My Story: Amy (Long) McCalister
Amy (Long) McCalister
How did this happen to me? I am 36 years old. I have a master’s degree in counseling, I come from a fairly decent family, upper-class I guess I would call them, business owners, my father was involved in politics and a business owner, so what happened? Addiction does not discriminate that’s what happened.
I was wild as a teenager, then my daughter was born, I turned my life around somewhat but until I married my husband and had my third child, that’s when things really settled down. I live the life of a soccer mom for years, until one winter my husband had an affair and left.
I began to drink, then use large amounts of cocaine, locked away in my bedroom not caring for or about my children in the other room ages 7, 9, and 11 at the time I think. I got in trouble for it several times, I was given the opportunity to clean up my act without loosing my kids and I did that for four months. Then my father died. My decent into hell had begun.
I hurt my back a few weeks after my dad died and was prescribed my first taste of opiates. Nine months later my family was doing an intervention on me because I was a full blown IV drug addict. There is no cure for my disease of addiction. I have tried everything to stay clean and try to find the happiness I thought I once had. The truth is you can never go back. I have been through to much, I have seen too much, I have done too much to ever be that person again. I can however, continue to change, learn and grow every day with a program of recovery to stay clean and love life. It takes time, patience and hard work but it is possible. I can’t promise I’ll be clean tomorrow, I hope so but, I can only promise I’m clean today. Today’s all I got, I don’t worry about tomorrow anymore.
I have linked “My Story” category to this page so you can move your cursor over the tab at the top and a drop down tab should appear labeled “My Story.” Either way it will take you to all of the articles, stories and posts I’ve added over the time I’ve been writing here
I published “A Better Life: Tips From A Recovering Heroin Addict,” my first book. I hope it help someone. It took three years to write and it took a whole lot of courage to publish it but I finally did it. Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement.
“A Better Life: Tips From A Recovering Heroin Addict,” by Amy McCalister on Amazon.
Related articles
- “A Better Life” Author Bio~ Amy McCalister (amylong1933.wordpress.com)
- A Better Life is now on Facebook (amylong1933.wordpress.com)
- Updates A Better Life (Formerly 30 Days of Recovery) and The Silo, books by Amy McCalister (amylong1933.wordpress.com)
- “A Better Life: Tips From A Recovering Heroin Addict” a book by Amy McCalister (amylong1933.wordpress.com)
- A Better Life: Full Introduction (amylong1933.wordpress.com)
- If you could clone yourself, how would you split up your responsibilities? (amylong1933.wordpress.com)
Journey Through Recovery 
I have nominated you for the Epic Awesomeness award. Congrats! You can find it here:
I nominated those bloggers who I find Epically Awesome..keep up those posts. I love em!
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Thank you so much!
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I nominated ten other bloggers, and linked them back, thank you very much for the nomination!
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As I said, you deserve it!
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http://lovelyseasonscomeandgo.wordpress.com
Hi thanks so much for stopping by my blog, I find your blog to be amazing and I pray with you on your journey to recovery. Have a beautiful day. Betty
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Thank you so much, I am really enjoying my new blogging activities and meeting some really great, inspiring people! I have always had a facebook account but a friend of mine is a published author and he suggested I begin a professional blog to create a platform for my book “30 Days of Recovery” which will be coming out soon as an E-book on amozon.com . So that is how it began but now I write on everything regarding recovery and therapy. I have a masters degree in counseling and psychology has always fascinated me. I am really enjoying this new chapter of my life. Enjoy your day and keep writing!!!
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http://lovelyseasonscomeandgo.wordpress.com
thanks so much for following my blog and so I am going to follow your amazing blog too. Have a blessed day. Betty
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You too Betty, if you have kids, I hope you had a wonderful mother’s day!
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thank you so much too. yes I did have a nice mother’s day.
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A Better Life is published and available on amazon now! Please take a look at my first book!
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I haven’t read your book, but I am going to. I have been browsing your blog and found much of it was what I needed to hear. So thank you for writing. 🙂
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You’re very very welcome! I’m so glad you found somethings that helped you! Writing is such an amazing outlet for healing for the writer and the reader! I’m working on some new books now, my book was written in a way that if I hadn’t published it when I did I never would have finished it because it’s about the things that I was and am learning about addiction & recovery, I’m sure if I were to write it today it would be very different but it’s got a little something for everyone! Thanks so much for your support!
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Amy,
Thank you for following my writing @ The Inspired Verse. I very much appreciate it.
As an understatement, I admire your courage to live with optimism and “in the moment”. In addition to positive energy and moral support, I’ll offer you one of my favorite quotes, that continuously inspires me to Live in Spirit and in Christ.
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” This is, by far, the best articulated description of the Human “condition” I’ve ever seen or heard and it is from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and Jesuit Priest.
Live well, Love well, Be well…
– Michael
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That is exactly what I needed to hear today and so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing it with me!
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Oh, I needed to hear that today, thank you so much. What a powerful quote.
Love & Light
Amy
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First, we share some of the same path. I am 8 and a half years clean. We share some of the same issues ie IV use. My choices were coke and meth…as well as weed and booze. It gets a tiny bit easier every day. Second, thanks for liking my post and following my blog. I write for and about my closest friends and my “adopted daughter”. When you are trying to persuade the world that your friends are humans and deserve respect, every interaction helps. Thanks for yours.
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Your words just hit me like lighting from the sky. You’re right but I don’t think in a way that you meant but a way that I needed to hear. Your are right, my sponsor used to say (before my inevitable relapse) run home Amy~ Go get you’re cape and save the world!” sarcastically because I’m always trying to save someone else except myself. Right now, today in my life, things are way to chaotic with someone, well my daughter, to even think about trying to save the world. I have to save myself first. I have to be strong fro myself in order to be ready for when she comes to me. I know there’s a chance she won’t, I know I cannot be the one to help if she does but I can show her the way to the people who can. You may not have meant this but it’s how I interpreted it and something that I had to face because I’ve been avoiding so much that I need to face. Thank you so much for sharing and supporting. I don’t think you could possible understand the impact this has had on me this morning and changed my thinking. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ~Amy~
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You’re very welcome.
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