A new life

After working as a real estate agent didn’t work out, she started the magazine.

Sensing more opportunity, she also was part of an investment in a sober house in Lantana, which was open for 18 months before it was sold to another operator in 2015.

Her work there involved driving the “druggie buggy” — or getting clients to services and errands. That was allowed then, but new rules the Florida Legislature passed last year stopped the practice because of how some soberhome operators were getting illegal kickbacks for referring clients to other service providers.

She recalls once taking a call from a number she didn’t recognize. One the other end of the line was a man who said he was using drugs at his sober home and needed to get out, she said.

She drove up to the sober home with a friend, “and these two females jump in my car and say, ‘Get us out of here.’” The urgency of the situation had them zooming off before they could wait for the man who called to come out, she said. They were able to get the women into a women’s rehabilitation.

Severino had a run-in with the law in 2015, accused of driving with a suspended license and illegally having four Xanax tablets. She said it came from trusting the wrong folks: She was driving a drug patient’s car, unaware of the contraband. She resolved it by pleading guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia, receiving credit for one day served, records show.

She is studying business at Palm Beach State College. And her current employer, Daylight Detox and Recovery Center, is one of the treatment places mentioned on the TV show. “She helps us determine if people are serious about recovery,” said Sarah Uzzi, operations director for Daylight.

Severino also is featured in “American Relapse,” a documentary film co-directed by McGee. It won best documentary at the Rhode Island Film Festival last month, an award at the Montana International Film Festival this month, and will be featured at next month’s Orlando Film Festival.

Severino said she hopes that people will find out what she did at 18 years old when she got her second chance. “Having a purpose helps,” she said. “And making your bed every morning.”

“When I make my bed, I say a little prayer every morning, ‘Dear God, keep me out of trouble today.’” And going to bed, “I say, ‘Thank you, God, for keeping me out of trouble today.’”