My name is Angel 1Thousand; My Native Spirit name is Sitting with the Grandmother’s Warrior.
I am a grateful recovering addict and alcoholic. 
I am a survivor of human trafficking and domestic abuse. 

Currently, I am in a live-in rehabilitation program for drug abuse and mental issues; however, I am sober from I.V. use for coming up 1 year and 10 months. On Christmas Eve I celebrated my 45th day of sobriety. I had to leave my family, friends, home, and province in order to make this change happen, but it is changing my life into the life I have always dreamt of having.

I lived a long 5 years of drug abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assaults, and a year and 7 months of human trafficking. As of today, I have no support on the outside from family or friends for my rehabilitation, but the supports I do have saved my life and I am grateful they never gave up on me. It was a long time trying to get me to come to rehab, but now that I am here I am finding myself every day continuing to learn more about the ways I used to live, want to live, and how to bridge the gap in order to cross that bridge to get the life I deserve. 

You are worthwhile with the ability to do anything in this world. With the gift of life, I have faith that you can fight any addiction, any abuser, any trafficker, any demons that still haunt your life with the help of the supports that are offered by the good graces of amazing women and men out there willing to be there for us. There are hands reaching out to lift you up, just reach back, hold on tight, and don’t let go. It will be really hard at times; you will want to give up, and run back to the old ways sometimes, but I promise you that if you just keep holding onto those hands that want to help you, you can and will, one day find much more peace within. 

In future blogs I’ll touch on making it through difficult times that cause triggers and how to deal with triggers; self-care; making new friendships that are healthy; interviews with other addicts, survivors of abuse, trafficking, and addicts- and interviews with councillors that are experienced with these topics and have also lived through them themselves. Once a month I will share part of my story, allowing you into my life, to see what I went through, so we can connect on a deeper level. Once a month I will share my own poetry which is my passion and my outlet for my own pain and the way in which I deal with what goes through my mind on a daily basis. 

As always, 

Got Your Back

Angel Warrior 1Thousand