Before Portage, my life was crazy. I was constantly in and out of jail; I had a horrible relationship with my grandmother. I think I was suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I was always high or drunk and had no self-respect.<\/p>\n
I had no intentions of ever being sober and I could see nothing wrong with my lifestyle. I started doing drugs when I was 12 years old and continued to progress into heavier drugs as I got older. I was using drugs and alcohol because everyone around me was doing the same thing. Nothing mattered to me but my abusive boyfriend and getting high.<\/p>\n
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It wasn\u2019t until I was released back into society and was found 3 days later at the side of the road passed out, that I accepted the fact that I had a problem.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was referred to Portage after my 5th<\/sup> time in jail. I was in denial about my addiction and didn\u2019t believe I would one day end up in a rehab centre. It wasn\u2019t until I was released back into society and was found 3 days later at the side of the road passed out, that I accepted the fact that I had a problem (read The Treacherous Pitfalls of Drugs and Alcohol<\/u><\/a>). I woke up the next day in a cell and the police told me what happened. I was angry at myself and at the world. That\u2019s when I decided I had to go to Portage. To this day, I still have no idea what happened to me that night\u2026<\/p>\n My first day at Portage, it was raining. I remember sitting outside trying to put the pieces of my life together and I remember how friendly everyone was. Coming to Portage, I did not expect to change my life around. But even that first day, I felt more hope than I ever had my whole life. Talking to the girls at Portage inspired me. They made me want to be a better person.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Talking to the girls at Portage inspired me. They made me want to be a better person.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How long I\u2019ve been at Portage and what changed<\/strong><\/p>\n I have been at Portage for about 6 months and I am getting discharged in a week. Thanks to this program, I now have self-respect, confidence, good memories, hope and sobriety. I also have a great relationship with my grandmother. My whole life has turned around.<\/p>\n I know that when I leave I will have the self-awareness and control to say no to drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n Without Portage I would definitely be either dead or in jail. Most likely dead\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n River, Resident at Portage Ontario (Elora)<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Centres of Portage<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before Portage (How I started taking drugs \/ alcohol and why) Before Portage, my life was crazy. I was constantly in and out of jail; I had a horrible relationship with my grandmother. I think I was suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I was always high or drunk and had no… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[153,364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-testimonial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44491,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions\/44491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What led me to call Portage (or how I was referred)<\/strong><\/h5>\n
My first day at Portage <\/strong><\/h5>\n
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\nHow I see the future after completing the program<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Finally, where I think I would be without Portage<\/strong><\/h5>\n