In this episode:
In this emotionally powerful episode of Bottomless to Sober, I delve into the inspiring and heart-wrenching story of Ana, a young woman whose life was deeply impacted by addiction and mental health challenges. Ana’s journey is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of shedding light on the hidden struggles that many individuals face. At the end I also reveal what Ana does for a living, which may leave listeners surprised because of the assumptions we so frequently make about people struggling with addiction.
Resources:
Bottomless to Sober – Coaching, Writing Classes, and Workshops
Sara’s Story Podcast Episode that I reference
Transcript:
Jessica Dueñas: Hey, everyone. So first, before we start today’s episode, I just wanted to share an announcement that on New Year’s Eve, December 30, first, I’m actually going to be hosting a New Year’s Eve self forgiveness, workshop. It’s called feelings aren’t facts on New Year’s Eve self forgiveness, workshop. And essentially it’s gonna be a 90 min workshop where we’re gonna go through some reflection work. But really, also, I’m doing some exercises on evaluating our guilt, resentment and anger towards ourselves.
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Jessica Dueñas: and then I’m diving into some next step works where we are either honoring our younger selves or preparing for our future selves. And so I definitely invite you to check it out. The information is, live on my website at bottom list of sober.com. If you wanna check it out and see if it’s something that you wanna do to get your
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Jessica Dueñas: this 2023 wrapped up? With some really powerful reflections. But with that we’ll go ahead and get started. So for today’s episode, what I wanted to do was actually share an old story that I had written. So in 2021 I had interviewed Anna. Ana is not her real name, but she did not want to disclose her identity for the purposes of sharing this story on a public platform, and I wanted to go ahead and just reread her story and share it with you all, because
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it is a really powerful story that resonates with so many of us in terms of the struggles that we go through when we deal with addiction. So the story is originally titled. You don’t know what you don’t see.
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Jessica Dueñas: And this is Anna story.
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Life in active addiction is difficult.
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Jessica Dueñas: Getting sober can be nearly impossible for some, and a sober life does not necessarily equal an easy life.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna’s story is full of countless challenges, lots of falls, and even more comebacks.
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Jessica Dueñas: Sobriety is a challenge, but I wouldn’t trade my life today for anything is something that Anna had said when we met. raised by her abusive mother. Anna’s childhood only increased in chaos as she grew
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Jessica Dueñas: she described her mother as the older she got the crazier she got, and I mean she caught herself on fire. And yes, Anna meant this literally, her mother really did catch herself on fire.
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Jessica Dueñas: What about your dad, Anna? Anna’s dad was primarily absent from her childhood, and she said, My dad, I saw him a handful of times growing up. I always wanted to be with him, especially because my mother was constantly hurting us. She hurt us a lot.
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Jessica Dueñas: My dad had a wreck drinking and driving. He actually killed some one. So he went to prison.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna’s a fast talker, and can get a lot out in a single breath. So after she said all that she did pause, but then continued, there was always something that was causing me trauma, and I didn’t even know I didn’t understand that it was happening to me. I didn’t understand any of it. I wasn’t allowed to kiss my mother, hug my mother, or tell her that I loved her. I just couldn’t find the love.
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Jessica Dueñas: I was a good kid. I wasn’t a bad kid
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Jessica Dueñas: when I was 16, she continued. That’s when I found alcohol and drugs.
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Jessica Dueñas: My first drink felt like I could breathe. I felt that people cared about me, the people at the drugs and alcohol. They didn’t judge me. They didn’t make fun of how I looked.
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Jessica Dueñas: I fit right in. Anna then described how drugs and alcohol brought her the peace and comfort she yearned for since early childhood life
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Jessica Dueñas: her life was really chaotic and confusing. So for her to escape was bliss.
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Jessica Dueñas: I assumed that since her mother had been so abusive that her doing drugs would only have brought on more chaos at home.
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So how was your relationship with your mother? And now that you were older and she found out that you were doing drugs? I asked.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna had chuckled
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Jessica Dueñas: at the time we started using together. It brought the relationship to a different level.
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Jessica Dueñas: I finally had something she wanted. So she started to be nice to me. It was good. She started liking my friends, too. She was just easier to be around.
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Jessica Dueñas: This new bond, however, didn’t last long.
