- jferebee
Black WOMEN & Girls DO RECOVER!
SEPTEMBER 1: 2021 National Recovery Month –
“Recovery is For Everyone: Every Person, Every Family, Every Community!"
Isolation, self-loathing, and feelings of failure | feelings that become an addicts’ overcoat – including mine. Almost 31 years ago I was helpless, homeless, hopeless, and completely out of options. I had become a thief, a liar, and someone I no longer recognized | nor did family and friends. It got to the point that my mother told me to, “Stop calling her because I was killing her.” When I was at my lowest, after being arrested, AGAIN, and spending the night on a jail cell floor in the TOMBS in lower Manhattan, in NYC, I had what I now know was my personal spiritual awakening, which led me to finally ask for help and mean it. After being forced to come to Maryland, going to treatment, and living in two Oxford Houses (sober living residences), I was on my way to recovery and becoming a productive member of society – once again. I can tell you without hesitation that, RECOVERY IS FOR EVERYONE & WOMEN DO RECOVER – although all who need it do not GET it! I am truly blessed.
I wrote on Tuesday, September 7th, GIGO THOUGHTFUL TUESDAY * It's never too late & you're never too old to become better! I thought that my addiction had ruined my life (it did at the time), and I would never be able to get back on track and forgive myself and my past. Back in the day I wanted to be a heart surgeon (started my college journey at Johns Hopkins as a Pre-Med major * following in the footsteps of my great-aunt, Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee/Pioneering Black female physician; and a fashion stylist | became the first African American Models Editor for SEVENTEEN Magazine over 40 years ago). Even though my journey didn't get to either destination, I have made peace and feel blessed with where the road has taken me – much of it due to putting down that drink and drug.
I am an author, consultant, speaker, retired nonprofit professional and social worker(doing a different type of "work on the heart"), self-proclaimed FASHIONISTA, founder & Chief Woman Warrior of Ferebee Enterprises International, LLC, host of a new podcast * SANKOFA KONVERSATIONS, recognized by The Oprah Winfrey Show & ESSENCE Magazine, two-time cancer survivor blessed with almost 31 years in long-term recovery from drug & alcohol abuse, former DC Elected Official, former docent at the historic Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. I have a great family and cherished friends -- can't get any BETTER than that, although I work on it every day!
Come back on September 15 for my book review:
BACK-TO-SCHOOL READING LIST:
Book | Black Girls, White School: Thriving, Surviving, and NO, You Can’t Touch My Hair, by Olivia V.G. Clarke (matching journal for writing space)