The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Addiction Recovery Program (ARP) helps those interested in working toward overcoming addiction or compulsive behavior have hope that recovery is possible, even during a pandemic.
“On the other side of addiction, there is hope and healing and happiness,” said Karen, an ARP participant who is recovering from a drug addiction. “I’m really grateful that I have had this experience because it has brought me this relationship with Jesus Christ that I never thought possible.”
Karen’s struggle with addiction first began when she was working as a nurse and going to graduate school. “I also had a miscarriage, and after the miscarriage, I was given a prescription for narcotic pain medication, and that’s the first time I realized that these drugs helped me feel better in my mind as well as for pain.”
Karen spiraled into addiction and began stealing narcotics from work. When she was caught and lost her job, Karen started her journey to recovery. During this journey, she attended ARP meetings.
“The addiction recovery meetings were probably the most important thing in my recovery,” Karen said. “As I sat there and heard the stories of other people — there were other good, good people who had struggled with addiction, and hearing their stories and seeing their successes gave me hope that I could get better too.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.