As I sit down to write this, I still can’t believe that this is my story.  My name is Nicole and I was a competitive bicycle racer for many years.  I wasn’t pro or anything but I loved riding my bike fast.  I was physically fit, never a smoker or big drinker and my only real addiction was clipping in and riding. 

One morning I was out on a training run and a car turned left in front of me leaving me no time to stop.  I flew over the hood and landed flat on my back.  The first thing I did was wiggle my fingers and toes and thank the lord they all moved.  I knew I wasn’t paralyzed but I couldn’t stand up or move.  After the ambulance, the lawsuit and countless hours of physical therapy I found myself addicted to pain medication.

I don’t have an ugly story of addiction to tell.  I never woke up in a strange place covered in vomit.  I never sold all of my possessions or lost the deed to my house.  But I was an addict nonetheless.  I couldn’t get off the painkillers. 

I kept upping my dosage all on my own. I just didn’t think I was ‘one of those people’, an addict. It was easy for me to rationalize that addicts are all homeless people or that if I was able to go to work I must be fine.

However the pills affected my personality, my relationships, my habits and all the other parts of my life. Finally I found help through a website filled with real honest people who had experiences similar to my own. I learned that addiction is a disease and it can affect ANYBODY. Nobody is ‘too good’ to be addicted.

I was taking an ungodly number of pills to kill the pain of depression, my backache and to keep me out of withdrawal for not taking enough pills!  I was barely managing to keep my job and I knew I needed help.  I was a shell of the athletic and outgoing person that I was.  I knew I needed help and enrolling in rehab saved my life.

I want to share my story because there are millions of Americans out there addicted to prescription drugs.  My addiction snuck up on me after a devastating accident and my growing addiction to the meds just made everything worse.  I was a working professional woman with a good head on her shoulders. 

I was an athlete and proud of my body but my body took control of me for a while.  I needed help and I asked for it.  Please, if my story strikes a chord with you, please do not be afraid to ask for help.  There are people out there waiting to help you become whole again.