Dejah Hall’s original post has been shared more than 34,000 times and gotten more than 78,000 reactions, plus hundreds of supportive comments telling her
“You are a walking miracle,”
and “Sobriety looks gorgeous on you!!!”
She reposted the photos on Dec. 16 to express her gratitude over the response, which racked up more than 600 responses and more comments calling her an “inspiration” with a “powerful testimony.”
The young mom, who is working as a bartender while majoring in Christian Studies at Grand
Canyon University,
told the Daily Mail this week that her descent into drug addiction began when she was just
17 and took a prescription pill while partying.
“It just went downhill from there,” she said. “I was taking up to six prescription pills at a time every single day before I reached a point at 20 years old where I wanted to get off them.”
She went from trying methadone treatment to stopping cold turkey, until a friend introduced her to smoking heroin as a way to stop her withdrawal symptoms. “By the second hit I fell in love with high. It was numbing,” she said.
“I couldn’t stop. All I wanted to do was numb myself. I wanted it so desperately that nothing else mattered. Every single minute of the day I just wanted to get high… By the time I started injecting heroin I didn’t care whether I lived or died.”
Hall said she was injecting both meth and heroin for several months in 2012. “I was killing myself,” she said, “but I still felt like I looked beautiful.”
Her grandfather was the only person who could get through to her, as he spoke honestly when she visited for his birthday.
“My grandfather was sitting in his wheelchair and he looked at me he said, ‘You’re hurting me, Dejah,’” Hall told ABC 15.
“I went to the bathroom and I looked at myself and I really looked at who I had become — this disgusting person who needed to continue to stick these drugs in their veins because I couldn’t function.”
She promised her grandfather she would get clean — and hours later was arrested on felony warrants, sending her to prison and pushing her to keep her promise.
Although she could have gotten drugs while incarcerated, Hall said she made the choice to stay sober and embrace a religious life. But her grandfather died two weeks after she got locked up.
“More than anything, I wish I could tell him that I made it,” she said. “That I’m doing it.” Her message has been received, at least, by thousands around the world.
Sept. 8, 2017 "Couple opens up about son's opioid overdose": Today I found this article by David Staples in the Edmonton Journal:
The death toll is so high from new, powerful and lethal opioids that Edmonton city council is now getting quarterly updates on how it might possibly cope with the crisis.
In the latest update Thursday, council learned 609 Albertans have died from an apparent fentanyl overdose since January 2016. That’s up from just 29 in 2012.
The majority of deaths came from outside of the inner city. This includes Matthew Wallin, 23, who grew up in an affluent family in a west Edmonton suburb. He died of a carfentanil-cocaine overdose on March 28.
His parents, his father Kim and mother Jennifer, have decided to speak out to help raise awareness and build the political will for more action.
As a child, Matthew Wallin was shy, sensitive and uncomfortable around others, not one to enjoy team sports, his parents say, but he had a few close friends and loved dinosaurs, Pokemon and video games. He was bright and had a passion for art and sketching.
He first used OxyContin in Grade 10. A friend’s father had back trouble and had OxyContin on the shelf.
“Four kids went and said, ‘Let’s try this for kicks,’ ” Kim says. “For Matthew, that was the start of the end.”
By Grade 11, his son was so exhausted from late-night drug use he fought against getting out of bed to go to school.
He sold his own possessions, such as his computer, to buy opioids.
Next, he stole, then sold or pawned, family household items.
At first, his parents made deals with their son that he’d get his computer back if he promised to stop using, and if he signed a contract to follow household rules, but that approach failed.
“A drug addict will do anything,” Kim says. “Matthew always used to tell me, ‘Dad, I will tell you what you need to hear, I will do anything to get my next one, if I am craving that bad.’ “
The teen dropped out of school in Grade 12. After that, he was in and out of treatment. His parents could have waited to get him into a free government-funded bed, but such beds often had long wait lists.
When he was finally willing to get treatment, his parents wanted to move fast. In desperation, they paid for treatment themselves, including $32,000 for one 90-day program.
Relapse is common for fentanyl addicts after treatment. Their son was no exception. He kept using and stealing. He raged at his parents when they denied him money. Terrible arguments erupted, along with physical altercations.
“There’s still a broken door right in our bedroom from Matthew kicking the door,” Kim says.
“It’s either he needed money to get his next high or he was mad at something I said.”
A chartered accountant, Kim was dead set against drug use, but he and Jennifer came to understand the chokehold of the drug on their son, that opioids changed his brain, making him crave ever higher doses just so he’d feel normal.
The key to any success in recovery is the addict’s willingness to change, Kim says.
“If they don’t want to quit, you’re just wasting your time … That’s the hard part because as the parent you have got to make a decision … Do I ask them to leave the house?”
