Name: Heather Schaefer

Sobriety date: Oct 4, 2012

Drug of choice: opioid painkillers and alcohol   Brief bio: I was a stay at home mom of 3 married for 22 years when I came into recovery. I was a caricature of a soccer mom and I was wildly unhappy. I had been prescribed painkillers for a back injury and instantly became hooked. I started abusing my pain meds from the very first prescription. When I went in for a refill the pharmacist told me it was too early and I literally thought he meant “too early in the day” and he said “No, too early to fill. This is a 30 day supply and it has only been 9 days.” I did all of the typical addict stuff right from the beginning; ordering online, frequent flying at the ER, going to multiple doctors and so on. I went to jail for calling in my own prescription. I eventually had to start buying them on the street and at $5 a pill it became a huge financial problem as I was taking as many as 20 at a time. I pawned jewelry, including my wedding ring, and eventually started stealing from anyone I could. All the while I was also drinking up to 3 bottles of wine a night. I didn’t know how to get into treatment so one Wednesday morning I dropped my kids off at school and went to the ER and told them I wanted to kill myself. This got me 5150’d which led to hospitalization and then directly into inpatient treatment. Going to the ER that day was the single most important decision I had ever made. After completing treatment I moved into a sober living environment. I had absolutely mangled my marriage during my addiction and going home wasn’t an option. I had never supported myself before. My first job in sobriety was working at a gas station. My husband had worked for Porsche and I had been well taken care of so getting a job was difficult because I didn’t have any real resume or skills to speak of. I eventually got a job managing the house I lived in and then I became a district manager for the company and at one point was managing 15 sober living houses. I threw myself into my recovery. I took commitments, got a sponsor, went to meetings, worked the steps and my life started to get exponentially better. When I finally moved out of sober living my youngest child moved in with my boyfriend (also in recovery) and me. I created a stable home life and developed a strong work ethic but I also found something I hadn’t had since I was a child... a sense of adventure and fun. I have only had one sobriety date and my hope is to keep it that way. I do the same things now that I did in the beginning. I went into treatment when I was 40 years old and I am getting a second life.