Life after meth

I read an article that was on the front page of the Sun-Telegraph about a month ago. The story spoke about a local man and his battle with his drug addiction to methamphetamine.

As I read the article I found myself being able to identify with the things that he spoke of all too well. I am a recovery methamphetamine addict of almost seven years. As I went through the article my heart became heavy many different times, for I could understand all too well how this gentleman felt. He spoke of all the different areas of his life that he felt this nasty drug had ruined. As I was reading relating with everything that he had to say, I thought to myself, "Everyone knows how much this drug can ruin lives from relationship's to the very person they are." Since reading the article I have not been able to stop thinking about my own life and what it is like after the methamphetamine use has been arrested and recovery has started. I believe it is safe to say that every person, even those who have never used this drug, knows the negatives impact it will have on one's life. But how many times do we hear what life is like after meth? In all reality we don't. So I decide that I would share my story.

My name is Misty Beutler and I am thirty-two years old. I am married and a mother to four beautiful children. My life is complete, stable, happy and very blessed. But it had not always been that way. I will not spend much time on the negative aspects and consequences of my drug use as I feel that was touched on in the article already wrote. I would like to share how my life is after getting help and finding my way on the road of recovery When I was sixteen I became a mom to my first born Daughter and two months after she was born I started using methamphetmine. I believe from the first day I tried the drug I was "hooked" and everything changed. My preferred way of using the drug was to smoke (inhale) it. I was what I call an extreme active methamphetamine addict for almost ten years. Everything that you read in the previous article about the negative impacts of being an active addict was very true for my life as well. I lived my life making choices that could have ended my life at any given moment just to feed my addiction. All of that changed on January 05, 2007.

I remember thinking to myself, "How will you ever live without the use of this drug?" I felt so lost, empty but most of all just scared. When I started on this road of recovery I was completely alone. Due to my own choices my children became wards to the State of Nebraska for their own safety and well being, leaving me to make some choices I had never made before. I decided when I lost my children it was time for some big changes. I was offered a spot in the Cheyenne County Drug Court program (which I soon learned was a gift for God) that I was very scared yet excited to take. I knew going into this program there would be no getting away with being dishonest, using or cheating. I knew I would have many "eyes" on me from persons in the public such as law enforcement and judicial persons. But that is just what I needed. I needed persons in my life that could see through my deceitful ways and make me accountable to my choices. My life was already starting to change. The two women that ran the Drug Court program were angels from above. Three months into my program and with ninety days clean and sober (first time in almost 10 years) I decided that if I was to make it in life clean and sober, that I better start digging a lot deeper than just the surface. I knew I had a great deal of things to deal with that took place in my life over the ten years of my active addiction. Some of those issues were: my Dad taking his own life, my step-mom dying a year after my Dad, broken relationships, damage from abusive partners and the hurt and undue paid I had caused to many, especially my children. So I checked myself into an inpatient rehabilitation center. I completed both of my programs successfully. And things only got better from there.

My children were returned to my care and my case was closed with the State of Nebraska within six months of them being removed. I started working a full time job that I enjoyed and was paying my own bills. I got a driver license for the first time when I was twenty-five along with a car that was 100 percent legal and my own. One year into my recovery using was the last thing from my mind.I learned to take all the energy I put into staying "high" and messed up, now into staying clean and sober. In May of 2008, a year and a half into my sobriety, I was reunited with my husband in the program. We were both clean and sober living a new way of life. We found out that we were expecting our son (making number four child) in May of 2009 and could not be happier. We got married in June of 2009 and I never knew just how great it felt to be not only in love with a wonderful man, but to have that man in love with me in return. I made the choice to go back to school in August of 2009 and finish my high school education. Learning to have faith in my ability make things happen I surprised myself when I got my GED in December of 2009 on the first try. I had spent many years "messed up"and living my life on the wrong side of the law so I decided I would put myself through college and get a degree in the criminal justice field. I figured what better way to give back to society and maybe help to save another person from making the same choices as I did than to work first hand with addicts? After all who would better understand an active addict's way of thinking that a recovery addict herself?

Due to my recovery I have been blessed with working with the teens in our community that are struggling with addictions. I have also had the opportunity to conduct a few interventions in order to get individuals into treatment and help them find their way to the road to recovery. I am proud to say that I have spoken at different drug awareness meetings sharing my story in hopes that it will help another person. I have a total of three college degrees in the criminal justice field and I am still attending college. I am married to my best friend for 5 years now and I am a healthy, honest mom to my children. Today I no longer want to forget my past or wish to close the door on it, because I am who I am today due to it. I will have seven years of sobriety on January 05, 2014! In the last seven years I have learned so many things about myself but the biggest most rewarding tool I have learned is that there is indeed, Life After Meth!