women who struggle with opiate addiction
I believe the way our country has
approached opiate addiction and recovery
has been a complete disaster I know that
that individuals who struggle with this
illness both deserve and need affordable
effective long-term treatment Jane
Aubrey she was my first child I loved
her before I even held her in my arms I
knew I was supposed to be her mom we did
everything together
in fact in a lot of ways we grew up
together she has the biggest blue eyes
the blondest hair in the best smile and
she was always the life of the party in
fact when she was young I used to have
to say quite often inside boys Janie
because she was loudly leading the room
however when Janie hit middle school she
started to change and what I thought was
normal teenage angst was actually the
onset of mental illness and I had no
idea she and I did go through therapy
through her adolescence and it was a
struggle but Janie got better when Jane
was 18 she made a bold move to Los
Angeles to pursue a career in acting and
dance which made sense because she was
very talented super theatrical and she
had danced for the Nevada Dance Academy
for many years and when Jane was in Los
Angeles she and I spoke on the phone all
the time sometimes several times a day
and after a few months
janie wasn’t sounding like Jane and I
wasn’t sure what was going on but my gut
was telling me that she needed to come
home to see a doctor at 18 and a half
Jane was in fact diagnosed with a mental
illness called borderline personality
disorder people who suffer from this
mental illness also suffer from other
mental disorders such as anxiety
disorders eating disorders and mental
disorders they also um sometimes tend to
self-harm they have substance abuse
issues and suicidal thinking Janie had
them all this was the tragic diagnosis
for our entire family and her dad and I
took several mental health classes just
to ensure that we could have a as
manageable normal loving relationship
with her ongoing with this illness I
don’t know when Janie started
self-medicating but she did and I don’t
know when she started taking
prescription pain pills but she did
which led her down the really scary path
of addiction to heroin her dad and I had
her in several treatment recovery
programs
none of which worked she would go in for
the typical 28 30 day program and this
only didn’t work for her but it set her
up for failure 28 30 days is the normal
amount of time for someone who suffers
from an addiction to get treatment and
it also sets them up for failure
by the time Janie was 21 years old she
was out of control I cannot tell you how
many times her dad and I were on the
streets searching for her busting her
out from under or getting her out from
under dirty bathroom stall doors
me going into a drug house pulling her
out putting her back in our car and
taken her back to the very places that
promote census abuse program and mental
health services with them only turning
her back out on the streets within 72
hours and I was always there and I would
plead to these professionals what are
you doing my baby is sick she needs
long-term help you need to help her and
they would just look at me as if their
own hands were tied with a super sad
look in their eyes knowing that we were
losing the battle on March 10th 2015 at
3:40 in the afternoon I got a phone call
and it’s that phone call that no parent
should get Janie had overdosed on heroin
and I had lost my baby girl and here I
stand a short twenty-two months later
and my heart is broken
and I’m pissed off I’m angry that I had
to lose my daughter I’m angry that no
one could help her and I’m angry that
our substance abuse treatment programs
and mental health services across this
country are so broken which tells me
that if we treated substance abuse as
the chronic illness that it is then we
as a country would be approaching it in
a much different way the United States
spends over 400 billion dollars annually
in the name of addiction on programs and
resources that don’t work and this is
exactly what happened to me and my
family this happened to many others
across the United States and it’s
unacceptable and this is why we need to
did you know opioid addiction is one and
a half times more prevalent than
cancer with only 10% getting treatment
only 10% and this is both from
prescription pain pills such as
hydrocodone oxycontin Percocet vicodin
morphine and then your street drug
heroin and what’s interesting is that
all these drugs they produce the same
effect in high it’s the same thing which
is why four out of five people who are
addicted to heroin started out with the
with prescription pain pills moving on
to the cheaper more readily available
Street drug heroin in November of 2000
November in 2016 the US Surgeon General
came out with extensive scientific
evidence proving the opioid addiction is
in fact a chronic illness
and this is because it changes the
structure of your brain it actually
alters your brain and in turn this is
why people who are addicted to opioids
have a higher risk of chronic real out
which is what happened to Jane since
being involved in the recovery aspect it
is it is just it’s why I know that we
need to have substance abuse programs
widely available across the United
States because currently we don’t there
is a huge shortage and a lot of times it
takes weeks and sometimes it takes
months to get into treatment these are
the things that I think we need I think
we need to have prevention early on we
need to have it in our schools our
educators we need to have it in our
local state and national legislative
system to be committed to changing how
we’re approaching opioid addiction we
need to stop punishing people who have
this addiction and start really helping
them and all doctors every single
physician needs to be really educated on
the dangers of the addiction of
in pain put pills and opiates and I also
think it would be really cool if we
could create a monitoring system that
the medical community could tap into and
collectively like track when an if
prescription pain pills are prescribed
after Janie died I led the charge of a
volunteer program addressing addiction
with an emphasis on opioid addiction and
this brought awareness to my hometown
and in turn it spurred a yeren
initiative at my church to raise money
to purchase a recovery home and with the
help of many volunteers and leaders in
my community I am really proud to say
didn’t in July of 2016 we opened up the
Jane Aubrey house this is a home to help
young women between the ages of 18 and
25 who suffer from opiate addiction and
this is not your typical 28 30 day
program this is a as long as it takes
program to ensure that these women can
really begin to heal and they have
intense they have intense access to
therapy they also have personal
development financial training and job
placement
it’s an is an incredible program and you
and you can do this in your community to
reach out to your local leaders reach
out to your law enforcement or your
church and collect you know get together
get your resources together and your
ideas together so you can make a
difference in your community too because
chances are the person you’re sitting
next to is struggling with an addiction
and if it’s not them then they know
someone close to them that is an
addiction has no bias it doesn’t matter
what your socioeconomic status is or
your weight or how well you’ve raised
your children and when we realize that
we need to love those who struggle with
this chronic illness until they can love
themselves that is when we will see a
real change for us all thank you [Applause]