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Getting a second chance at life

Faith proves to be the key in recovering addict staying sober

• By: Laurent Bonczijk  
• Published: 12/11/2009 2:21:51 PM

Photo By: Laurent BonczijkSeeks degree in social work —
Lisa Palmer, shown here so as not to reveal her identity, will begin classes at George Fox University in January.

   For Lisa Palmer to utter the simple statement “I have faith” took years of trial and tribulation. She’d always accepted the existence of God, but it wasn’t the personal relationship she experiences now. “Because with all my heart and soul I believe in God.”
   Palmer will begin in January attending George Fox University. With a sunny complexion, she talks easily and when she smiles, her eyes smile as well and her whole face lights up. Unlike most college freshmen, her path to higher education has been anything but straightforward.
   “I’m almost 11 months sober,” said the soon to be 42-year-old who has a well-worn face. She doesn’t allow it to faze her. “I’m proud of my gray hair and wrinkles.”
   A recovering alcoholic, she has been living in the Thugz Off Drugz women’s facility since April 23. Before that she spent 92 days in a residential treatment center near Salem. “I was on probation last year from an out of state DUII,” Palmer said.
   The terms of her probation required she receive counseling for her chemical dependency. Nevertheless she was still drinking heavily, to the point where blackouts were becoming a regular occurrence for her. A few years ago, during a blackout, she came to with a knife in one hand and deep cuts in the opposite arm.
   Two bouts with breast cancer, one in 2000 and one in July 2008 didn’t help. Days after being diagnosed the second time, Palmer underwent a double mastectomy. “Why don’t we do the whole hog?,” she said was her reaction to the diagnosis and her reason for the drastic operation. She didn’t have reconstructive surgery and had a tough time dealing with her body image afterwards, which only worsened her drinking.
   A nudge from her therapist to enroll in a residential program and her rediscovered faith have helped her stay sober and put her thoughts in order. “I could have died from my drinking,” she said, but finally realized that “God wants me to live.”
   “He’s not going to put any more on your plate than what you can handle.” If God had enough faith in her to have her survive cancer twice, she was no longer going to drink her life away. “I have gratitude.”
  Palmer said that through treatment she was able to think clearly for the first time in years and developed a better understanding of her disease as an alcoholic. She started drinking around the age of 17. In her early 20s her drinking intensified. “After I left home,” she said, “I was free to drink everyday.”
  Palmer never graduated from high school and didn’t earn a graduate equivalency diploma (GED) until 1991. She said she expects that earning her bachelor in sociology will be challenging. Returning to school had been on her mind for a long time, but just like her faith in God, it had been thwarted by the alcohol abuse. She’d already tried to return to school, but only lasted half a semester.
   This time things are different, she said. She’s living with other recovering addicts, whom, she said, are holding her accountable for her actions. “For me living in the women’s house is a relief,” she said, “you pay your monthly dues and follow the rules.”
   The rules are centered on the premise of courtesy to and respect for other people. Most people live by those rules, Palmer said, but “there was another time in my life (when) those rules were totally foreign to me.”
   At the end of her stay in residential treatment she was afraid to go back into the world; the house provided her with a place to live and be held accountable.
   “I need that accountability,” she said, “left to my own devices, I don’t know how long I would have stayed sober. It simplified my life and I like the support.”
   Support is also coming from staff at GFU. Palmer said her counselor, Taylor Martin, had been patient with her, talking her through the steps necessary for her to register for classes and earn her diploma. “He was very patient (and walked) me through everything,” she said.
   Martin, 23, said the challenges of attending college were different than older students. “Older students have a lot more responsibilities,” he said, and tend to worry about fitting in with the college age crowd, while younger students tend to not know what they want to study, or do with their lives.
   “It’s a total shift from anything they’ve done for the last 10 or 15 years,” he said of older students. “I think she’s just a wonderful person,” Taylor said of Palmer, adding, “it’s really neat to be working with people who’ve done neat things in their lives.”
   She welcomes the challenge and says that after years of addiction she feels a good kind of stress as she looks forward to school. She added she believes that if she wants to move on from her life of addiction to be a productive citizen she has no choice but to succeed.
   “I’m not getting any younger and I have no marketable skills to speak off,” she said. With her children now reaching college age, “I want to be a good, sober, role-model for my children and future grandchildren. I feel really, really good about this time in my life. This is a really good time for me to go back to school.”
    She’s grateful to be alive, she’s grateful to have finally discovered her faith and embrace it. “I have a new sense of gratitude for my life,” she said.

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