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Jessica Dueñas: One day her mother had Anna drive up to her mother’s boyfriend’s house, and as her mother got out of the car she turned to Anna, and in a harsh yet hushed tone said, Don’t get out of the car. Don’t say anything and shut your mouth.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna recalled her mother, went into the house and rushed out shortly after taking Anna straight home.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna’s mom had just robbed her own boyfriend. As they heard a car pull up which was the boyfriend’s car. They went and hid inside the back.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna recalled watching the car slowly pull into the driveway, and pausing, they held still, watching him steadily he put the car in reverse and backed away, driving off as if he had come in.
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Jessica Dueñas: Had he gone a hair further he would have seen them.
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Jessica Dueñas: Once he was gone. Her mother went through the house, ransacking it, searching for all the drugs in the home, including what she stole.
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Jessica Dueñas: Making sure not to leave a fraction of an ounce of weed, and balancing the beer that remained in the fridge. She walked out.
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Jessica Dueñas: They didn’t see their mother again for about 4 months.
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Jessica Dueñas: so you must have been devastated right? I had asked. I was wrong. Anna and her sister, then ages 16 and 14 respectively. They were alone for a week.
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Jessica Dueñas: The Wicked Witch was gone is how they said it.
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So they partied. They had friends over, and they were distracting themselves.
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Jessica Dueñas: Yes, they thought about their mother. They wondered where she went, but they also felt relief. No one was in the house who could hurt them.
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Jessica Dueñas: Shortly after her mother’s departure the family got involved. About a week later it happened to be that her father was wrapping up his prison sentence, and as soon as he got out he pulled the girls out of school to live with him and his girlfriend, her 2 kids, plus the additional 2 kids who would come over every other weekend
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Jessica Dueñas: 8 people in a one bedroom apartment.
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Jessica Dueñas: It was tight, but her father eventually got them into a house where they had room to stretch
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Jessica Dueñas: with her mother gone and her father back in the picture. Anna looked forward to having a dad around.
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Jessica Dueñas: The time lost while he was away could not be made up.
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Jessica Dueñas: Hope had filled Anna’s heart as she started this new life with her father. Anna said to me, I wanted my dad, my entire life. but when I finally got my dad
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Jessica Dueñas: I didn’t have my dad at all.
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Jessica Dueñas: He was focused on his girlfriend and her sons. All the strangers were getting the affection.
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Jessica Dueñas: So one day I came home high on weed. Then he called the police on me. They didn’t do anything, so I did it again.
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Jessica Dueñas: I was so angry, Jessica. All these years he abandoned me, and he hadn’t been around, and now I’m still not good enough.
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Jessica Dueñas: Things also weren’t going any better at her new high school, either. She reported. I had been to 10 schools, and that was the worst school I had ever been in.
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Jessica Dueñas: you know, as a teacher when she shared this right. It’s like I’ve seen my fair share of parents who would come to school and raise hell if they suspected their daughter was being bullied. But instead, what her dad did, her dad pulled her out of school senior year when she was dealing with being bullied.
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Jessica Dueñas: I didn’t go to Prom, she said, walk at graduation. I didn’t participate in any senior trips. Instead, I spent my senior year in a treatment facility Anna shared
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Jessica Dueñas: like Sarah, whose story I had shared several episodes ago. Anna, despite being the youngest in the facility she did adjust fairly well. but she was furious, and she felt betrayed.
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Jessica Dueñas: I didn’t need to be around strangers. I needed some one to show me that they cared.
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Jessica Dueñas: but he just sent me there. I didn’t get a year book. When I was 17 I got a big book.
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Jessica Dueñas: I got a big book with everyone’s signatures. When her time and treatment was up. At age 18, Anna prepared to go back home. only to find that her stepmother was sending her to another facility instead of letting her come back into the house.
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Jessica Dueñas: At this point Anna’s mother had reappeared. She had also gone to treatment herself.
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Jessica Dueñas: so when Anna was getting transferred to the new facility, she escaped and hid from the police who were dispatched to find her. I mean Jessica. I walked in the snow, knocking door to door and hid, hoping that someone would let me in so I could avoid the cops.
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Jessica Dueñas: But no one let her in. and Anna did eventually get a hold of her mother.
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Jessica Dueñas: Her mother had a place to stay, so she let Anna stay with her, and though they each had just completed treatment programs for addiction. They didn’t stay clean.
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Jessica Dueñas: and Anna didn’t live with her mother for long, either.
