Soberjunkie: Heroin Addiction and Recovery | Documentary Idea

by Patricia
(Cleveland, Ohio)

I'm interested in packing my things, traveling across 25 states (about 50% of our country,) and interviewing about 5 actively using heroin addicts, and 5 recovering heroin addicts per state.

I'd like to visit cities that are kind of off the radar, cities that people may not even know about, most definitely not hear much about.

As opposed to Detroit, Cleveland, New York, etc, where drug addiction, amongst other things of that nature, is "to be expected." My objective with this documentary is to raise awareness about heroin addiction existing everywhere, even in places where people wouldn't think it would be so prominent.

I would also like to emphasize that regardless of the addict's mental health, background, race, sexual orientation, education, childhood environment, etc etc etc, we all ended up in the same exact place. A dark vortex where nothing else matters except for the next high. Nothing, not your job, not your family, not your future.

Essentially, I am looking to make one big fundraising documentary. Eventually, I'd like to broadcast this documentary nationwide, who knows, maybe even worldwide, and raise money for halfway/three quarter and sober living houses. I believe in my heart that this could work and I believe that now is the time to do it, especially because of how aware everyone is about the epidemic.

The death rate of heroin overdoses, just in Ohio, is 1 person every 5 hours. That is unbelievable, and heroin related deaths have now topped car accident fatalities in America!


A little bit about myself:

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and I've lived here my entire life. My parents did the best that they could to raise me with morals, values and goals.

I lived in Brecksville for most of my life and attended the school system there. I began experimenting with marijuana, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs at the age of 12/13. By the time I was 17 years old, I was no longer attending public school, nor could I keep a job for more than a couple of months, and I was a full blown intravenous heroin user.

At the age of 19, I reached the darkest place of my life and I made the decision to take my life. In turn, I overdosed behind the wheel of a car and got into a horrible car accident in April of 2011. I almost killed 3 construction workers on the shoulder of the freeway by slamming into the truck they were standing in front of, and pinning them in between the truck that I hit and the truck in front of it.

It was estimated that I was driving over 70 miles per hour. Everybody was okay, I walked out of the vehicle with some hair ripped out of my head and a scratch on my face. Two of the workers didn't go to the hospital, they were okay, and the third one had a 2 cm laceration on his ankle and a sprained right knee.

I ended up going to the State Penitentiary for Women at the age of 20 years old. I spent a year of my life incarcerated, and I believe that if I didn't go to prison I'd probably be dead by now.

Heroin had such a strong hold on me that I was no longer making any decisions for myself at all, down to my nutrition, hygiene, and safety.

I was released in April of 2012, and I went to a halfway house in Brook Park, Ohio. I completed the 9 month program there, and I've been keeping up in my 12 step program ever since.

Hopefully, I will have 3 years sober in November of this year. Now it's time to show people that there is a way out and that they can do it. If this doesn't work, at least I would have potentially helped at least a couple of heroin addicts across the country and maybe given them a little hope for a better life.

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