MEET JILLIAN

Jillian is 30 years old, a mom, and grew up on the east side of Indianapolis. Jillian now works at a local nonprofit as an office manager. Jillian also happens to be a person in recovery.

Growing up, Jillian would say she had a pretty normal childhood. Her parents have been married for over 25 years, so they set a good example for her. She’d admit that as an only child she was a little bit spoiled, but ultimately came from a very loving home.

However, Jillian started struggling her senior year of high school. She had devoted most of her middle school and high school years to volleyball, but dropped out of volleyball her senior year. She ended up dating a guy a year ahead of her in school and would spend her weekends going to see him at college. It was in this environment where Jillian was first introduced to drugs and alcohol.

Jillian Before and After Dove House

FALLING INTO ADDICTION

When Jillian would go and visit her boyfriend at college, she got involved with smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. Eventually, her boyfriend introduced Jillian to prescription pain killers. Years went by as Jillian kept on using pills; she didn’t really understand what addiction was or the fact that she was an addict until she was 21 or 22. By that time, Jillian was in over her head. She then told her parents she was addicted to pain pills and decided to move back home.

Eventually, heroin became Jillian’s drug of choice. Later that year, on a crisp fall morning, Jillian’s mother walked into her bedroom. When she opened the door, Jillian was sitting with her legs crossed and her face was flat in the mattress. Next to her was a leather belt and a little dish with a needle in it.

From there on, Jillian’s journey to recovery was a roller coaster. Over the next five years, Jillian was in and out of different treatment facilities and halfway houses. At about every treatment center she went to in Indiana, she either had a repeat there or was only there for a short amount of time.

Even after Jillian became pregnant and had her son, the drugs still remained more important than him. Jillian would leave her son to go use drugs and stayed out there in that environment instead of being his mom. Jillian spiraled out of control. She had moments of sobriety, moments of rehab, but nothing ever clicked until Dove House.

Jillian with Her Son, Mother, and Father

 

BECOMING A DOVE

From the moment Jillian walked into Dove House’s doors, she felt the camaraderie and the sisterhood that’s here. She felt like this could be home for a while. The atmosphere, love, and care the staff gives is unlike any place she had been before. The fact that Dove House is 100% free, Jillian could focus on getting better and healing traumas she had been carrying around for more than 20 years.

Jillian unfortunately hit a couple of bumps in her recovery journey while she was at Dove House; however, she knew that at the end of the day Dove House would never give up on her. At first, Jillian had to completely be still, shutting out outside distractions and focus on her recovery. Slowly but surely, she began to attend meetings and engage in trauma therapy to work on her recovery. She later volunteered in the community (which eventually turned into her full-time job), and rebuilt her relationship with her parents and her child. By the time Jillian left Dove House, she had the tools she needed to stay sober and the support of Dove House to move forward.

After moving out of the residential program, Jillian took part in Steps to Success. While she appreciated the financial assistance for her rent, she appreciated the accountability even more. Through Steps to Success, she was able to come back to Dove House twice a week to attend relapse prevention and to have a support group to talk about how to live a sober life outside of Dove House.

Through the help of therapy, parenting classes, and the other women here who were going through the same things Jillian was, she reforged her relationship with parents and her son. Today, he’s everything for Jillian, and she’s so grateful to be able to show up and be his mom today. Jillian believes that Dove House 100% helped her find the woman she was meant to be and let her flourish.

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