Matt Talbot for Women helped her achieve sobriety
Sara Szelagowski grew up in a devout Catholic family in suburban Garfield Heights -- a solid, middle-class community. After graduating from Trinity High School, she attended the University of Akron, earning a bachelor?s degree in family and child development.
While attending college, the first time she lived away from home, Sara began using and abusing alcohol at parties. Over time, her substance abuse progressed to the use of opiates.
?There was more stress living on my own and having more responsibilities and I was trying to escape. I started drinking just like everyone else, or so I thought? she said. Within a year or two, Sara said she was introduced to opiates. ?I used the drugs recreationally every couple of months to relax and unwind.?
During her senior year of college, she moved back home with her parents, who had moved to Parma. She was working a third-shift job while taking her last few classes. She also was dating someone who was using drug. After graduation, when they became roommates, she learned that he used drugs daily. He entered a treatment program and was doing well for a while, she said.
However, she was still drinking and occasionally using opiates. Both were working. ?Things were going pretty well and we were married in August 2013,? she said. But he relapsed, began using drugs again and her drug use also began to increase.
Early in 2014, Sara fell at work and broke her elbow. She had to wait a week for surgery, so the doctor prescribed painkillers. ?We (she and her husband) ate the pills to get high,? she said, taking the entire supply in just a few days. She tried to get more, but was presented with heroin as an option, so she began injecting the drug. After surgery, she was on painkillers and insisted she would stop using heroin. ?I did stop twice, but I went back to using because my husband was still using and it was always around. The high from heroin was just so much better,? she said.
Her husband began an outpatient program, but quickly stopped attending, and then lost his job, which caused a major financial strain. His car was repossessed and they couldn?t to pay the rent on their apartment. He enrolled in a residential treatment program in Michigan. After he left for treatment, his parents clued Sara?s parents into what was going on
