>> The first time I tried heroin,
not only did I like it, I loved it.
It just gave me a sense of peace
that I didn't have to worry about stuff anymore.
I just wanted to be free of worrying
about stuff all the time.
You know, I was a correctional officer
at the Maryland Pent and that's where my disease started.
It's a stressful place and a lot
of the correctional officers there used.
I wasn't even thinking at all.
I had to use because I gotta to go work
and I realized that I was sick.
My mother was an open person so she told the family,
you know, "Joy is sick, so we have to support her."
Now I realize the stress I put them under,
for them to see me that way.
But, when you're caught up in the disease,
you can't see nothing but your pain.
I didn't want anybody to look down on me.
I didn't want to disgrace my family so I just faked it.
I figured as long as I looked good,
and I went to work everyday, and I wasn't,
or so I thought, I wasn't hurting anybody.
That's what I thought.
The people I admire the most and still do today
is my mother and my grandmother.
You know, my grandmother was the wisest person I ever met.
My mother was the strongest person I ever met.
I was raised with my great-grandmother,
my grandmother and my mother.
I got to run from person to person,
getting love and everybody telling me I'm wonderful.
We lived around a lot of woods and unexplored areas.
I loved running in the woods and finding new things to do.
I had a German Shepherd, she used to come
in the woods with me, I felt safe
because she wasn't gonna let anything happen to me.
I was lost in the disease of active addiction for 30 years.
I saw me, it broke my heart, I saw me
and it was the most traumatic thing that
I've ever seen in my life and I cried out to God, please.
So my cry led me to a phone call
and my life just started changing drastically.
>> We work really hard to take away aspects
of addiction that prevent proper treatments
so we work really hard to take away shame.
We often fail to realize how much social circumstance
impacts how people take care of themselves
or how they address their health care.
So it's putting together a team of people
who have insight into the fact
that when we take care of patients,
we have to address all aspects
and especially, their social setting.
>> Now I'm a peer recovery coach at Hopkins Bayview.
So I see people sick just like I remember,
when sometimes, most of the time, their pain fills the room.
I talk to them, I inspire them, you know
and try to encourage and let them know
where I come from, let them know it's possible.
And the young people, I try to let them know that,
you don't have to waste 30 years.
You can do it now.
>> A peer recovery coach can see someone
in the emergency room and then if that person
gets admitted to the hospital,
the same peer recovery coach goes up to see them
wherever they are and this fear, anxiety
of being in the hospital and all of a sudden,
there's a familiar face of someone
who I met in the emergency room,
of someone who knows about my addiction
and is non-judgemental and understanding.
>> I say I'm free all the time from the disease
of addiction because I'm free to choose.
I didn't have a choice when I was using.
And I'm free to make my dreams come true.
See, I'm truly free today.
I'm free to love because now, I'm learning how to do it
'cause I didn't know how to before.
So, I mean...
The sky is the limit, the sky and beyond.
(inspirational music)