Mom Who Suffered Painkiller Addiction And Homelessness – Now A Force Against Opioid Epidemic

REBORN INTO LIGHT –

May 27, 2024 – “I was massively overprescribed painkillers. I don’t think it was done maliciously, but I became dependent and then addicted… My situation deteriorated when my doctor abruptly cut me off after I failed a drug test, having tried heroin for the first time just a week before the random test. My addiction spiraled, leading to a life of drugs, crime, and eventually homelessness.” “I was never made to be a criminal. I was terrible at it and got arrested for small possession charges and shoplifting numerous times. I was jail hopping, couch surfing, and sleeping in trap houses for three years while addicted to fentanyl-laced heroin,” she added.

Her early life had also been tumultuous, as her parents got divorced when she was seven and she briefly lived with her mother, a severe alcoholic.

“I lived with her [Danielle’s mother] in a very dysfunctional environment for two years… I eventually moved in with my father and stepmother, who I consider my real mother, and grew up with four siblings. I was always very co-dependent. Co-dependency and addiction tend to go hand in hand more times than not,” she told The Daily Express.

Danielle met her partner, now husband, back in 2016, and at the time, he was battling addiction as well. The couple soon decided to turn their lives around and move to California from Dallas in search of a fresh start.

However, they had to overcome a significant hurdle in their journey to California and sobriety— Tucson, a place she described as “the Mecca of drugs.”