Let's Freaking Live! - Melissa's Story - Finding Addiction Recovery Before 20

Melissa England, CADC • August 7, 2024

About Me

I'm Mel, an addictions counselor, health and wellness coach, and a recovery coach with a profound personal and professional commitment to transformation. Sobriety has given me over 12 years of living a life I once couldn't imagine—a life filled with hope, happiness, and achievement. Once struggling with addiction, I have redefined my identity from addict and felon to a resilient, successful wife and mother. Today, I am passionate about empowering others to rewrite their stories, offering the tools and support needed to build fulfilling lives free from addiction. It doesn't matter how long it takes, new life can begin at sobriety.


My Story


Recovery means to me “building, maintaining and living a life that you no longer NEED to use drugs to make it through the day”. I have been sober for 12 and a half years and something I have learned is that getting sober is an opportunity to live a completely different life. A life you can look forward to living. The terms that I used to associate or describe myself were addict, felon, loser, thief, estranged from family and failure. The more recent terms I have thought to myself are sober AND happy about it, wife, determined, strong, resilient, successful and mom.


You can change the narrative, you can build a whole new you! I have built a life that the old me could never have dreamed of. Now I help others achieve the same, as an addictions counselor, health and wellness coach, and recovery coach I am ready to help you when you build your recovered life too.


I tend to think of my childhood in the sense of “the before” and then “the after”. The “before” childhood was happy. My father, mother, little brother and I went on family vacations, had dinner at the kitchen table every night, had rules and structure and was stable. We lived a typical suburban NJ family life.


This was before my mother passed away from a slow, sad death from cancer. The “after” childhood never looked the same again. My family crumbled. My father is from another country and the cultural barrier without my American mother to mitigate only propelled us further apart.


My father's previously low-key alcoholism spiraled out of control and my brother, and I were left to fend for ourselves. I easily fell into the comfort of the “wrong” crowd at school. Started experimenting with drugs like marijuana, ecstasy, prescription anxiety medications and cocaine.


It wasn't until I found and started taking my mother’s leftover pain medication that my habits soared to a new level of use and eventually addiction. I started to get in trouble and spent most of my high school years in and out of hospitals and rehabs. I was young so the options for treatment were limited.

Eventually the pills ran out and heroin was the next step. Heroin was my life, I didn't do anything else but wake up, use, find ways to use more, go to bed and repeat.


Once I started with heroin there was no stopping and eventually, I was expelled from school for refusing to complete anymore treatment. This only accelerated my use as I had nothing else to do, no adult supervision, and no other goals in life.


Then I started selling drugs to fuel my habit. During this time, my little brother eventually followed me into the drug life, who unfortunately until this day remains battling his demons. After I turned 18, I started to acquire criminal charges and a couple arrests which eventually led to a yearlong investigation and a raid.

This final arrest is where everything finally changed. I was finally given very serious consequences, jail time and a criminal record. I went to rehab for the last time and ended up being clean for my 20th birthday, and every birthday since.


Over the last 12.5 years I have achieved things I never thought possible for myself. Number one being not only sobriety but finding extreme happiness as a sober person. I'm married, my husband is also in recovery, and we have two beautiful children together. I went back to school and obtained my credentials in alcohol and drug counseling in the state of NJ. I am also a health and wellness coach. Currently I'm in the process of furthering education in both fields. My mission is to be able to provide a whole self-health approach from addictions to whole self-wellness. Getting sober reminds me there is no timeline on what you can achieve in life, life starts when you start living it.


Now let's freaking live!

Jason's Story - From Rock Bottom to New Heights: My Journey of Recovery and Reinvention

