We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lanette Denton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lanette below.
Lanette, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I am a person that has struggled with substance use disorder for most of my life. It first started becoming a problem at around age eleven. Substance use dsorder wasn’t very commonly known back then and I just came across as a problem child. I had many run ins with the law early on and spent a lot of my childhood locked up in a juvenile detention facility. As the years went on and my addiction progressed so did my criminal record as well as my misery in life. Thanks to some of my interactions with the law over the years , I did have a couple of small stints that I was able to get sober. It was 6mo here 2 years there so I had brief moments in my life where I had felt hope, But for some reason it never lasted long and I would always return to using. I use to call myself repeat ,Back then I did not realize what addiction was and how it worked. I felt like a failure and like nothing was ever going to change. It wasn’t until my late 30’s , 37 to be exact when my life changed. I had lost everything AGAIN and I was very tired. I was on probation and kept getting violation warnings, I was dragging my poor children through my addiction with me and I remember just feeling so done and so tired, like I couldn’t live like this anymore. One day after I was given a court date to appear for violating my probation I was faced with two options one go to prison and be done with probation or two ask for drug court and fight for myself. Although getting sober was one of the most scarriest feelings I had ever felt at the time, Not getting sober was even scarrier , so I took the risk. I chose getting sober and doing all the hard things. This time while getting sober I did everything different than I ever had before. This time I was willing to do whatever it took for me to be successful. In July-2022 I celebrated 8 years in recovery. I completed drug court and probation in 2016. In 2017 I became employed with a recovery community organization called Usara-Utah support advocates for recovery awareness, in 2019 I was given the recovery ambassador award for the state of Utah and in 2021 we opened our own Usara RCC in Moab. I am currently applying for a pardon of my criminal record and just got back from my first vacation out of the country. I took a risk on my self and because of that I am a person in long term recovery and what that means to me today is that I get to show up for myself, set goals and achieve them, I get to be a present parent for my children and grand children, I get to be an exaple for others and I am a productive member of the community. and so much more. Today because I took a risk I truly get to honor myself and live my best life.
Lanette, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a Certified Peer Support Specialist, I work for a Recovery community Organization called USARA (UtahSupport Advocatefor Recovery Awareness) . This is a job where I take my lived experience and use it to help support others on their journey of recovery, Being a person that has struggled with addiction for most of mylife I had to learn to navigate my way through many challenges and barriers to get to where I am today and part of my job is to help guide and show others some of the things that worked for me or help them find which path works best for them. I also meet with folks and each week and we set specific goals around building Recovery capital. Recovery capital measures the total resourses that individual has that will help find and sustain their recovery. Recovery capital is a wide range of things such as transportation, housing, basic needs, safe sober social support, health, mental health ect. My favorite part about my job is that I get to be the hope piece that all of this is possible and that they can over come hard things because I lead by example. When folks tell me that if you can do it then so can I. That is the most rewarding feeling in the world.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I had to unlearn was about my worth, Addiction comes with so many stigmatizing labels such as criminal , felon, junkie, crazy, bad ect. and not to mention the negative self talk, guilt and shame that a person forgets their worth. In my case I started using at such a young age I am not sure I ever stood a chance at knowing my own value, so the worthless, no good, better off with out me, ill never amount to anything feelings were imbeded deep in my core beliefs. I have had to work the hardest and changing this part of me
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
having the lived experience it the most helpful aspect of my job for sure. Being able to Recover out loud , lead by example and show people that recovery is possible and that having a stable happy life is possible is what makes peer support so successful .
Contact Info:
- Website: www.myusara.com
- Facebook: lanette Denton / USARA-Moab
- Linkedin: lanette Denton