A SURVIVOR IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE –
Feb. 22, 2023 – As a teenager and young adult, Wiger struggled with addiction. Often, addiction starts as a result of a rough childhood or past trauma—Wiger noted that this was far from true in her case. Her family was always loving and supportive but, nevertheless, things started going downhill as early as middle school. She recalled experimenting with drugs and beginning to fail classes, to the point that a teacher took her aside to warn her that her life might be going down the wrong path.
Things escalated when she left home for college. She was hoping for a fresh start, but ended up transferring schools again and again, only to find the same thing would happen everywhere she went.
“I would start drinking, start using cocaine, I was a disaster,” she said. “Each new school I would tell myself, this is the new you. You’re not going to do anything stupid. But there’s that saying: everywhere you go, there you are. I had the same problems everywhere I went because I never looked at myself.”
