A mother lost her children and almost her life, now she's sharing her story about addiction.
Lindsay Pearce grew up in Harford County. She lost her father at the age of eight, and rebelled as a teen. She felt lonely, distant from her mother and step-father.
Her friends started smoking weed, and she used it as an escape.
At 20, she had her first daughter, and her body didn't heal. Intense pain shot through her body from her abdomen, but the doctors didn't know what was wrong.
They prescribed her with Oxycodone, and kept upping the dosage. She felt like she was dying, while they thought she was drug seeking.
Finally, she had surgery two years later, they found cysts in her ovaries, a hernia, among other serious scar tissue.
Once she was medically cleared, she had a new problem.
Her friends told her ways to take her prescriptions to make her feel better. Then, they said heroin would take all her worries away.
Pearce will never forget that first high, "it makes me want to cry, it was unbelievable. It was the best feeling in the world but at the same time, I knew in the back of my mind i was taught right from wrong."
That one moment of euphoria, forever warped her way of thinking.
"That drug just makes you not care about anyone but yourself and that drug," Pearce said.
It took everything from her, her childhood friends, her mother took her daughters and cut all communication. She had to drop out of college, along with dreams of becoming a nurse. She was pulled into a black hole.
Pearce said it took her almost losing her life, to climb out.
Her boyfriend at the time kept her high, and when she wanted to get clean, he flew into a rage. They were driving down the street, she was locked in the passenger seat.
"He was going to kill me, he called my mom and told her he was going to kill me and I had my daughter listening to that conversation," Pearce was next to tears.
She started praying, hard. "Find me a way out of here," she plead.
Ten minutes later, an officer pulled him over, arrested him on an outstanding warrant and took Pearce to safety.
"He sat in the ER with me, in the room until my mom got there, and then even called days later to check on me and my mom. Like, I know he was sent for me because I would've died that night," Pearce said.
She used the divine intervention and her daughters as inspiration.
She went through a short-term rehab program, then felt she wasn't strong enough to go home, so she went toTeen Challenge.
After completing the program, she stayed on as an intern, then returned home.
She's working now, engaged and starting to heal her family, torn apart by drugs.
"They know that you know mommy did drugs, mommy had to go away, that's what happens when you use drugs, like I don't want to sugar coat that, i want them to hear it from me, I don't want friends to tell them about drugs, I don't want them, I want them to know what it really does," Pearce said.
She wants to share her story to inspire families to talk about drugs, what they can do to your life, and how to get help.
If you or a loved one need help in Maryland:
This is a listing of all state certified substance abuse treatment programs in Maryland. The BHA is not responsible for the availability of a treatment slot at any given program, contact the specific program for availability information. If you need further assistance locating treatment call 410-402-8600 or Email BHA by clicking on the “contact us” text on the left-side of the BHA Web banner. If you are a program administrator and need assistance updating program information contact the BHA Web team at 410-402-8592 or use the “contact us” feature in the left upper banner.
The list uses treatment categories, here are the definitions.
