my name is joey allen and i battle methamphetamines alcohol
cocaine prescription pills as painkillers adderall pills pretty much anything kind of chemicals
that i could ever get my hands on i've done it and i've battled it and this is my story i'm from uh
coweta oklahoma born in tulsa oklahoma um i am a addict and alcoholic in recovery and i
am a firm believer in jesus christ i'm going to tell my story just so maybe just one person can
learn something from it for my mistakes and not have to do their own mistakes but i'll start out
as a young boy um i did go to church my grandma picked me up as a young kid she brought me to
church every sunday my parents as a young kid they were weren't active in the church they my dad was
alcoholic and my mom she liked to smoke marijuana but as about seven or eight years old we all got
together and they started going to church so i grew up in church um probably up until i started
having to work when i was 17 right before i got out of high school i was did sports in high school
baseball football wrestling i was active and all kinds of stuff like that i was all around good
kid um did party you know on the weekend and stuff like that um but growing up i couldn't
have asked for a better childhood you know we weren't rich we were poor but mom and dad did
you know they did the best they could for us and i'm grateful for that but um as i got older um
i uh drifted out of the church and for a few years and but it wasn't that long around 1998 i found my
way back to christ again and asked him to be my lord and savior and forgive me my sins and
and i did really good in the church for that and in about 2000 2001 we got out of church again
and just for certain reasons i don't even know really why we did we just did
and of course whenever you get out of church the devil comes to get you but um i got a really good
job um i got married um was married for about three years and things happened and she let she
just we got divorced and i took it took it took it a really really hard way
um by this time i was around 27 years old when i got married so instead of following god um
and doing the right things when we got divorced i i took it so bad on myself that i just started
going to nightclubs started getting involved with uh ecstasy and the ecstasy progressed into other
any kinds of anything i could get my hands on i didn't really care about my life then
i was very destructive i led a very destructive life for
for a good portion of about four years solid uh of just madness and i met my wife that i have now
i'm so grateful for her i put her through a lot these past years but we've been up and down and
through that she straightened me up for a few years and then a neighbor moved in and um
they were getting me i started hanging out drinking with them a lot and they
started giving pills and then i started back into methamphetamines again and it was just madness for
for so many years and um i me and my wife we weren't married at this point in time
but we we lived together and um she'd kicked me out i'd do good for a while she'd let me back in
and it went on and on for like that and she finally just gave me the boot
for forever really it was we weren't i didn't even plan on ever getting back together but
i picked up a case and i was on probation suspended sentence and then while i was on
suspended sentence i picked up a dui and at the point in time of that dui i thought
my life was over i thought i was going to prison but it turned out i'm grateful for that officer
for giving me that dui because it put me in jail again it revoked my probation so they put me
i was going gonna be in jail for a long time but um not even three days two or three days i
went in front of the judge my attorney wanted to come in and they wanted to he wanted them to drop
my bail my bond so i could get out which i didn't think i was going to get out anyways but i didn't
even get in front of the judge they went into the judge's chambers my attorney came out and he said
they want you to go to a program and i already been talking to my mom saying i need to go to a
program but i don't know or to a rehab facility of some sort because i didn't but i couldn't do
it because all my fines and stuff well this gave me a way it was court ordered um to go so it that
was what i needed to be that's what i needed to do and i had my options of of ones to go to and um
i wanted a long-term one so i picked one that was a year um it was faith-based so i thought
it can't be too bad i know i needed a long term long long term sobriety and this was in 2016.
so i went ahead and went for that it was tough the actual being at the rehab facility the treatment
center wasn't bad at all i loved everybody there but what they did was we had to go there
and we had to pay for our place there we had to go work at a chicken processing plant
and that was the worst job i don't know how i prayed and prayed and prayed every night
and i made it through that whole year i don't know how i did it just through god i mean it was the
worst job in the world you know i mean i imagine there's some out there that's worse but for me
it was every night praying and i prayed every day while i was there
and i made it through that year and i went into oxford house
about a year and a half in oxford house so we're living in tulsa after i got out of that treatment
center i did really good in oxford house and then my wife while i was in the treatment center
we met my wife now we started talking again and we developed a relationship and once i got out of the
treatment center in oxford house we got really really close and so we planned our wedding and
everything and we planned i would move out of oxford house in the same month that i did that
we were going to get married and so that was our plan and everything worked out but i moved out
of oxford house didn't have no accountability a guy at work offered me adderall and i was just
me and myself not doing my program like i know how to do i said oh yeah it's been a long time
uh i'll be able to do that that'd be cool one's too many and a thousand is never enough that's
how they say it and that's absolutely true i took that pill that day and i went back to square one
where i was before i ever went to treatment i figured out who he got his pills from that same
night and i went and bought 25 of them thinking i was going to take them throughout through a long
period of time but i ate them all that one night that's the kind of addict i am and uh
my wife found out about it we barely went through with the marriage and i straightened up and it was
ever since 2000 we got you know ever since we got married in 2018 it's i've just put i just
took her back to where it was at the beginning and the only reason that she never really gave me the
boot was because we were married at this time so i'm thankful for the woman that she is and
keeping me around and got me through this but how i ended up again i never did straighten up and um
i'd go on trips or go on binges and then i'd do good for a week and go
on binges and it was just too much and on easter of this year
i went to work and i was working working and i was stressed out and for some reason i decided
to go to the liquor store and get some get some whiskey thinking that she wouldn't find out and
of course when she did she uh told me to leave and i had so i'd already had so much so many uh two or
