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Recovery in the News
Tammy Weddington: "I just patched it together, and it worked."
Meg Haskell
Bangor Daily News
September 7, 2006
It was so tough at the beginning, but it does get easier. It helped a lot just to get away from the people I was using with." In 1993, Tammy Weddington got just about as far away as she could, dumping thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine down the drain of her apartment in Southern California shortly before boarding a bus to Maine with her 8-year-old son, Eddie.
She left her younger son, Michael, then 6, behind in foster care, praying he would be safe. She had $75 dollars to her name and nowhere to go but up.
Patching together low-paying jobs, public assistance and helping hands, Tammy kept a roof over her head and food on the table and succeeded in regaining custody of her younger son. She enrolled in school and this spring graduated from
Tammy's transformation is remarkable, and she's not shy about it. "I went from shooting drugs in the bathroom of Taco Bell to being the student senate president, speaking at my commencement and introducing Governor Baldacci at the Blaine House Tea on Substance Abuse," she says proudly. "I met Bill Clinton, and I went to
Most important, with grit, luck, "real friends," personal counseling, support from many sources and the self-confidence that grows out of even small successes, she's stayed clean.
"I would pray 'God, make these cravings go away,' and that helped," she said. "But I like to give myself some credit, too... I just patched it together, and it worked. You won't starve, you won't be homeless. If you do something to help yourself, people will help you and be there for you."
Bruce Curran: "I finally have a sense of who I am."
Meg Haskell
Bangor Daily News
September 7, 2006
A bartender set Bruce Curran on the road to sobriety in 1987, arranging for him to be picked up at the American Legion Hall bar in
"I was ready to go," Bruce said, though it had taken 20 years, a nerve-wracking stint in
The Togus program allowed him to start rebuilding his physical health, provided him with solid information about the disease of alcoholism and introduced him to the far-reaching safety net of Alcoholics Anonymous. Nearly 20 years later, Bruce still attends one or two AA meetings a week and has a sponsor he meets with regularly.
"The best thing about recovery is that I finally have a sense of who I am, and I've figured out that I can do what I want in life without worrying about what other people think I should be doing," he said. Since 1990, Bruce has worked as a substance abuse counselor in northern
He's also on a crusade to de-stigmatize the disease of addiction and spread the good news of recovery.
"Too often, the people who are successful in recovery just disappear," he said, "and we never get to hear how their lives have turned out."
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