Overcoming addiction: September is National Recovery Month

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) - Walking the road of recovery is not always an easy journey.

For Pine Belt resident Beth Crenshaw, who is celebrating two years of sobriety this month, it’s a journey that’s brought her freedom from addiction.

“I could not be more happy with myself and the places that I’m going because I did it for me,” Crenshaw said. “Nobody could do it for me, like getting sober.”

Crenshaw struggled with addiction after her husband died from an overdose in 2017, losing everything along the way.

Crenshaw said she hit her rock bottom. She lost her home, all of her belongings, her car and everything she owned.

“I was homeless,” Crenshaw said. “I was basically just a ghost on the Earth. Let me (emphasize) this. When I say homeless, I literally lost everything that I had.”

Crenshaw was in and out of jail, homeless and addicted. But then after getting arrested and put in drug court, she changed her course and focused on sobriety.

Crenshaw said it’s hard to say what will make a person get sober.

“It could be they live on the streets for three years, and they just had enough,” she said. “It could be a life-threatening illness. It could be prison. It could be anything.

“But I know that when I hit my rock bottom, I did not want to go any further, any further down. There had to be more in this world for me. There had to be.”

Crenshaw said for those still in active addiction, recovery is possible.

“Drugs just have a tendency to take everything good in your life and make it seem like there’s nothing good and that’s all there is is drugs,” Crenshaw said. “But when you clear your mindset, your body, your soul of everything you’ve put in there, the light starts to come back, and it doesn’t stop.”

Crenshaw said one thing that anyone needs to believe with all of their heart is that recovery is possible, only if they want it.

“And you have to want it 100 percent,” Crenshaw said. “You can’t dance back and forth. You cannot. When you’re ready, there’s people around you that will help you. Just put out your hand, and we’ll help.”

Anyone struggling with substance use can contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services administration hotline at 1-800-662-HELP or visit SAMHSA.gov.

The service is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Want more WDAM 7 news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2023 WDAM. All rights reserved.