“My name is Samantha, addict.”
My least favorite thing to say for 27 years. How does it make you or your loved one feel?
Hi, my name is Samantha Bushika. You can call me Sam. I am trying to start a blog because the law of attraction and my beautiful late in life children saved my junkie existence, and one-on-one coaching just isn’t working for me anymore. I NEED to help people on a much larger scale. I need to help people because for 27 years I was addicted to using and selling heroin, which always resulted in me going to prison. I live in an itty-bitty town called Bennington in Vermont. My home was the first home ever raided for heroin in Bennington. I single handedly ruined my own life by making extremely poor choices over and over. I thought I knew it all. Couldn’t tell me anything. Today I have six and a half years sober from my love affair with heroin, and if I knew then what I know now… Dude!
I work as a Certified Addictions Recovery Coach at an Office based Addiction Treatment clinic in Massachusetts. I have been helping individuals suffering with substance use disorder (SUD) for more than 6 years on a professional level. See how I used that “person first” language there? I can’t promise that I am always going to do that. Just sayin. I’m from the school of old back when we were called junkies. I am a recovering junkie. I have been working as a CARC (Certified Addictions Recovery Coach) at my agency since March of 2019. I have this need to try to help people that are like I was, and are ready for change… Or not.
I’m just not doing enough anymore. I have felt for a while now that there is so much more I can do. That’s what I am doing. I am creating this blog for those of us who have long-term recovery (or don’t) and need advice on investing in crypto when you don’t know what crypto is, like I started, or how to potty train your 2-year-old who could give two fu*ks about hitting Cheerios in the can. He he. Kids, man.
I want this blog to be fully interactive. I don’t want it to be just my blog. I want this to be a space for everyone to express themselves. I want to publish your stories of strength and inspiration, with your names on them. I want to publish pictures and drawings depicting what your addiction and/or your recovery means to you. I don’t want to have to worry about my language while sharing my inspirational stories because, though I am a professional, spending 20+ years in and out of prison has helped me in the art of swearing like a trucker. I am a work in progress. It’s something I am working on. Maybe you guys can help me??
One of my clients told me that people like me and like legends; something you hear about, but you don’t really believe to exist, and you never come across. She was right. I have watched everyone I care about die of overdoses. I stopped counting at fifty-three. I grew up in a small Vermont jail that had twenty women when I had first arrived. To date there are over 250. All the girls I grew up with within those walls were my family, and at some point, in the future I want us all to do something to recognize and remember our fallen.
The Law of Attraction is what saved my life. I had found it right before I got pregnant at the age of thirty-five and never used heroin again. It’s how I got my $300,000 home, a credit score that would support the purchase of a home, my dream job, a spot in the Addiction Counselor Education program at Westfield State University and my subsequent program completion, my current position doing therapy as an intern, both of my children, both parents still alive, my own small online retail business, my crypto investments, my spirituality, my open mind, my ability to NEVER give up on people no matter what, and my willingness to help others no matter what the cost. Let me say that I support all paths to recovery, all paths. Whatever worked to get you sober, I support it. I don’t plan to preach the gospel or telling you that it’s right for you. I just plan to tell you my story, and how I came to live life in life’s terms after 27 years in and out of prison and always on drugs. FYI- THIS IS A JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE. You can’t assume anything here, and through our trials and tribulations we will know and understand that whatever happened yesterday is old news. This community will focus on what’s going on today, and tomorrow. We will focus on how to live every day like it’s our last, with love, joy, gratitude, and real and ardent appreciation for every second we are lucky enough to be on this beautiful orb in the galaxy.
Do I have any freaking clue what I am doing with this blog? Absolutely not, but I have been working on writing content, studying SEO, keyword phrases, call to actions, email lists, blog typography, creating a brand, blah, blah, blah, for months to no avail. It’s time to hold myself accountable. All my homework has been doing is giving me an excuse to not put myself out there, to not bet on myself, to not start a blog that could save lives or at least give those lives a family. It took me a lifetime to believe in myself, and even if you laugh at me, I know that I came into this with the purest of intentions and I won’t give up. It’s just not something I do. I will find a way to educate, advocate prevention, and ultimately save thousands of lives. Watch and see. Stick around for a bit. I could use your help.
One of the things I knew for certain after having kids at the ripe old ages of 36 and 39, is that I never want my children, Mikaiyah (5) and Malyckai (2), to look at me and see the junk bag I once was. I want them to look at me and be inspired by my journey to hell and back. I want them to know that they have my survivor blood gushing through their veins. I want them to KNOW that they can do anything, and so can you, and deep down you know it.
I purchased this domain like 6 months ago, and I still got nothing. I will learn as I go. I am having a tough time choosing a niche because I have a lot to offer and so will my currently non-existent community. I want you to help me create content, maybe help you start a blog of your own and we can affiliate links or whatever it is they do to crawl blogs or spider bot and what not. Lol. BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME.
I should also tell you that I am not doing this for money. Yup, it would be nice to make a few dimes, considering I only make $16 an hour and my union made a deal where raises only come every three years and I just got one. I am a fantastic Recovery Coach and a fabulous Empowerment life Coach, and they aren’t paying me anywhere near what I am worth, but like I said I ain’t in this for the money. It was one of the many things I had to come to terms with, making an hourly wage and busting my butt to do in two weeks what I used to make in an hour. Again, a work in progress.
If you are looking for the perfect blog with a perfect Life Coach to throw some sugar in the already sweetened tea of life, then this probably isn’t what you’re looking for. If you are an individual with or without SUD or AUD that feels that nothing is ever enough, that you can’t ever begin to fix what you broke, that living life on life’s terms is one of the hardest fuc*ing things you have ever done, well then you are a progressor, not a perfector. You’re in the right place, and if you join me and this community, we can all help one another and together we can begin or continue the process of Progressing, Not Perfecting. I love you all… All two of you, Mom, and Dad!
