“Don’t ever give up, there’s hope as long as you’re alive.”
Those were the words of Vera Koster, Thorpe Recovery Centre clinical director and a person in recovery, on Sept. 7 at Recovery Day in Lloydminster.
Koster was there not just with Thorpe but also as a person telling her own story of recovery.
“I grew up in Germany, came over here, had a really good upbringing and kind of struggled with day-to-day things, feelings of anxiety,” she said. “At some point, I started using substances and I dropped out of university shortly before completing my masters.”
Koster says she spent a decade and a half in addiction.
“I went through nine treatment centres in a period of 13 years,” she said.
Today, Koster has been sober since June 2011 and made recovery her life.
“The recovery is my life and it's given me a life,” she explained.
She says recovery has a lot of forms and there’s not a single way of finding a person’s path to recovery.
“I think it’s important to know recovery is possible,” she said.
Events like Recovery Day play a pivotal role in reducing stigma.
“We can reduce stigma by coming together and just seeing we’re all just people finding our way through this life,” she said.
The event was an opportunity to share stories regarding addiction and speakers took to the microphone at noon on the warm Lloydminster day to share their experiences.
Maverick Rosentreter, speaker and recovering addict, says he had a good upbringing but eventually fell in with the wrong crowd.
“I grew up as a pretty positive person, my mother and father did an amazing job raising me and I picked up qualities from both of them,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I got caught up in the wrong crew and the wrong crowd, by the age of 14, 15 years old I was already drinking and involved in criminal activity.”
Rosentreter said he reached out for help feeling helpless to the addiction.
“I hit some pretty bad rock bottoms and ended up calling in for help, cause I couldn’t do it alone.”
“I’m completely helpless to the drug and the alcohol, it’s just nice to have Thorpe around for the recovery process.”
He likened it to repeatedly touching a hot burner.
“You keep touching it even though you know it hurts every time, if you go back into active addiction, it’s unfortunate, but just to know there is help and there is tooling out there for people like us,” he said.
Rosentreter said events like Recovery Day are important to get involved in.
“There are like-minded people around and you’re not alone,” he explained.
“Even if you’re not in active addiction or if you’re in recovery, I think it’s really important, the community out there with active addiction, it's really dangerous and it’s a large community.”
“I think it’s really important for people to come around here to see there are options, there are people that think exactly like them.”
Rosentreter was sober for a year before re-entering into active addiction. He made the decision again to call for help and is now 28 days clean and sharing his story.
Carrie Bennett, public relations with Thorpe Recovery Centre, says events like Recovery Day are important for people to get involved in.
“I think it’s important to hear clients speak their stories, you get to hear what it’s actually like,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is such a big problem. Sadly, everyone knows someone or is affected by either mental health or addictions.”
“It’s nice to hear their stories of their struggle but more importantly their journey of recovery.”
Thorpe is currently doing a fundraiser called “Sober September” as part of recovery month. Anyone can donate and money will be going towards purchasing a 15-passenger van.
“That’s crucial, we need it to be able to take our clients out of the facility for appointments,” said Bennett.
Those looking to donate can do so online at https://thorperecoverycentre.org/donate
Read more: Community barbecue supports Residents in Recovery
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