After a decade of hard-fought sobriety, this woman has learned there is hope for anyone
In The Signal's ongoing series on perserverance, Angela Shortall says if she can do it, anyone can
Angela Shortall remembers the turning point in her life.
A car crash in her teenage years left the St. John's woman with a considerable amount of pain, she says, and people didn't believe her when she tried to explain her agony. Then one day, she says, a friend offered her a line of ground-up Percocet.
"I ended up dying, basically. I overdosed. My heart stopped and I got brought back."
The pain went away, but Shortall went from that one line to as much as 30 pills a day. Her dependency grew to injecting morphine and the opioid Dilaudid. Eventually she started using cocaine.
"You'll do things for the cocaine and for the hit you never, ever thought you would do. Never," she said.
In a recent interview with The Signal's Adam Walsh, Shortall shared the details of how addictions have impacted her life, her journey back to sobriety and her hopes for finding employment again. It's part of the show's ongoing series on perseverance. Each interview introduces people to someone in the province who shares their journey and how they are navigating it.
"Drugs are very much not cheap," said Shortall. She ended up shoplifting to cover the cost of her addiction, leading to time in prison.
"I really didn't think there was any hope left for me because I was a hard ticket," she said.
Her drug use continued until she overdosed. She survived it but realized she might not come back from another one, so she found a doctor who "was a real hard-ass" and helped her with recovery.
On top of that, she went from thinking she was alone in life to realizing she did in fact have people who cared for her.
"When I was trying to get sober, I felt very, very alone because I couldn't be around the people that I used to hang around with, and I thought nobody would have the patience to deal with me while I was getting sober."
Shortall's boyfriend did, in fact, have the patience to be there as she recovered.
He brought her to and from her methadone appointments and stayed with her through it all.
"He's the reason I made it," she said.
Looking for work
Today Shortall is looking for work but it's a tough task.
"It's hard finding a job when you are a recovered drug addict who has been out of work for so long because people, you know, want to know why there's a big gap in your resumé," she said.
"There's a lot of things that count against me, even though when I was working and when I do work, I am a good worker."
These days Shortall also thinks about folks who feel like she once did: helpless — and she has a message for them.
"I want people to know that you might feel like there's no hope out there for you, and that you cannot get better, but you can. and I know you can because I did it. And if I can do it, absolutely anybody can do it."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from The Signal