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The next few years of Anna’s life were a blur.
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Jessica Dueñas: I don’t remember what happened, she said. I just know that shit happened, and it was all bad. Her drug use got worse crack homelessness moving around to different cities, hoping to get her life together.
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Anna looked out when her aunt gave her a chance, and she moved into an apartment with her cousin in a new city.
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Jessica Dueñas: She was so grateful her drug use actually slowed down as a result which was positive. But her drinking continued, and along with it, so did her depression.
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Jessica Dueñas: One day on her birthday.
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Jessica Dueñas: she hit a low point. Anna attempted suicide
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Jessica Dueñas: in the hours leading to the attempt. Anna went out drinking for her birthday, hoping to find someone to spend the night with.
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Jessica Dueñas: She had the apartment to herself, as her cousin was away on a camping trip when she didn’t connect with anyone. She came home drunk, upset, feeling rejected.
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Jessica Dueñas: 2 dozen bright roses were sitting still, waiting for her when she arrived. They were a gift from her sister.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna snapped. She scrambled around the apartment, looking for anything with a sharp edge. Razors, knives, whatever she thought would cut her flesh. She laid in bed, preparing to rip at her wrists. When the doorknob, when the doorknob rattled.
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Jessica Dueñas: she heard the door squeak, and then a shriek.
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Jessica Dueñas: Her cousin had walked in.
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Jessica Dueñas: Seeing Anna lying in the bed with the blade against her wrist, her cousin straight up, just leaped into the bed, and when she landed her cousin felt a poke and ripped the sheet up off of Anna, revealing every sharp tool in the apartment that was just laid around her. She called 9 1 one, and Anna went straight to the hospital again.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna shared. I was pissed.
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I wanted to DIE.
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Jessica Dueñas: She spelled the word Die! She spelled the word out, being mindful of her son, possibly being within earshot as she was speaking.
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Jessica Dueñas: I felt horrible. I wanted to die, and no one even let me try. I would pray to God I don’t want to do this any more. I don’t want to be here any more. I have always asked God. Since I was a kid I never had any love, no kindness. I couldn’t take it. I just didn’t want to keep going through life. It was too overwhelming and hard.
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Jessica Dueñas: After her attempt in the apartment. Anna’s aunt didn’t allow her to return.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna eventually ended up back home and moved in with a friend.
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Jessica Dueñas: She did find her way back to drugs, but this time not for long.
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Jessica Dueñas: When she moved in she met John, the boy next door. He later became her husband.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna had a habit of attracting younger men, so throughout our conversation she occasionally referred to them as boys.
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Her connection with John filled a void for Anna, and she found herself willing to give up everything for him. The drugs, the alcohol, even cigarettes.
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Jessica Dueñas: Those were the rules that I wanted him to live by, and I was willing to do the same she shared. He was okay with it. He chose me.
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Jessica Dueñas: He gave up all of his comforts with his family for the sake of being with me. I felt loved
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Jessica Dueñas: for the duration of her marriage, which was about 6 years. Anna didn’t touch alcohol or drugs. Toward the end of their relationship she started stealing his grandmother’s prescriptions, however.
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Jessica Dueñas: and though the pill use appeared minor at the time. this was a slip that would eventually lead to a landslide. When they divorced. Anna was happy to move on.
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Jessica Dueñas: In her married years she did well for herself, and was ready to be an independent single woman. Outside of those few pills she was sneaking. Everything was great.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna was recently divorced, and 30 when she met up with some friends at a festival.
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She hadn’t had a drink in 7 years, and her friends were excited to taste wine.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna said. I thought to myself. I’m grown. I’m a woman now. I know right from wrong. I mean I drive a Mercedes. Certainly I’m not going to drink and drive in a Mercedes, I’d become sophisticated.
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Jessica Dueñas: But on day one of drinking, after 7 dry years, she went straight from tasting the wine to pounding drinks at a bar past 2 in the morning, and shortly after that
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Jessica Dueñas: drugs came right back into the picture.
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So much of what Anna gained in those 7 years that she was sober, vanished, or was at risk of being ruined.
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Jessica Dueñas: Nothing in Anna’s life was steady except for the whole drugs and alcohol had on her again
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Jessica Dueñas: during an attempt to get sober. In 2015 Ana had moved into a halfway house and met another boy quote unquote.
