The heroin epidemic is happening all across the nation, including right here in Central Illinois, affecting people of every socioeconomic status.
That's the message a Champaign County woman is trying to spread while sharing her story of addiction.
Jamie Smith is a wife and mom of four. Her addiction started with a group of moms, swapping antidepressants and pain killers.
From there, Jamie's addiction spun out of control. Now she's sharing her story to let others who are suffering know they're not alone.
It all started in 2013. Jamie and her husband had moved to Saint Joseph, Illinois.
"I was going through a really hard time," Jamie said. "I had met several other mothers in my community who introduced me to antidepressants and Hydrocodone. Eventually I was taking it everyday, and then combining it with Oxycontin, Percocet, Methadone, Xanax, all these different drugs. When I look back now when I tell my story, it was like I belonged in a pill gang. It was a bunch of women swapping pills."
It wasn't long before Jamie's addiction escalated.
"I was no longer taking pills and snorting to get high," recalls Jamie, "I was taking them to feel normal again because that's the only way I could function."
Jamie switched from pain killers prescribed by doctors to heroin.
"I was able to get a $20 bag of heroin delivered to my house. I began snorting it. Before long, I was shooting it. I ended up leaving my life."
The mom of four lost her job, lost her friends, and lost her sense of self.
"I was alone and had this big, deep dark secret. My husband didn't know. My family didn't know. I was a 38 year old married mother shooting heroin," says Jamie.
She says her kids just thought she was sick; her husband thought she was going through a midlife crisis and depression.
After hiding her addiction for years, Jamie hit rock bottom. She left her family and moved to Chicago with an abusive drug dealer. Her family tried desperately to get her to come home.
Jamie says she blocked her family's phone calls.
"At that point, I didn't want to live. I wanted to die. I saw no way out. I blocked them from my phone. They called local authorities to find me, so I really had no choice. I had to go home," Jamie recalls.
But going home didn't change anything. Jamie says she was still hooked on heroin, worrying only about where she was going to get her next hit.
"I sent my husband and children to school one morning and tried to commit suicide. I tried to give myself an intentional overdose," says Jamie. "I was found in the bathroom. I was given Narcan. Three days later, I went into rehab and got myself clean, got myself sober."
Jamie is now nine months sober. She's taking to social media, doing live videos and sharing her story to spread a message of hope. She says she wants those suffering to know they're not alone.
"You don't have to be ashamed. Recovery is possible. You don't have to live like this. There is life after addiction. Please, please, please reach out!" she preaches.
Jamie is back home with her husband and four kids, working everyday to inspire others to live life clean and to the fullest.
"I feel amazing. I have my life back and I never thought I would have my life back."
Jame tells WAND News that the problem is also in schools. Many of the mothers in the group, getting drugs from students.
She says her goal is to talk to kids and educate them about opioids and heroin to try to stop the epidemic from happening in her community.
"A lot of times when people think about heroin or drugs, they think back allies, they think bad people, they think bad places. I live in a small town of 4,000 people in St. Joe, Illinois. It's happening right here. I started amongst a bunch of house wives right here in my community. Career women, mothers, housewives. It's right here. I feel like we don't talk about this epidemic enough and we're going to lose children."
WAND News will have more on Jamie's road to recovery and the rehab process at a later date.
