Franklin County Stories

Allen

As a person in long-term recovery, I grew up as a drug-endangered child with my father and step-father being alcoholics. Sports were my escape from the trauma I endured growing up because of the abuse my mother was receiving from my step-father. Because of the influence, as I grew older, I started to experiment with alcohol. Before you knew it, I was drinking every opportunity I had. By the time I completed high school, I had experimented with crack cocaine in 1988. From that initial hit I used the drug along with alcohol and marijuana. I spent the next 18 years in a deep, dark addiction with those drugs. Because of some drug charges I had received in 2004 and after being on the run for a year and a half, I was introduced to recovery court in 2006. With that I was able to recover with the support and structure provided by recovery court. I gained confidence in myself and started sharing my story then, giving back.

After seven years into my sobriety, I started my current position in 2013 with the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ Project Lifeline. I am the Region 5 South Recovery Coordinator covering 13 counties providing peer support as a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist and reducing stigma related to the disease of addiction. I have helped start several different coalitions across the region as well as recovery courts, as they didn’t exist in the region when I first started my position.

I am also a board member with the Tennessee Alliance for Drug-Endangered Children, made up of community sectors across the state to help families who have been separated by addiction to reunite in a healthy manner. I have had the pleasure of connecting thousands of individuals seeking treatment and recovery just simply by sharing my story. There are numerous calls I receive daily with an individual struggling with opiates. Because of the treatment provider relationships I’ve established I’m able to get the callers the help.

The stigma has been reduced so much that law enforcement, Department of Children’s Services and first responders are reaching out and calling to help these individuals. I’m very passionate about recovery and helping those seeking it. Recovery has given me life, and I would like to see those that contact me have the same opportunity at life. God has been my rock in my recovery and without my relationship with him…I’d be dead. I will be blessed to celebrate 13 years of sobriety on October 27th! Recovery is the new high!