Jeannie Villarreal; Faces and Voices of Recovery, Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program Consumer Reviewer

Statistically I wasn't one of those people that were supposed to become a drug addict. I come from a very solid family, middle class. Unfortunately, in my 30s I was divorced from my first husband, and a very close family member came over and asked me if I wanted to try some cocaine and I was just in that right frame of mind because I hadn't done anything up to that point. And I tried some and I liked it. It made me feel normal.

And it took me years, it was a little bit here and a little bit there; and before I knew it, that's what my whole life was about. My son was young at that time and he was my whole life. And the drugs got to the point where he was less important than me getting high.

I met my second husband at the very early onset of my addiction. And it got to a point where I was totally dysfunctional. I couldn't hold down a job. I-you know-I barely got up in the morning. And we woke up 1 day and there was a for-sale sign in front of our house. And that was when I was given the ultimatum to seek some help or you know-leave. I think it was 2 days later I was on my way to a treatment program. And it was absolutely perfect for me because my concept of a drug addict at that time was somebody laying in the gutter with a needle stuck in their arm, and I definitely wasn't one of those people. And that denial process is what keeps addicts from seeking treatment earlier. It's such a shame-based disease that you can't admit that that's what you've become. And the people I went through treatment with were people I could look up to and respect. They were doctors and attorneys and CEOs and nurses and school teachers so I was able to accept my own addiction.

Because it's such a shame-based disease, the addict doesn't have a voice. Addiction today is like cancer was in the 1950s or AIDS was in the 1980s; people are ashamed to admit that they have an addiction.

Early on in my recovery I wanted to put a voice to that silent community. And I went back to college and got my psychology degree and started working at an organization called Fighting Back. It was in that organization in 1999, I founded RAFT, which was one of the first Recovery Advocacy organizations in the United States and the very first one in California.

And in 2000, I was accepted as a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow in the Developing Leaders in Reducing Substance Abuse. I got to meet other people in the field from across the country, and from those relationships we developed a Steering Committee, which eventually founded Faces and Voices of Recovery, which is the national Recovery Advocacy organization.

I got involved with PRMRP when I received an e-mail stating that they were looking for peer reviewers. We had made great strides in working with our legislators. We had worked with our medical field. We had worked with our social services in state and county and federal agencies. The one field that we hadn't broached was the scientific field. And so this was such a great opportunity for us as recovering addicts to work with the scientific community in finding treatments.

What I'd like to see the Department of Defense look at is having support programs; that it's not just enough to get the people to quit using drugs. I think it's very important to have those support systems in place. I was very fortunate; my husband stayed with me, my family stayed with me. I had a home to come home to. I had a driver's license. I had a marketable job. Most people don't have those opportunities. Most people don't have a home. They don't have drivers' licenses. They get out of a treatment program and they're on the streets.

And to have to face life that way-clean and sober-is almost an impossibility. So what I'd like to see is a way for these people to get grounded in recovery, not just the treatment piece of it but also to help them ease back into society.

I've been in advocacy work since 1992 and being a part of the PRMRP has been one of my most rewarding opportunities that I've been a part of.