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Jessica Dueñas: He was 11 years younger than her, and he was barely a few months sober
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Jessica Dueñas: things moved quickly. It was August. They met. October came. They were living together, come November. Anna was pregnant. By the end of the year, however, Eddie relapsed and left town after he robbed the local heroin dealer.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna was alone briefly, but she followed after Eddie because
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Jessica Dueñas: I wanted my baby hell or high water to have a mom and dad there. except Eddie, couldn’t stay out of jail, and he couldn’t stay sober once her son Bryson was born. Anna couldn’t stay sober either.
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Jessica Dueñas: In the years that followed there were attempts at getting clean. They tried to get it together. They moved cities look for different environments, but no matter where they went, they couldn’t escape their addiction.
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Jessica Dueñas: The following years consisted of breakups, attempts to get sober, broken promises, and increasingly worse drug use. Then, then things look a turn for the worse.
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Jessica Dueñas: They pulled in from having bought some spice. They looked at their money. In front of them were only 5 $1 bills.
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Jessica Dueñas: They looked at each other. They knew what to do.
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Jessica Dueñas: Sure, they had just come from buying the drugs. But why not be efficient and get the $5 worth now, so that they wouldn’t have to turn around and worry about it later?
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Jessica Dueñas: Then the last thing that Anna could remember was putting the car in reverse. Next thing she opens her eyes to find herself surrounded by white smoke.
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Jessica Dueñas: It was choking her. Her entire body was throbbing.
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Jessica Dueñas: She didn’t realize where she was until she looked up, and as she focused her eyes a tree came into view. As the smoke cleared. Anna had swerved into oncoming traffic, crossed 4 lanes and crashed into a tree on the side of the road.
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Jessica Dueñas: Eddie was in the car with her. so was their son.
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Jessica Dueñas: I figured this is the part of the story where the arrest happens, you know, as we’re talking. So I asked her, did you get arrested.
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Jessica Dueñas: And her response was, No, I woke up real quick. I made up this whole story about how I had to swerve to avoid someone who looked like they were on the phone. And so, to avoid hitting that driver, I said that I lost control of my car. The police believed me no ticket, no arrest, nothing. I didn’t even have insurance or any papers for the car.
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Jessica Dueñas: Nobody was even hurt. but I took that as a sign, and I left Eddie again.
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Jessica Dueñas: Though Anna was briefly clean, she connected with yet another quote, unquote boy with who she had gone to elementary school. This one’s name is Jason.
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Jessica Dueñas: she obsessed over him for a year, and after much anticipation upon meeting, she immediately felt something
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Jessica Dueñas: she said, I don’t know. Something just wasn’t right.
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I thought that maybe Jason’s probably not sober
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Jessica Dueñas: as she continued to describe the moment
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Jessica Dueñas: it was something about the way his head was cocked to the side. Oh, and he asked for money, too. I knew I shouldn’t have talked to him. Jessica. The problem with me is that it never matters if I want something. I’m gonna get something and I just don’t care.
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Jessica Dueñas: He was a heroin user. And at this point I was no longer scared of the high. I wanted to know exactly what everyone was talking about. He didn’t want me to try it, so I told him that either he get me heroin and help me use it, or I was going to go out there, find it myself, and probably die trying because I wouldn’t do it right.
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Jessica Dueñas: I told him I’ll die, and it’ll be on your conscience that was enough to have him get me the heroin.
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Jessica Dueñas: And so from then on they used the heroin together, always in secret.
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Jessica Dueñas: It was fun at first, she said.
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Jessica Dueñas: I was high all the time. I pretended to be a mom. I pretended to be present, but I was high all the time. Then one. The one thing she didn’t do was put a needle in her arm. She only snorted it.
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Jessica Dueñas: She said I was almost at the point of shooting up. But then my mom died.
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Jessica Dueñas: and that changed everything.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna was going to her mother’s house one day with her son.
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Jessica Dueñas: She was heading to work, and her mother was going to Babysit. II don’t know what happened to her. I walked in with my kid, and she was dead on the floor. I think when my mama went to heaven she found out what I was doing, and shifted things, so I had to stop heroin.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna had not experienced, quote unquote the dope sickness because she never ran out of heroin. Then one day
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Jessica Dueñas: the jump out boys got her and Jason
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Jessica Dueñas: and I was like, Wait, what? What are jumpout voice? So she started to explain. The police officer came to my car.