In the end, they did kick out their son a few times. He was homeless at times. In his heaviest use, he had a $400 to $700 per day habit.
His father had to pay dealers a few times for his son’s debts or face reprisals against his property or family.
This February, Matthew got into yet another program, an outdoor wilderness addictions program near Rocky Mountain House.
He was home on a three-day visit at the halfway point of the program when he overdosed.
That fatal weekend, he had texted a friend to say he wasn’t going to use an opioid but wanted some cocaine.
The cocaine he bought was evidently laced with carfentanil.
Afterwards, Kim found out about his son’s $1,400 drug debt and one last time had to pay.
The couple’s other two boys went down a different path. They are now in university and living at home. Matthew’s ashes are in a niche, or display case, at a west-end funeral home, along with his photographs and a few of his possessions, including a Spider-Man doll and some Pokemon cards. His father visits every week.
“I’m really having a hard time. I don’t cry every day, but I used to. So I’m getting through. I know Matthew is not struggling anymore. As much as it killed us, I think it bothered him more than anybody that he couldn’t stop.”
My opinion: This is a sad article. However, this is to show how drug abuse can affect your life and your family and friends. You can overdose and die. Your family and friends will have to live on without you.
This is an article that teens and parents should definitely read. Everybody should read this article and learn how drug addiction is terrible.
These are the other 2 blog posts:
"How to ensure career opportunities for remote workers"/ "'It won't change overnight:' Workers push back as return-to-office plans roll out"
"'Hybrid work is here to stay': Canadians more productive, happier and richer working part time from home"/ "In the return to office, workers won't give up life-changing flexibility without a fight"
My week:
Jul. 5, 2024 "'It saved my life': Woman credits smart watch with alerting her to extremely high heart rate — here's what you should know": Today I found this article by Pia Araneta on Yahoo. This is a positive news story:
Joan Fair originally purchased a Garmin runner's watch because she wanted to get back into shape after contracting COVID-19. During one sleepless night, the 75-year-old's watch was constantly beeping and sending her alerts that her heart rate was high.
“I had no indications of any heart rate problems before that,” Fair told Yahoo Canada.
After some research, she eventually invested in an Apple watch which helped her monitor her heart health more closely. One night, Fair woke up with a heart rate of 220, alarmingly high compared to a normal rate that usually ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Fair said that had she not been able to see her heart rate and call the ambulance, she would have died.
“There’s no question. It saved my life,” said Fair, who resides in Hamilton, Ont.
In Fair's opinion, the heart rate monitoring feature is “110 per cent reliable and helpful.” After the night she called an ambulance, she started checking her watch compulsively. She would move or lie down, clocking any irregularities, which weren’t uncommon by then.
She said she also became more proactive in her health and seeking medical attention. Fair would go to the ER when things seemed off and she eventually had a successful heart surgery at the end of 2023. And though she now describes her heart as “steady as a rock,” that doesn’t stop her from still wearing her watch just in case.
“What’s interesting is I do not use this [watch] for exercising or…any of the other 2,000 reasons people use an Apple watch. I use it only for one thing. I stopped all emails, phone calls and anything that comes through. It’s just my heart — that’s the only thing I watch for.”
“What’s interesting is I do not use this [watch] for exercising or…any of the other 2,000 reasons people use an Apple watch. I use it only for one thing. I stopped all emails, phone calls and anything that comes through. It’s just my heart — that’s the only thing I watch for.”
https://ca.yahoo.com/style/it-saved-my-life-woman-credits-smart-watch-with-alerting-her-to-extremely-high-heart-rate--heres-what-you-should-know-190004014.html
Jul. 9, 2024 BNN Bloomberg: They changed their website:
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/faq/2024/07/09/introducing-bnn-bloombergs-new-digital-experiences/
Heat wave: This is 30 degrees outside and too hot to be comfortable. I have been staying in the basement where it's cool. When I'm in the main floor of my house, it's hot.
I prefer 20 degrees where it's warm and comfortable.
I wear light color clothes. If you wear black, that absorbs the sunlight and makes you hotter.
I put on sunscreen.
I sit in the shade.
Job interview: Today I went out because I had to attend a job interview. It was hot even in the morning.
Jul. 12, 2024 Wild Cards: I also finished watching this TV show on CBC Gem. You can sign up to watch the show for free on the website. This is an average Canadian show
Sight Unseen: I finished watching this on DVR. I have Telus on Demand. This is an average Canadian show on CTV. I like this more than Wild Cards.
"Former homicide detective Tess Avery, diagnosed as blind, teams up with Sunny Patel, a remote seeing-eye guide and agoraphobe, to bring down killers who elude the police in this high-stakes detective thriller."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30487848/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_sight%2520uns
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