.
I owed him. I just kept running. One night, when I was 18, my very good friend
Mitch and I, were walking to the store to get something to drink. It was a
couple of blocks away from his apartment. On the way back, this
car kept
driving past us and turning around. The next thing I know I heard the gun shot
and Mitch fell to the ground. He got hit in the head and died in my arms within
minutes. I saw who shot him. It was the same man who raped and beat me when I
was 11. I went to court and testified. He stood up when the verdict was read, ‘guilty’.
He said, “I didn't mean to shoot him, I meant to shoot her” And he pointed
right at me.
I couldn't take much more of this and I was afraid that Billy
was getting closer to finding me. So I wrote a letter to my parents and I went
home to give it to them. I had to apologize for everything I had done to them.
I had stolen all of my mom's jewelry and pawned it. But they did get it back. I
stole check books and credit cards. I stole cash and part of my dad’s coin
collection. Anything I could pick up and get money for I took. Because the
drugs didn't give me a choice. Two days later me, my parents and my uncle were
on a plane to south Florida for me to go to rehab. I went to 2 rehabs and a
couple of halfway houses. I stayed sober for about 2 years. I even sponsored a
girl. But yet again I wound up with a guy who was controlling and abusive and
who fed me drugs. I wound up moving back to home with him. I formed another
band - lost the guy - still doing my art work. Trying to hold down a job. But
the drugs don't really like my work schedule so it normally doesn't work out. I
eventually get married. He too is abusive. More mentally. I got pregnant by him
7 times. I had 5 miscarriages and 2 stillborn. One at 6 months due to
complications with the baby. And one at 7 months due my husband kicking me in
the stomach. Later I get pregnant again by another man who I had known since I
was 15. He was very controlling and very narcissistic. I stopped doing drugs. I
wanted this baby so bad. I wanted the others too. But I knew I couldn't handle
losing another one. The pregnancy was very hard. I was very high risk and on strict
bed rest. I was not allowed to go into labor. If I did, with my complication, I
would bled out and died before the baby was born. I had many episodes where I
bled so bad I had to have a blood transfusion. (And on top of that, I have a
rare blood type.) Eventually the doctor just had me stay in the hospital for
the last month and a half of my pregnancy.
I had a C-section. My son was born with 4 holes in his heart.
One was huge. He had open heart surgery at 7 months old. He is perfect. He had
a patch on the big hole that will grow with his heart. He will see a cardiologist
for the rest of his life. But he has no restrictions. And he is 10 years old
now. His name is Jax. He is named after one of my friends - Jack, who helped me
get away from Billy. Jack unfortunately passed away from an overdose before Jax
was born. I started drinking. However, I did drink while I was pregnant for 2
days straight. But now I’m drinking every day nonstop. One day i decided to
quit. I knew all about withdrawals from drugs. I kicked heroin and Benzos. But I
had no idea you could withdraw from alcohol. My third day sober I had a grand
mal seizure in the middle of Toys-R-Us. I spent about 5 days in the hospital. I
was hallucinating. I was asking the nurse what the people on the walls were
saying. Yet in the cab on my way home I stopped at the liquor store. Because
that's my addiction. It knows no bounds.
I got engaged to another guy I knew since I was 15. He
was crazy obsessed with me. I got a job at Toys-R-Us so we could get an
apartment together. He became homeless when his aunt decided to sell her house.
He didn't like that I was working so much. But this was towards the end of
November at a toy store. It was very busy. And I was hired as seasonal. I
wanted them to make me preeminent. So I did what they asked, I came in early,
stayed later and came in on my days off. He just got jealous and started
showing up at my work or my parents’ house.
One day he showed up at work and waited
for me to get there. My parents dropped me off in the parking lot. I didn't see
him at first. My parents left and he wound up cornering me up against his car.
One of my managers was outside and saw this. He hit me knocking me to the
ground. He took my left hand and slammed it in the car door repeatedly
fracturing all of my fingers in multiple places. Sad to say I am no longer able
to play the guitar. And I played for 23 years. Almost every relationship
I was in was abusive in some way. I wanted attention and negative attention is
what I got. I would force myself to be with men. So I would get really drunk
and high and meet random men I met on an online dating site. Sometimes I would
bring them to my parents’ house. But most if the time it was hotels.
I was in 29 rehabs from the age of 19 to 41. I wouldn't talk
about my trauma. They ask, what I’m going to do different this time. Because if
nothing changes then nothing changes. This time I talk openly about my trauma.
The more I talk about it the less power it has over me. I get uncomfortable to
get comfortable. I don't like raising my hand and talking in meetings but I forces
myself to. I raised my hand, said my name and said that I need help getting to
meetings. I got lots of phone numbers. And I call and text those people. Even
if it's just to say, “Hi”. I have a big group of women in my life who would do
anything to help me. I had a living situation problem and these women came
together and got everything fixed for me. It's amazing. I have a sponsor. I do
exactly what she suggests. I did everything my addiction told me to do so I can
do everything my recovery tells me to do. I have a relationship with my higher
power. I pray to him every day. I don't pray for things like money. I pray for
his guidance and his will. And when I’m feeling stressed I pray to him and I
have this peace that comes over me. It's amazing. I do service work. I have a
home group and I volunteer to do things like making the coffee or hand out the
raffle tickets. I help women who are getting out of rehab find a sober
living house to go to. I also help people who are struggling get into detox. If
a hand is reaching out to me I’m going to grab it and pull that person up. It's
so important to get a sponsor, get a home group, do service work and raise your
hand in meetings, introduce yourself. Get those phone numbers and use them.
There are some incredible women and men out there in the rooms. And you calling
them is helping them too. It helps me when I help another addict.
Today I have a close relationship with my son. He lives with his father
2 hours north of my parents. My parents get him every other weekend. I have a
job I never thought I could get. But I applied and got hired. I took a class
for a state insurance license and I passed. It was very hard. If I was in my
addiction I would not have passed that. I work from home, so when I save up
enough money I’m going to move back to St. Petersburg and I can take my job
with me. I can't wait to be closer to my son so I can start seeing him in
person again. I work hard on my recovery today because I want to live a clean
and sober life. And those promises that the Big Book talks about will come true
for all of you if you just stick with it and do what is suggested. They are
coming true for me every day.
I have a relationship with my parents. I didn't
before this. My mom didn't talk to me for 2 years. The most I heard her say in
the backyard when I called my dad was that: ‘I was a bitch’; ‘I was no better than
the trash in her garbage can’; and that ‘I ruined her life’. Now she tells me
that she loves me unconditionally. And she has never in my life told me she
loved me. I needed to borrow money and she actually lent it to me with no
problems. I asked and she said yes. Before she wouldn't even give me $5. Things
will get better for all of you. Just remember that you're fighting for your
life and your will to live. I hope my story can help at least one person. Thank you all for allowing me to
tell my story.