Starting Over Relapse after years of sobriety creates second chance for Bethel client
For anyone in recovery, it doesn’t matter if it’s been 10 days or 10 years, relapse can happen at any time. Tawanna Laboo knows that lesson better than most, but she is using a new lease on life to enrich the lives of others. Laboo first entered treatment in 1998, and she would remain sober for nearly 17 years, working a steady job at Rutgers and building a family, raising four children with her husband. But during that time, Laboo stopped going to support meetings, thinking that because she had gotten clean, she was finished with the recovery process. “Within the 17 years that I had, I was clean, but I wasn’t practicing the principles,” Laboo says. But last year she relapsed, going from prescription drugs to street drugs when the doctors wouldn’t prescribe any more. Her addiction eventually led to a return to treatment, finding her way to Bethel Counseling Services earlier this year. Dedicated to her faith, she says she knew Bethel was the answer from the moment she saw the program online. “I knew right then and there that that was God’s plan, God was sending me there,” Laboo says.
“When you walk in there, you feel the love and you feel the spirit.” -Tawanna Laboo Bethel client 46
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