By Jason Ertrachter • February 4, 2025
With over a decade of alcohol and drug abuse, it became clear I could not drink responsibly or consume in moderation. Upon further review, I came to understand I was never able to drink responsibly and was predisposed to consume in excess. Moderation is a construct I still don’t understand. Alcohol, drugs, sugar, ego, all things I love to indulge in. At 25 years old, weeks before the pandemic, I found myself being escorted by security from my beloved office in a sought-after industry in a glamorous part of Los Angeles. Pursuing a career in talent management, the late nights, weekly drinking, daily drug use culminated in the unavoidable fear, anxiety and sense of calamity that led me to recovery. I asked myself, “What was the common denominator between lost jobs, friends lost, arrests, hurt feelings and selfishness?” People, places, things were always changing, but the one constant in my story was me with drugs and alcohol. Walking into the West Hollywood Recovery Center on Monday February 5th, 2020 at noon was not my first meeting. It was, however, the first meeting at which I listened and actually took suggestions. Meetings as a teenager, and again in college when my drug use got bad, were simply to get people off my back. As I look back, I understand that I actually needed to get out of my own way, not have those who loved me off of my back. I am grateful to have gotten sober during a time when the world shut down and so many struggled. I had nowhere to go, no outside distractions to challenge my commitment. I fully emerged myself in meetings and all that AA had to offer for young people. There were thousands of virtual meetings at every hour of the day, but more importantly, rooms and outdoor meetings in LA that never missed a beat. There was an underground community of meeting makers that continued to go to in-person meetings, masks on, hugs and fellowship. I found that the work of early recovery far outweighed the isolation. I left the entertainment industry with two years of sobriety. New career opportunities opened up pretty quickly for me. Transitioning into the startup and tech sales world, I was able to move back home to New York and be closer to my family. As my sobriety continued, new career paths continued to present themselves. When I was introduced to Matt and AJ, I was immediately impressed with their mission and welcomed the opportunity to join the team. I am confident that the combination of my personal and professional success, as well as my CARC, CRPA certification, made my decision the perfect one for me. Having hit my stride in my own recovery, I now see that that my purpose is to help others. It is a purpose I do not take lightly. I bring the same energy and focus that has helped me to get where I am today to other individuals and families alike looking for a better way.

Stephanie's Story - My Journey to Addiction Recovery and Giving Back

By Stephanie Myers, CPRS • January 29, 2025
My name is Stephanie Myers, and I am excited to be part of the incredible team at You Are Accountable . As difficult as my journey prior to recovery was, I am grateful for every step along the way. My recovery journey began five years ago through what I believe was divine intervention. At my lowest point—mentally, physically, and spiritually—I was led to a 12-step recovery program. Most of my life was spent seeking relief from my internal and external struggles. During my teenage years, I thought I had found a solution, but my addiction only progressed, leading me to the depths of despair. My addiction compromised my morals, diminished my integrity, and left me with a profound sense of hopelessness. Overwhelmed by guilt and shame, I realized that everything in my life had to change. I became willing to do whatever it took to shift the trajectory of my life. Gradually, I connected with others who understood my pain and had found their way to recovery. I dedicated myself to internal work and began to fill the spiritual void that I had been attempting to fill with substances. Today, my life is filled with purpose, love, and more beauty than I could have ever imagined five years ago. It is my passion to help others realize that there is hope on the other side of addiction. As a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, I strive to help plant the seed of recovery and help others grow along their path to recovery.

Brittany's Story: Overcoming Addiction to Find Hope, Healing, and Purpose

By Brittany Pealer, CRPS • January 28, 2025
My name is Brittany, and I’m honored to be part of the team at You Are Accountable . My journey to recovery has been filled with struggles, lessons, and, ultimately, transformation. For years, I lived in the utter hopelessness of addiction, believing there was no way out. A "normal" life felt completely out of reach, and even as a child, I never felt like I had a true purpose. Throughout my active addiction, I found myself trapped in a relentless cycle. I would put one substance down—whether through treatment or court-ordered intervention—but almost immediately, I would pick up another. Each time, I restarted the same painful, destructive cycle, convinced that I could never break free. It wasn’t until I realized that recovery is an inside job that things began to change. Changing people, places, and things (and substances) can only do so much for so long; true recovery requires doing the hard work within. My turning point came when I became pregnant with my first daughter. For the first time in my life, I found a reason to fight for something greater than myself. That moment marked the beginning of my journey to recovery, and through that journey, I discovered the life I never thought was possible. Today, I’m blessed with an amazing job, a beautiful family with two incredible daughters, and an active role in my recovery community. As a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) and Recovery Coach, I am passionate about helping others find hope and healing. I understand the challenges of breaking free from addiction, and I’m living proof that it’s possible to create a life filled with purpose, joy, and connection. Recovery has given me everything I once believed was out of reach, and I’m honored to walk alongside others as they embark on their own journeys to freedom.
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