EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
A celebration is going on at Stepping Stone in Evansville. The newly renovated building is a drug addiction treatment center.
The facility has been open for more than 20 years and has just been recently renovated.
The facility can house up to 46 people in their residential program. The addictive specialist tells 14 News most people get here once they have hit rock bottom, which was the case for one mother we spoke to who is now a recovering meth addict.
"I got in trouble for manufacturing methamphetamines," Tracey Woolsey said.
It was that wakeup call that finally got Woolsey help. After 23 years of using drugs, the first time she used meth was when she moved to Vanderburgh county to attend college.
"You could find it anywhere," Woolsey said. "I always thought I was having fun on it, but I never realized it was ruining my life, and it did, I pretty much lost everything."
Woolsey and her husband have two teenage kids now. She says she used drugs most of the first pregnancy with her daughter, but abstained during her second pregnancy, both of her children were born healthy.
"I wish I could have been there for my kids, but I can't change that," Woolsey told 14 News.
Although Woolsey was physically present and wired on meth, she knows mentally and emotionally, she wasn't there for her children.
"It got to where I was so bad on meth, I'd be in my bedroom or hiding and they would be in there own room. They could play, they had movies. My daughter at three years old could make her own bowl of cereal," Woolsey said.
In 2005, her kids moved out with her parents. But it wasn't until last summer she got help at Stepping Stone, by joining their residential program.
The hardest part of therapy Woolsey says was to acknowledge time lost.
"Getting back my feelings and my thoughts my emotions," Woolsey said.
Woolsey is now part of society. She has a job, goes to church, and is active in her children's lives. She is also happily married to the same man she used to do drugs with and fight with. They are both clean and living a happier life.
"My life has done a 360. I love my life today," Woolsey said.
If you relate to Woolsey's story or know someone who needs help, click here for more information about Stepping Stone.
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