Thanks to Reece Murphy for this 4 part series on addiction and for Highlighting the Work of Battered but Not Broken. This article was published in 2017. To read the full article, you can go here: https://www.thelancasternews.com/content/ex-addict-leading-others-recovery
Here is an excerpt:
“Le Tanya Williams’ 50 years of life splits into three discrete segments.
She was 20 years old the first time she shot heroin. She was addicted to it for 20 years. Now she’s been clean for 10.
She quit only because she went to prison, and there was no heroin there. She grew tired of hearing other inmates plotting how they would return to the crimes that cost them their freedom – only not getting caught next time.
Once she got truly sober, Williams never wanted to shoot heroin again.
“I chose to sit at the table that had the fewest inmates, and that was the table where the church ladies sat,” Williams recalls. “When I got out on July 2009, I was ready to hit the ground and start working toward my vision….
“I knew I wanted to make a difference and do something to help women like me.”
Williams founded a Chester halfway house for abused and addicted women leaving prison, and she now also works as a peer mentor at a separate drug-counseling service in Lancaster.
“Being clean now is so much better than what I though was my best day getting high,” she said. “Life is so good clean and sober.”
Williams is one of many people and organizations on the front lines of the effort to help addicts caught up in Lancaster County’s heroin and opioid crisis, which has resulted in at least 17 deaths and more than 130 overdoses this year.
Her journey
Originally from Baltimore, Williams grew up a spoiled only child in a comfortable, middle-class family of educators. Continue Reading at the Lancaster News site.
