John & Shari: Listener shares her story of addiction and recovery

Marguerite from Lacey is a former crack cocaine addict. She’s been clean since 2005.

Marguerite shared her story with The John Curley & Shari Elliker Show because she wants to help the city she loves.

“My mom died eight months into my addiction. Three months later, my son was sexually assaulted. Four months after that, my daughter was attacked by one of my dealers,” Marguerite said. “And none of that got me clean. I even went to jail for the first time ever. It wasn’t until the day I was supposed to go to treatment and my dad told me that if I didn’t go, I’d be dead to him.”

She said that was rock bottom for her. She was daddy’s little girl, and she couldn’t bear the thought of him abandoning her.

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John asked Marguerite if, as a society, we are spending too much time trying to convince people to get into recovery when they’re not ready.

“I’m going to put it like this because that’s not a straightforward answer. It’s not simply a yes and no answer,” she said. “I know for a fact that if somebody doesn’t want it in their heart and in their head, it’s not going to work. I watched that happen with one of my sisters and one of my brothers, and numerous other family members because addiction and alcoholism run very strong in my family.

“I always said, ‘Oh, I only used for two years, but it took me down hard and fast.’ And I said with my mouth, ‘oh, I’m not going to use anymore. I’m going to get clean. I want to go to treatment,'” Marguerite continued. “And it was all a bunch of more baloney because the next time the dealer showed up, or a friend showed up, we got loaded. I got cleaned from the time I ran out of dope until I got some more.”

Marguerite said she doesn’t have a “Harry Potter wand,” but she doesn’t know of a better way to help her hometown than to share her story.

Listen to the entire interview of Marguerite’s struggles with addiction and recovery below:

Listen to John Curley and Shari Elliker weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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