There are over 325 million people in the U.S. alone. Of those, according to Statistics on Drug Addiction, over 21,500,000 were addicted to drugs in 2014 (the number has grown since then).
Tiffany Jenkins, a recovering addict, wants you to know that it’s a problem, and it’s a BIG one.
Tiffany is a popular mom video blogger (vlogger) who has had several of her posts go viral, and she is using her internet fame to bring awareness to a largely unaddressed issue: addiction.
Tiffany started out like many addicts; an all in all good kid. She was a healthy, popular, active young student with her life in front of her.
Then one day, she took a drink. She recalls how it started in a video from Circa, stating,
Prior to using drugs for the first time, I was a great kid. I was captain of the cheerleading squad. One day when I was just hanging around with the wrong group of people, I took a sip of alcohol and literally…it was like I couldn’t stop.
Jenkins continued down this path until she became addicted to opioids, then things got worse. She found herself lying on the floor of a jail cell in 2012, where she had to go through painstaking withdrawals.
After spending 120 days in jail, she began the long, hard road to recovery.
I knew that drugs were bad…but I thought they were bad because that’s what old people told you when they didn’t want you to have fun. Um, like I literally didn’t know that they would destroy everything I ever touched.
Tiffany had to find out the hard way, and she wants to make sure that other people in her situation know there IS a way out.
She also wants non-addicts to know that people facing addiction can’t do it alone, and need the love and emotional support of the people around them more than ever.
Jenkins is now 6 years sober and raising 4 beautiful kids, and her mission in life is to help other people who are just like she was.
According to Jenkins, her family is what fuels her fire.
knowing that a little human was growing inside me and would depend on me from now until forever gave me a motivation and determination I didn’t know I had to keep going.
Boy, did Tiffany carry on! She now has a blog titled Juggling The Jenkins, where she not only has shared her story of struggle and success but encourages others to share their recovery journey also.
Tiffany has even gone on to write a book about her path through addiction to recovery, and what the struggle is like over the course of time. It’s called High Achiever.
Here she details how she had been hiding her addiction from her friends, family, and even her boyfriend at the time who also happened to be a police officer.
What makes Jenkins’ story so amazing is how she has inspired tens of thousands of people to get the help they need.
She uses hilarity in her videos to get people’s attention, then redirects it toward what it means to be an addict in recovery.
By drawing a huge awareness of the issue to the forefront, and being supportive to others walking a similar path, Tiffany Jenkins is now saving lives, one funny-ass video at a time.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
