‘This is where I found my family’ | News, Sports, Jobs

For years, Marissa Nichols had an issue with capsules. In her early 20s, after being identified with the continual ache situation fibromyalgia, docs prescribed her opioids to handle her day by day ache.

“I used them as prescribed for a couple of years, after which I began taking them greater than I used to be presupposed to,” she mentioned. “I didn’t assume I had an issue, and I look again on it now and I do know that I had an issue.”

It was onerous for Nichols to see the impression the capsules had over these 10 years.

“It didn’t actually have an effect on my life the way in which that the tougher medication did later in my life,” she mentioned.

As an grownup she additionally struggled with psychological sickness and when her mom and aunt had her dedicated to a psychiatric unit for assist, her docs took her off the prescription opioids due to their danger of dependence.

“I simply had ache on a regular basis and nothing was serving to that,” she mentioned. “They weren’t discovering something that wasn’t a narcotic that may assist.”

Quickly, she turned to road medication and tried smoking methamphetamine and “hated it.”

“After which a couple of years after that, I attempted capturing it up, and that was it for me,” Nichols mentioned.

She continued utilizing meth and was in energetic habit for about eight months.

“It wasn’t a very long time, however I bought fairly unhealthy there,” she mentioned. “I didn’t final very lengthy within the life with meth as a result of it affected my psychological well being so unhealthy.”

Her psychological sickness troubles coupled with the consequences of meth, together with excessive lack of sleep, had been a recipe for catastrophe that gave Nichols the wake-up name she wanted.

“I awoke on my grandma’s roof and didn’t know the way I bought there,” she mentioned. “It scared the residing s– out of me and I put myself in therapy. I didn’t wish to get up in a fair worse state of affairs.”

Aug. 9, 2020, was the day Nichols determined she needed to take again management of her life. She moved from her house in Mason Metropolis to Fort Dodge to enter the residential therapy program on the YWCA Heart for Life Empowerment. She had been speaking to a buddy in Mason Metropolis who had gone by way of the YWCA program in Fort Dodge — she’s not even certain if her buddy knew at the moment that she had been battling substance use dysfunction. After listening to about this system, and figuring out that her boyfriend on the time was residing on the Fort Dodge Residential Facility, Nichols selected the YWCA’s program.

Nichols’ time on the YWCA’s residential therapy program was short-lived — after some battle with one other resident and rule violations, Nichols was kicked out of this system after about three months.

She had nowhere to go, however as a substitute of throwing away her hard-earned sobriety and turning to medication, she moved in with a brand new buddy she had met at a 12-step assembly by way of the YWCA.

“She’s nonetheless my finest buddy to today,” Nichols mentioned.

Wanting again, she realizes that it was in all probability a mistake to decide on her therapy program primarily based on the place her boyfriend lived, however it’s not a mistake that she regrets.

“That is the place I discovered my household,” she mentioned.

Dependancy has a price, and for Nichols, the worth was her kids, who now dwell with relations.

“I don’t need them to see their mother selecting medication over them, and it was attending to that time,” she mentioned. “It was attending to the purpose the place I used to be selecting medication over them and I don’t need that to occur ever once more as a result of they deserve greater than that.”

Reconciling and rebuilding her damaged relationships together with her household has been a “sluggish course of,” Nichols mentioned.

“There was quite a lot of injury carried out,” she mentioned. “After I was utilizing capsules, I stole my mother’s bank card and I maxed out like $5,000 on a bank card in my mother’s identify, so there’s quite a lot of animosity about that also.”

Since getting clear, Nichols has been placing within the effort to restore the rift between her and her mom.

“We’ll work by way of it will definitely,” she mentioned. “It’s gotten higher.”

Serving to different girls who’re going by way of the identical battles with substance use issues is a part of what helps Nichols keep her sobriety and restoration. Though she was unable to finish the YWCA residential therapy program, she discovered her method again and is now on workers as program technician, serving to to assist and mentor girls presently going by way of the residential program.

“I get to share my expertise with them, particularly the ladies who’re having a tough time and even the ladies who don’t wish to keep,” Nichols mentioned. “I can inform them I had a tough time too, , I didn’t even make it right here. However it’s doable to maintain going and keep clear and hold getting the make it easier to want even while you don’t wish to, as a result of it’s value it.”

By her few months of therapy and common participation in 12-step conferences, Nichols holds onto the independence she by no means dreamed she’d ever have just some years in the past.

“I’ve bought a spot of my very own for the primary time not counting on a person and placing myself in conditions the place I’m topic to abuse as a result of I’m counting on them financially,” she mentioned. “I do know that retains me clear, simply remembering that the life I’ve at the moment is the life I wish to carry on residing. I don’t wish to return.”