This book is not just about me. It's about life, relationships with parents, siblings, children, and friends. It's about addictions, it's about you, and most importantly, it's about change. I will be surprised if you can't find yourself somewhere in this book. I promise you at the end of the book, life will seem easier. It's about taking back control of your life, not letting drugs, alcohol, or people have control of you.
I am not a celebrity. I am a regular person who became addicted to drugs because I didn't have the courage or the knowledge to take charge of my life and to be positive. A large well-known medical center in the southeast took me on as a case history. I learned so much from Dr. D and Dr. Arielle Kogan and the other medical staff and want to share it with you.
In the book, I tell what it feels like to be addicted to opioids. I talk about going through withdrawal and counseling and what happens in group therapy, and I share private counseling as well. I have changed the names of the patients, family members, and friends as not to cause embarrassment. I am not using my real name.
I wrote the initial draft of this book forty-three years ago when everything was fresh in my mind. I put the book on the shelf, and there it lay for forty-three years, collecting dust as there was no ending, and the time was not right. Now with the opioid crisis, the time is right, and the book now has a happy and surprising ending.
About the Author: Veronica Knight was born to very young parents in New York in August 1940. She was their firstborn. Shortly thereafter her mother gave her three siblings. Two sisters and a brother. They lived in a beautiful large home in New York with parks within walking distance.
When she was seven years old, they moved to South Carolina to a lonely little four-room house at the edge of a wheat field and cornfield. They also had lots of tobacco fields and barns around them. It was quite a change even for a child.
Her parents divorced when she was sixteen, and her father left with a much younger woman. They didn't know where he lived for years. Her dad wrote to her just before her eighteenth birthday to come and visit with him and his wife.
She graduated from high school and regretfully got married to get away from home, not knowing there were other options. She had several good jobs working in offices. While working, she went on to take two years of continuing education in various colleges.
She has a love for the arts. She did oil and acrylic painting and then later went on to be a successful photographer. She had her own business for many years and did many art shows. She has won several awards over the years for her work.
Veronica was divorced and married several times, twice to father figures. She finally found contentment at the age of forty-two when she married the right one. She has been happily married now for thirty-seven years.
