The High Life Part 5: Recovering from drug addiction

A picture of Casandra Clark with family. (CTV Barrie)

Casandra Clark spent most of her teenage years high on one drug or another.

“I would let anybody get to me. I was just too sad and too mad and blaming everybody instead of really looking at what I could to go forward,” said Casandra. “I looked very skinny back then and I looked very warn out. I wasn’t washed, I was wearing pyjama pants – I think. I really didn’t care about my appearance, I let my teeth rot.

Casandra ran away from home at 15, lived on the streets, had two children – both of whom she eventually gave up for adoption. Her whole life revolved around getting drugs in any way possible.

“I felt the desire to have more. I felt like daytime was a reality that I never wanted to face. I shut my curtains during the day; I barricaded myself in my apartment so no one would know where I was except my drug dealers.”

“It scares the hell out of ya, no parent wants that and I mean I was here from the time she was born. I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I don’t go anywhere, I wasn’t promiscuous, there’s no reason. We had everything every other kid had, I made sure my kids had everything but it didn’t matter – the drugs always came first,” said Casandra’s mother Jo-Anne Passmore.

“Some days I needed a hug from here but that anger inside of me that these drugs were more important seem to overpower friends and family and that type of thing so I let her go. I let her go during that time, I really didn’t want her to see me like that either,” said Casandra.

“There was about two years where her and I never really talked. So I don’t know when she hit full bottom,” said Jo-Anne.

But then, a turning point. Seven years after she left home Casandra was at a party. She was 22 and homeless at the time. There she met the man who would change everything.

“When I met Corey I really saw life differently. There was this happiness that people had that I didn’t have and I wanted it. I wanted to stop feeling so ashamed of myself and sad about my past and Corey really helped me to open up to new experiences and see life differently.”

He stood by her when she chose to stop doing drugs and turn her life around.

“I didn’t see any doctors, I didn’t get any medication, I did it naturally, I did it by myself. I decided that was enough and I realized these friends I had were not my friends when I chose to get off of drugs. So I changed my whole lifestyle, I chose different friends, different surroundings and that’s how I did it. Just will power to know that there was something better.

Together Casandra and Corey got a house and had a son.

“She was living on the 10^th Line in a house, she was pregnant with my grandson – my third grandson – and I walked in the door and she was clean and her house was spotless and I had met her boyfriend and he worked full time. It was such a relief,” said Casandra’s mother.

Casandra also decided to go back to school and started to dream about what could be possible for her life.

“Education, education was my silver lining, was my angel, gave me strength, gave me power, gave me the self of esteem to realize my potential.”

Her desire to learn has already paid off.

“Now I’m in Laurentian University trying to get my Bachelor of Social Work. I’ve already graduated from Georgian College in 2012 for my social service worker diploma,” add Casandra. “My past really led me to want to help other people and support them because if it wasn’t for the support I received from other people I don’t think I would be here today.”

Her relationship with her mother is strong now.

“Wonderful – we talk for and five times a day and my husband says we’ve got phones glued to our ear,” says Jo-Ann.

“The teenage years are a rough transition into adulthood and I would say there are a lot of pressures and a lot of choices one could make. But to know that if they are going through a hardship whether it’s drugs, family, friends – that there are better days and to believe in yourself,” says Casandra.

“I’m going to see my little girl become a children’s aid worker and she’s going to kick ass and I know it,” says her mom.