Show Notes
Nikki Ray and We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream host Adam Williams talk about Nikki growing up in a family that struggles with addiction, and how she too would end up experiencing many years of active drug addiction, starting at a pretty young age.
Nikki and Adam talk about her growing up in that environment and how it would lead to some significant losses in her life. They talk about why those losses pushed Nikki deeper into using drugs, rather than being the wake-up calls that might have helped her to shift course. In the process, she gives listeners insights into the disease, as experienced by someone in active addiction.
They talk about run-ins with the law, and shame and guilt. And, ultimately, self-acceptance and recovery, and getting clean and sober. Nikki now serves the community as a crisis peer at Sol Vista Health in Salida, Colo., and as a peer coach who leads a local meeting for others struggling with addiction, through Peer Empowerment Recovery Community Solutions.
Nikki also talks about how her lived experience affects her perspective as a mother to a teenage daughter and a toddler son.
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This episode of We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream was recorded at KHEN radio (khen.org) in Salida, Colorado. We Are Chaffee (wearechaffee.org) also partners with KHEN for local radio broadcasting of the Looking Upstream podcast.
The We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast is a collaboration with the Chaffee County Departments of Public Health and Housing, and is supported by the Colorado Public Health & Environment: Office of Health Disparities.
You can see show notes, read the show transcript, and learn more about the Looking Upstream podcast (and related storytelling initiatives) at wearechaffee.org, and on Instagram and Facebook @wearechaffee.
Credits
Adam Williams, host; Jon Pray, engineer and producer; Heather Gorby, graphic and web design; Lisa Martin, producer and We Are Chaffee Community Advocacy Coordinator; Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health and Environment, and Becky Gray, Director of the Chaffee Housing Authority.
