Displaying items by tag: Erin Helms

Addiction is more than a community problem; it's also a dire issue for the individual who knows they are spiraling out of control and need help gaining control back of their lives.

Erin Helms is a recovering addict who's taken what she's learned from her own personal journey to help others with treatment of alcohol and opiate addiction. She manages The Woodrow Project Erin Helms Recovery Home in Lakewood, Ohio.

Helms says her physician helped her get into a treatment center, where professional help took care of her. She went from in-patient, to out-patient then to aftercare in 2008 but recognizes many treatment centers are filled to the brim today, with waits of weeks or months.

The program she runs now helps women with support, something lacking for many people battling addiction now in northeast Ohio. She says it's a long-term problem and not just a 28-day recovery process.

"I got to a place where I just couldn't feel anymore," she said.

Helms says her journey started after an auto accident, and a pain prescription of Vicodin. She says the prescription eventually ran out, but by then she was hooked and went to the streets to purchase what she needed.

'It's in everybody's best interests to help people in need, so they can rejoin the world again," Helms told WAKR's Ray Horner. She credited the support of her family and the professionals who were there for her when she needed them.