Utahn tells her story of overcoming drug abuse and finding light in the darkness

SALT LAKE CITY — After dealing with years of childhood trauma, one Utahn is telling her story of drug abuse and finding light in the darkness.

Sarah Brock recently joined the Project Recovery podcast to tell her story of overcoming her drug abuse.

Introduction to alcohol at a young age

When Sarah was younger, she always knew her family was different. Her father was sporadic with how they spent their money and would frequently put them in tight financial situations.

That type of behavior even led to tense verbal fights with Sarah’s mother and father. In turn, Sarah’s father became dependent on alcohol to cope with the stress of the family’s situation.

Looking back, Sarah believes her father to be a “function alcoholic”.

“Knowing what I know now, I think he was just a functioning alcoholic,” she said. “The tension in our house was just so much.”

Living in a household of stress and alcoholism definitely took its toll on Sarah. So much so, that when she was thirteen years old, she began to steal her dad’s alcohol.

“I started drinking about [at] thirteen,” Sarah recalled. “Just drinking my dad’s drinks. We’d refill his vodka [with water] because he’d mark them. I think he knew we were drinking them.”

Sarah’s curiosity for alcohol at a young age was a decision that would alter her life forever.

Filling a void with drug abuse

As Sarah got older, the tension in their home became unbearable. 

One day, she had had enough and was determined to tell her dad to make a decision. If he was so unhappy with his life and their family, it was time he left according to Sarah.

“Finally, one time I came home I just told him if you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave,” she said. And that’s exactly what he did. “He just packed his stuff and left my mom.”

Sarah had experienced so many rough patches in life already. That family tension was now beginning to take a toll on who she was becoming as a person.

By seventeen years old, she decided it was time to move away from their home and began to provide for herself by turning to the streets.

She began to help illegal immigrants get into the country by signing off on fraudulent paperwork. This type of work was incredibly profitable Sarah recalls.

“I have more money than I know what to do with,” she said. “I made my first million dollars by the time I was eighteen.”

Even with all of that money, Sarah was still trying to fill the void in herself that was created by her rough upbringing.

To help numb the pain, Sarah began to shift towards drug abuse.

How Sarah’s drug abuse led to the lowest of lows

Sarah continued to abuse substances throughout her early twenties until she met her now ex-husband who was the complete opposite of Sarah.

He didn’t like to go out and he envisioned a different life for them together. This led to Sarah being clean for the first time in her adult life. She was slowly building towards a better future for herself and even became the president of her parent-teacher associate board.

After she had been sober for over two years, an old group of friends came to Sarah’s home. But someone in the group of friends had brought methamphetamine with them.

“Somebody had meth and I get high,” she said. “I leave with them and I take off for six months. I just left in the night with a backpack.”

After being away from her family for those six months, Sarah knew that she had to get help for her drug abuse.

“Just because I was clean, I didn’t have any coping skills. I was so stressed out from everything,” Sarah described. “I just needed a release.”

Being sober for those two years wasn’t enough to keep herself on the road to recovery. She knew that there was something that she was missing. 

Finding the road to recovery

So she decided to commit to an LDS-based twelve-step program. Sarah stuck to her program and found others who would help hold her accountable for her actions.

She also recommends that if you feel alone while going through a recovery program to keep looking. 

“People need to keep searching. If you’re struggling, keep searching until you find your [support group],” she said. “That’s what helps us stay sober.”

To learn more about Sarah’s recovery from drug abuse, listen to the Project Recovery podcast

For more information on opioid prevention or if you or someone you know is struggling, you can find more information on Facebook, KSL TV, or Know Your Script. To hear more from Casey Scott and Dr. Matt Woolley, you can listen below or subscribe to the ‘Project Recovery’ podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get major podcasts.