Supporting roles: Bonavista woman opens up about addiction to crack cocaine

A Bonavista woman is sharing her story in hopes of changing the stigma surrounding drug addiction. 

Lisa Hunt has been drug free for more 100 days. She says it's early in her recovery, but she hopes her story can help break some of the misconceptions about addiction and who can become addicted.

"I was a business person, I owned two businesses. I got two children, married. It doesn't have to be what people think it is. It could be your next door neighbour, you might not even know it."

In 2012, Hunt had back surgery and was prescribed Percocet for the pain. Hunt said she got addicted to the opioids and went into a recovery program to get over that addiction.

She was sober for a few years, but relapsed about eight months ago. This time, she got addicted to crack cocaine. 

'Wonder drug'

"With my two businesses, you know, I was really busy. I figured, somebody offered it to me, it will help you get through your day better, give you more energy, you'll get more work done." 

"I was introduced through a friend, made it sound like it was a wonder drug at the time. And in the beginning it was, because it did give me that extra energy and the stuff that I needed to get my work done in a day. But then, it started to escalate to the point where I needed it to function, just every day life [like] grocery shopping."

Shortly after, Hunt lost her businesses and her children went to live with a relative. 

In February, she entered detox for 11 days, then began a month-long recovery program at the Grace Centre in Harbour Grace. 

She credits the help she received from Eastern Health and the support of her family with getting her to where she is today.

Healing the family

Hunt's sister, Sherry White, said the addiction affected the whole family, and they didn't know what to do to help at first. But she is committed to learning more about Hunt's illness and to how to heal the whole family, not just her sister. 

"We're just kind of learning how to deal with it and move on, " said White. 

To help with this, she recently accompanied her sister to a Families and Addictions workshop in Bonavista hosted by Eastern Health and the Tip-a-Vista Wellness Foundation, a community-based group in Bonavista.

The workshop educates people about addictions, enabling, codependency, and family healing. 

"Our ultimate goal for this particular workshop is to help people to come together and understand addiction first and foremost as a disease and how it impacts the individual but how it also impacts the families," said Tracey Sharpe-Smith, regional addictions prevention consultant with Eastern Health. 

Recovery also needs to be a "collective approach," she said.

'Not ashamed'

White admits it wasn't easy for her family to seek help and has advice for others in similar situations. 

"Don't just sit back and do nothing because it's not going to go away. And you got to ask for help."

Hunt is grateful for the support from her loved ones, but knows not everyone is as lucky. Later this year, she plans to open a Narcotics Anonymous group in the Bonavista region, so she can be the support for someone else. 

"I'm not ashamed of what I was through. I'm more proud now because I've actually reached out and got help," said Hunt.

"I would like to get my story out there so people might feel more comfortable and share theirs and maybe reach out for help."