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Jessica Dueñas: and at that moment, and she said that I was like, Okay, so this is the part of her story where she gets arrested. But, Nope, I was still wrong. She got off with a warning
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Jessica Dueñas: but she had to give all of the drugs she had over to the police officer. Right? Cause they like jump out and like kind of get you
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as soon as the police officer walked away
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Jessica Dueñas: it hit her that not once in her life did she ever have to go get drugs. finding heroin at that point seemed like it was practically impossible. People would sell her fake drugs, and it got so bad that she had to find a former Sponsee that she had, who she also knew, had relapsed to get her drugs. And you know, eventually, I mean Anna just grew tired of that struggle, and she decided that she needed to get off of heroin. And she left that guy, Jason.
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Jessica Dueñas: So I asked her, so did you go to treatment to get off heroin? I asked
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Jessica Dueñas: her response. Nope, I smoked meth for 4 days.
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Jessica Dueñas: For 4 days she stayed in the bathroom, using meth to help her get through the dope. Sickness that heroin withdrawal brought on all the while her son was home.
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Jessica Dueñas: I made sure to check on him, feed him, leave him, and then go retreat into the bathroom, stay high in there. I made sure. He ate that he had a toy, the TV on anything to keep him entertained while I hid in the bathroom.
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Jessica Dueñas: when she learned what long term meth use does she freaked out and got sober again.
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Jessica Dueñas: Then Eddie called
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just like before he came with promises, waving the white flag of so called sobriety that he was just using CBD.
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Jessica Dueñas: Curious, Anna decided to try some Cvd. When he offered.
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Jessica Dueñas: and as soon as she hit the pipe she felt that snow flow in to her lungs, and suddenly her heart sank because it wasn’t Cbd, it was Thc.
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Jessica Dueñas: They were driving, and when Eddie saw her face overcome with worry.
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Jessica Dueñas: he started laughing, and he said, Let’s make a stopover at this house. We need to pick up something. and angrily. You know she’s crying as they picked up acts like drugs, she cried, as she watched them go mad in her house, taking things apart, becoming obsessive, becoming compulsive. He had to go.
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Jessica Dueñas: So Eddie finally left.
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Jessica Dueñas: and Anna felt like she needed to take the edge off and drink. So she picked up 2 wine bottles. She uncorked. One, sipped some.
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Jessica Dueñas: and as she felt the buzz start in her body she realized, I don’t want to do this. She opened the other wine bottle, and she poured out all that she had left. It all went down the drain.
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Jessica Dueñas: This was on July eighteenth, 2018. I’m sorry. 2019,
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Jessica Dueñas: and Anna said, I prayed God that’s the last time that I picked up a white chip. If you’re listening. A white chip in 12 step programs is the first chip that people pick up to denote like a fresh start. So it’s like the 24 h, Chip.
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Jessica Dueñas: So how has Anna stayed sober ever since her response? I’ve stayed away from men.
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Jessica Dueñas: My thinker doesn’t work when I’m around them. I only have made bad decisions, and I decided to focus only on my recovery.
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Jessica Dueñas: And then she paused. But things have changed recently, she said.
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Jessica Dueñas: Mark, a family friend who was going through divorce, started reaching out to her.
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Jessica Dueñas: So she, Anna, tells the story. For months I refused each invite to dinner, to a movie, to a walk. Then one day, after a long work week, I agreed to go to a movie.
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Jessica Dueñas: and from there it was perfect.
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Jessica Dueñas: We connected on a deeper level than any I felt before. He told me he would take care of me, of my son, that he wanted to have a baby with me. He even told my father.
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Jessica Dueñas: I thought to myself, well, I’ve been patient. I’m finally gonna get something good.
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Jessica Dueñas: As Anna was speaking, you know. Her voice was picking up that enthusiastic note, too, like I was even getting excited for her, I mean, I personally thought, yes, that’s right. She’s been so patient now she’s getting the love she’s been waiting for.
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Jessica Dueñas: But her tone changed. Then one day I get a call at work.
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Jessica Dueñas: I remember hearing that tone change, and I immediately cringed, and I like started to brace myself. Oh, God! I thought he told me to come and get my things, that his wife was coming back.
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Jessica Dueñas: that he didn’t love me anymore, that he loves his wife. I didn’t have anywhere safe to go. My roommate had relapsed, and I couldn’t go back there with my son.
