Rebecca Ronning joins us on the SHAIR Podcast today. Rebecca is 21 years old and recently celebrates 1 year clean. She began using heroin at age 17 and from that point on has been battling drug addiction. She came from a good family, got into college full time at age 16 and graduated with her associates of arts degree at 17 while graduating from high school at the same time. A star athlete in high school in diving and went to state 4 times.
After graduation Rebecca got into nursing school and with 2 semesters left for her RN degree she dropped out to go to rehab. She had everything going for her but heroin took her down hard. She went to her first inpatient at age19, was admitted to 5 inpatients, 3 sober houses, and fired from pretty much every job she had, using drugs the entire time.
It got so bad she began selling her body for drugs, was charged with a felony and overdosed 4 times. She lost all hope. Her family would tell her you HAD so much going for you how could you throw it away. Her parents are 25 years sober and they have helped her so much but nobody could save her from herself.
The consequences just go on and on but the BEST part is how her life is now and what she can mainly say is service work has saved her life. Today Rebecca volunteers speaking at detoxes and treatment centers. What's most important to her is for other young people to know you can be sober and have fun!