three bottles in my truck so i went out and i was mad at her for making me leave and i just drink
everything and how in the world i don't know how i'm just thankful for the lord that i didn't hurt
anybody um on this point in time um but somehow on that point i don't know where i got it from i met
up with uh i don't i drink so much alcohol i don't remember i got a hold of a whole bunch of meth um
i did all like i don't know how much i did but it was it was enough where i i just went on a crazy
i went uh i can't remember much of it but i know i was running through the woods my clothes was all
torn up um somehow i made it back and i don't know how many days it was my wife found me in the ditch
she took me from there took me home cleaned me up and we went she took me i told her i
needed to go to the hospital so i spent about six days in saint francis hospital
recovering and i don't really really remember much of that but thank goodness for all that happening
um when i got out of there we set up a program where um i go to valley hope it was my second
treatment center and um through valley hope it was a really really good i learned a lot and
it was just something i had to do otherwise she was going to divorce me and there's no
telling which direction i would have went um but i've through this i've
been on the right track ever since um i've been through some battles um
i've got um going through celebrate recovery um i've been doing online uh classes and
counseling and just trying to do everything i can so i can learn everything i can and um
because i want to get to where i can just do go to be outreach for kids uh maybe go to high schools
and um just drug awareness and um for kids to learned that there is a way you can come out of it
just because and even if you that you've been in a long-term recovery and you mess up um i am a a
witness to where you can just you can just don't give up that's pretty much all i can say is like
never give up no matter how bad you get down on yourself i like i was saying i went through i've
been going through some definitely some trials this year my father passed away
in june that's the hardest thing i've ever had to go through in my life i didn't it was not expected
and it's just been a fight but i've been students doing the right things keep your faith in god
and and that's all i can do and uh to just for kids out there the younger kids
if you can get anything that you can get when you're young hold on to it just stay stay active
in the whatever kind of recovery you got if you do this if you do happen to slip up and go
and go back out there again just remember what you learned and don't give up you can come back
all the places you know find somebody there there's so many play pool that'll help you and
so many people that's been down the same road as you um it's just just never give up
i'm thankful for what god's done for me uh he's gave me way too many chances
i mean i've just been way way way out there and i was so down on myself this last time thinking i'm
back in the same spot i was i can't believe it i you know go into that treatment facility
and i was just devastated i was so down on myself you know forgiving yourself
is one of the hardest things that you could do like you know just i for years i thought
about that i was i would never forgive myself for what i've done you know the pain i caused
people the people i hurt you know just the the hurt that i just the shame that i put on myself
and once i got out got back clean long-term sobriety i was so happy with that and i forgave
myself and got back to that you know the same person that i was like the clean and sober me
and good things just start happening um this when you're in good sobriety and you're doing
the right things good things happen to you um i'll just tell a story that is a really a god
thing that it's a just an amazing thing we've been going to the church for a while um i've been clean
for a year or no i'll take that back two years i wanted to be an oxford house for a whole complete
year before i got my driver's license back because i knew i was doing things the right way
so come that year
i had my tax money we were we found a car i was going to get we couldn't get the money
on that saturday so we had to wait till monday to get it we were going to get it
but the next sunday we went to church and they had me come up on stage and give him my testimony
and i was up there on church giving my testimony and got finished with it and was getting ready to
walk off stage well the gentleman came up and put his hand on my and pushed me kind of back up on
stage and he was shaking and stuff like that and i was like what i didn't know what was going on
and he started talking and stuff he's like i he goes i did not know why the lord told me to bring
this with me to work or to not work to church today but when you were doing your testimony he
goes i knew exactly what it was for and he gave me the title and the keys to my mountaineer that
i drive today just handed it straight over to me and it he didn't know he barely even knew who my
name was it's like he didn't know me he just gave me the car um and that was just that's a whole god
thing right there he didn't he didn't even know that i was looking for a car and that's how god
works and i took that mountaineer and i was still in the oxford house and we all they got pretty
much every guy in my house could fit in it and we went to meetings and went everywhere it was
big enough to haul the whole house around and so i used it for you know the good goodness and
because the car that i was going to get was a little one so so it was just amazing how god
worked through that uh that's like i mean when i tell that story it's just it gives me chills
and um but that would kind of backtrack a little bit on that but i wanted to throw that in there
um just good things happen to you when you start doing good and god god god rewards you for that
stuff and i'm i'm you know i've just i've been through it i know and i know whenever i start
messing up and going back out there again he'll take it away too so i mean i've lost house i lost
my houses lost my cars lost my motorcycles through drug addiction and alcoholism and
i gain it back and lose it and it's like just don't give up keep your faith in god
if you do have trouble like i said earlier if you slip up don't give up that's all that's
my main thing for everybody just don't give up um but now um i'm excited about
life again i'm feeling good about myself again feeling back on top of the world
and i don't want to go back that direction again
and i know i have to do to do the things i can and keep my faith in god to um stay on track
don't lose focus do the right thing every day one day at a time not one week at a
time not one month at a time just one day at a time is all it takes really guys just
stay with it don't give up if you have trouble don't give up there's always somebody there
even i can put my name out there uh if you can look me up on facebook at joey allen
you'll find me on there if you need any kind of a accountability partner i'll be there for you
i'm just thankful to to be in this point in my life to hopefully help somebody that needs it
and even if i don't even ever know that they did just just the thought of me helping people
is the real the best thing about life right now and um
just all anybody no matter how old you are no matter how young you are just don't give up