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So I stayed with a friend in the program.
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Jessica Dueñas: This all happened 3 weeks before we met, but you know, when I had this conversation with Anna. Thankfully. Anna had just found a home recently, so at the time of this interview she had found a safe space for her and for her son.
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Jessica Dueñas: It’s the most beautiful home I’ve ever lived in. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
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Jessica Dueñas: Despite this heartbreak, Anna has stayed sober, she maintained optimism, and was ready to move on and not let this set her back.
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Jessica Dueñas: Yeah, she was hurt. She was reeling from the shock, but she was grateful to have a home and be safe. But then she started to feel sick. and she felt different. So she took a pregnancy test.
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Jessica Dueñas: It was positive she took more each one was positive.
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Jessica Dueñas: Mark called me telling me to meet him at the clinic to get rid of it.
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I’ve done too much in my life to go get an abortion. I told them to get fucked and hung up
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Jessica Dueñas: for days, he persisted, though calling her phone calling her at work.
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Jessica Dueñas: I told Mark, not to worry that I don’t want him. This isn’t a trap. I’m a grown woman. I’ve made my bed, and I’m going to line it and take care of my kid. So that’s where I’m at.
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Jessica Dueñas: Anna spoke firmly, with a strong resolve. so I asked her, how are you feeling now? She said. Well. I’ve never made it to 2 years while trying to be in recovery.
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Jessica Dueñas: The fact that I have a baby inside me makes me feel hopeful that I’ll make it.
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Jessica Dueñas: So far I have a good history of not doing drugs while pregnant, so I think I’ll make it, she laughed. This baby is a blessing this baby has saved my life.
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Jessica Dueñas: The baby is due in October of 2021. Marx tried to deny that it’s his, but he’s just in the Nile. He begged for this baby for 2 months, and now he’s trying to deny it.
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Jessica Dueñas: I can’t wait to meet my baby. I have all the love to give this baby that I didn’t get.
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Jessica Dueñas: so I had a few wrap-up questions I had asked her. Where’s Eddie? He was in prison at the time.
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though Anna knows they won’t have the family she once dreamed of. She prays for him. She wants her son to have his father.
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Jessica Dueñas: I’m scared for Eddie
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Jessica Dueñas: he’s not using when he’s in there. When people sober up for a while, and then they go shootin up. It’s too strong for them, and they’re dying out here. I want my son to have his father. I don’t want Eddie to die when he gets out.
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Jessica Dueñas: and Anna’s right. That is way. Too common a story in recent years.
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Jessica Dueñas: What’s next for Anna at the time of this interview she responded. Well, I never got to finish music school when I was younger. But one thing that I will be doing is offering voice lessons. I can’t wait.
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Jessica Dueñas: I’m really excited to do that here in the next few months. I’m working on a book. I have a lot of goals. I’m really taking care of myself this time. I’m not letting my sorrow, my emotions or my pain get the best of me.
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Jessica Dueñas: I cope differently today. I don’t cope with a bottle, a pill, or heroine. I cope with serenity, with God, with my support group with music, with walking, anything and everything, without putting some shit in my body. I refuse it.
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Jessica Dueñas: I’m definitely not above it, though. When this breakup first happened. I was really close to getting myself a bottle, but, thank God, I didn’t.
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Jessica Dueñas: Today I think everything through. I think, think, think I think about my life, and how I will go right back to where I was. If I put anything in my body. I just can’t. I’ve got 2 kids to think about now, and I’ve got a future that I wanna have.
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Jessica Dueñas: And what about work?
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Jessica Dueñas: So fun? Fact, Anna
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Jessica Dueñas: is actually a nurse, and she’s been a nurse for 12 years and a completed college and her nursing school during those different time periods of sobriety that she’s had throughout the years right?
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Jessica Dueñas: Why did I intentionally leave out the fact that she’s a nurse. because we so often make vast assumptions. These wild assumptions about people who use say illegal drugs right, and
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Jessica Dueñas: I just wanted to share Anna’s story.
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Jessica Dueñas: to point out that this is a nurse like any other nurse that you might see at work. And this is her real story.
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Jessica Dueñas: Addiction doesn’t target any specific group of people.
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So be mindful in your daily interactions with others, because
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Jessica Dueñas: you don’t know what you don’t see.
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