Addicts can and do recover

My name is Amanda Romero. I am 37 years old, a mother of four and a survivor of sex trafficking. When a bad relationship turned abusive, I had to make a decision to lead by example and be a strong independent mother for my two girls. Instead, I unknowingly approached a pimp and quickly became a casualty of society. I was 22.

I had no clue what the simple compliment would lead to or the losses that I would endure as a result. I am thankful that I found the courage to walk away and grab life by its reins and take control — finally I was standing strong and doing something that I loved. I began writing about things that I saw through other people who were down, so I launched a campaign on turning the sorrow into something positive.

All aspects of my journey I had to acknowledge and then turn all the darkness into light, so I wrote all the bad things down and then went to YouTube and uploaded my despicable acts and how shameful I felt from all the actions I decided that I needed to do to get through and survive.

Not all addicts wake up and say let’s smoke this meth or this crack or shoot up this heroin; we wake up and say, how can we forget about everything and stop feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders? We attempt to figure out an easier way to help get us through the day; this is a normal reaction, but most addicts are suffering from the sense of not measuring up due to the perceptions of others.

As a result of this disease, my ambassador role has helped me spread more laughter and light. I make awards and write features based on our heroes. Many people stand strong behind my campaign and I want to shed as much light as possible to our cause, allowing everyone to see that we do and can recover.

This is how I face my addiction — what do you do?

Go to facingaddiction.org and www.facebook.com/drugaddictsagainstdrugs/.

Amanda Romero Espana, Riverdale