{"id":16383,"date":"2013-08-15T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T00:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16383"},"modified":"2023-09-19T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T00:15:00","slug":"meth-addiction-a-spiritual-battle-former-user-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2013\/08\/15\/meth-addiction-a-spiritual-battle-former-user-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Meth addiction \u2018a spiritual battle,\u2019 former user reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Antonio Ramirez<\/strong>
\nNavajo Times<\/p>\n

WINDOW ROCK<\/strong> – It\u2019s known as the Devil\u2019s drug, G, crystal, ice, and methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

Like a fire this narcotic hasspread throughout the Navajo Reservation and it hasleftmany to question what it will take to treat those afflicted.<\/p>\n

As a former user and dealer of methamphetamine, Theresa Paul spent years struggling to fight addiction. She took shelter under a tree in the back of a slate-gray beaten truck, attempted suicide several times, and failed numerous times to stay clean.<\/p>\n

Then everything changed.<\/p>\n

While dealing in a casino parking lot, Paul was caught by the police. She wasthrown in jail and awaited an 18-year prison sentence. Behind cold metallic bars a deep sense of worthlessness set in, but Paul rationalized that she had more to live for and decided to pray.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prayed. I prayed hard. I prayed for three days. I prayed. I opened my Bible, I read it, I prayed. I cried, I prayed,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n

Whether by fate or luck, her prayers were answered and the sentencing never came.<\/p>\n

Instead she was released to a treatment center in San Antonio, Texas called Victory Outreach. It was her third time there. The first was after a suicide attempt in 2004 when a group of people from the church offered to buy her a bus ticket to go and seek assistance from the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t ready then, I just wanted to go. I knew I had to get out of here,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n

Her first trip to Victory Outreach was unsuccessful. She left, got high, and walked the streets of San Antonio for about a week without shoes, food, or shelter. A cop found Paul and took her to the emergency room. From there she was sent to a mental institution for about a month.<\/p>\n

Afterwards she was placed in another treatment center and when that was over she found a church willing to pay for her bus ticket back to the reservation.<\/p>\n

Paul does not remember the second journey to Victory Outreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third time was the charm,\u201d said Paul. \u201cOut there they taught me it\u2019s like a spirit – addiction is a spirit, temptation is a spirit – and that the outer core of what we see is(us) battling with the spirit inside of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her third trip to the treatment center Paul spent a year on probation under the close supervision of the local pastor, his wife, and a probation officer. Over the course of the next six years, Paul\u2019s life changed drastically. She attributes this new life trajectory to human compassion orchestrated by \u201cthe hands of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The root of all trouble<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul had very little guidance as a child. She was born to an alcoholic father who has spent his entire life in and out of prison, and into a family with a notorious reputation for alcoholism, substance abuse, and violence.<\/p>\n

As a six-year-old child, Paul experienced sexual abuse. She said this left her sad, lonely, and unable to communicate with her peers. As a result, most of her childhood has been intentionally forgotten, except for her mother\u2019s baking.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe used to decorate cakes for us. At Easter time she used to make little Easter bunny cakes. She taught me how to make cookies – baking stuff. That\u2019s all I remember. I think a lot of stuff I tried not to remember,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

By the time she reached high school, Paul said she thought very little of herself and was very susceptible to peer pressure. She was a loner who had no one to talk to except for her sister and mother.<\/p>\n

When her sister, a big partier, convinced her to try a cigarette at the age of 14, her battle with substance abuse began. That very same night Paul smoked marijuana and within less than a year she was drinking and smoking \u201crocky tops\u201d – weed with cocaine sprinkled on top.<\/p>\n

By sophomore and junior year she was doing speed – a pill form of methamphetamine – and LSD.<\/p>\n

Despite the heavy use of drugs and alcohol Paul excelled in school. Maintaining a high GPA throughout high school, she graduated with a 3.92. She could have made the cutoff for Stanford or Harvard.<\/p>\n

Still, Paul said she was unhappy and continued to use drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to go to school drunk and I smoked weed in the restrooms. But the teachers never turned me in because I was still functional. I was still completing my work,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n

During her senior year, Paul said she noticed that people talking about smoking meth were laughing and enjoying life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be happy. I wanted to be in the crowd. I wanted to be acknowledged I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When considering what smoking methamphetamine did for her that senior year of high school, Paul said, \u201cI felt accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experiencing meth <\/strong><\/p>\n

The high off ofmethamphetamine is euphoric. Paul related it to the high Bradley Cooper got in the movie \u201cLimitless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Antonio Ramirez Navajo Times WINDOW ROCK – It\u2019s known as the Devil\u2019s drug, G, crystal, ice, and methamphetamine. Like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16385,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16383\/revisions\/16385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}