After a years-long struggle with Vicodin addiction that cost her her health, career, and relationship with her children, Shannon found lasting recovery through Suboxone treatment and counseling at Ideal Option.
Shannon got her first Vicodin prescription at age 27, after hurting her knee in a car accident.
“I knew I liked it,” remembers Shannon, now 53 and an Ideal Option patient. “And back then, doctors were passing out pills like candy.”
A few years later, she was prescribed Vicodin again, after developing a painful infection following a C-section. By the time her prescription ran out, she was fully addicted and turned to buying pills from friends.
Then, divorce plunged her into depression and deeper into addiction. Though she’d studied to become a medical assistant, she didn’t have the wherewithal to work.
“The only reason I was getting out of bed was to find Vicodin,” she says.
Shannon had full custody of her 10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son but received little child support. To get by, she relied on food stamps and the Salvation Army.
“What little money I did have, I was spending on pills,” she remembers. “My life was miserable. If I didn’t have Vicodin, I was in so much pain. My restless legs ached constantly. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I’d have a fever and then chills.”
From time to time, Shannon would land a job as a hostess or bartender, but soon she’d quit or get fired. “The withdrawals were so bad,” she says. “I couldn’t keep a steady job.”
Shannon lost all her friends, too. “They saw how deeply entrenched I was in my addiction.”
She tried to power through it all, helping her kids with their homework as best she could. But she didn’t have the money to treat them to McDonald’s or a movie and rarely could muster the energy to for a family walk around the neighborhood. Her kids called her “lazy.”
“My daughter would say, ‘You don’t do anything with us anymore. You don’t go anywhere. You just stay in bed.’ I felt like a horrible mother.”
In earlier years, Shannon would hike and bike with her kids, and her daughter was a cheerleader. But as Shannon withdrew from life, so did her daughter. “She didn’t want to be involved in after-school stuff. I think some of my behaviors made her less confident.”
Though Shannon’s ex-husband wasn’t legally permitted to enter her house, Shannon on occasion allowed him in. Police found out and told her they were going to launch an investigation that included drug testing.
“That’s what prodded me to get help,” Shannon says.
A clinic prescribed her Suboxone, and Shannon felt better and stayed off drugs. Seeking a fresh start, she and her kids and her mom drove across the country to resettle near relatives. But Shannon ran out of Suboxone and began to feel desperate for opioids again.
“It got so bad that I contemplated picking up heroin, which to me was rock bottom,” Shannon remembers. “To even have that thought scared the living crap out of me.”
She briefly relapsed on pills and confessed to her mom that she was contemplating heroin. Her mom became distraught and reminded Shannon of all she had suffered already.
“That was my wake-up call,” Shannon says. “I was super depressed and wasn’t being a good mother. I realized: I can’t function like this.”
Shannon Googled for help and found Ideal Option. “My first day at Ideal Option was the first day of my true recovery,” she says. “I was amazed at how nice everybody was, how much they wanted to help. I didn’t feel judged, like I had at the other clinics.”
Suboxone allowed Shannon to feel normal again and to think about things other than drugs.
“Suboxone made me want to be a better person,” she says.
Counseling helped her regain the confidence to work again.
“Before, I didn’t think I was worthy of a job. I thought, Who would really hire me?”
Today, Shannon works as a professional caregiver. She draws on her education as a medical assistant and her experience caring for her late grandmother.
“Being a caregiver is exactly what I was looking for,” Shannon says. “You’re closer to the person than when you’re a medical assistant. I’m empathetic, and I can tell what people want before they want it. It feels good to give care, to give love.”
Shannon is always gaining new knowledge and skills and has earned raises and promotions.
“I love my job,” she says. “I love my life.”
Shannon has reestablished a close relationship with her kids, who are now 24 and 18, and live with her and her mom.
“Before, I would isolate myself and avoid my kids, and I wouldn’t pay attention to conversations. My daughter was so disappointed in me. Now my kids come into my room, and we’ll talk for hours.”
Shannon hasn’t had a pill in over 7 years and doesn’t even think about using. “When you’re in the midst of an addiction, you’re not the person you’re supposed to be,” she says. “Now, I’m a well-rounded human being. I’ve fully moved on.”
Specializing in addiction medicine since 2012, Ideal Option has helped tens of thousands of people just like Shannon get started in recovery. Click here to make an appointment at Ideal Option today!
Next up: “The further away I get from it all, the more I feel I don’t want to go back“ — Rex’s Story of Hope