Mary from Ingles House

Mary came to Ingles House one Spring and stayed for 11 months.

The child of an alcoholic-and-prescription-medication addicted mother and with many family members, also with drinking problems, Mary became pregnant before turning 16. After the baby's birth, she started using crack cocaine and ecstasy.

Mary embraced the parties/raves scene, and through a friendship with a fellow tenant in her apartment building, turned to prostitution to support herself, both for living expenses and to support her drug habit. She became mired in debt with credit cards. Her stepfather took care of her child.

The drug problem escalated to the point where Mary was unable to function- she couldn't pay bills, visit her child, take care of herself, etc. She assigned custody to her stepfather and entered an addiction treatment program. After three months, she transferred to Ingles House in order to continue her treatment and abstinence goal, and to prepare to rejoin the community. During her stay, Mary maintained her outpatient addiction treatment, 12-step meetings, job preparation tasks, obtained her first legitimate job (after her first interview), and is still there. She went to credit counselling, set up and followed a plan and is now almost debt free. She has accessed supportive housing in an apartment building for abstinent women.

Mary is working on her education - her dream is to become a nurse. She has obtained legal assistance in regaining custody of her child, and has access on a regular basis.

Mary has maintained her sobriety through this battle. She has been out of Ingles for almost a year, but comes in weekly for after care and to check in.

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