Turning a Life Around: Darcy Leonard
Darcy Leonard had been a substance abuser since the age of 9. And while there were long periods of sobriety throughout her life, when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia – and prescribed strong painkillers for both – Leonard fell into a downward spiral.
“I started abusing my pain medicine,” she says. That led to more drug use, which damaged her family. ”When I use drugs, unfortunately, my kids just don’t fit into my life,” she says.
As her drug abuse worsened, child protective services stepped in and took four of Leonard’s five children away. (One was living elsewhere at the time.)
When I use drugs, unfortunately, my kids just don’t fit into my life
“I felt ashamed, remorseful and depressed,” Leonard says. “After the high wore off, I couldn’t believe that they had taken my kids from me and I couldn’t see them, or physically hold them without someone supervising me. I couldn’t see them at all for two months. I missed spending Christmas with them. I was just devastated.”
Today, Leonard is clean and sober and reunited with her children, thanks to the help of the Family Recovery Program. Over the course of an intense year, Leonard enrolled in residential drug treatment, went to parenting classes, took anger management courses and committed to family therapy, among other things.
“I feel good that I was able to accomplish the task of just staying clean day by day and becoming a mother again,” Leonard says. “It’s still not easy. But it’s a good feeling to know that they are home, they are my responsibility, and I can take care of them. Everything that I do is for my children.”
Leonard, 36, leaves in her own home and is grateful for the program’s immediate response and ability to get her quickly into recovery after she had previously tried and run into bureaucratic obstacles.
“Without the Family Recovery Program, my life wouldn’t have changed as drastically as it did,” she says. “I got my kids back before a year was up. I have housing that I can afford by myself. I can take care of them, and myself. I have a foundation in my recovery.”