Posted on May 9, 2017
Author Mary Perren, WKVI
A recovering heroin addict shared a sobering message with 16 Starke County Jail inmates who are part of the in-house drug treatment program. Herb Stepherson says he always felt like an alien in his own skin and started smoking cigarettes when he was 15 in order to fit in with his peers. It worked, and soon afterward Stepherson discovered alcohol as another means of escape. He went from binge drinking with high school friends on the weekends to skipping school and sneaking out of the house after his parents cracked down on him.
Stepherson admits he was always looking for his next high. His parents were addicts, and he tried his first prescription pain medication after finding a bottle in their house. Stepherson quickly became hooked and says his Dad had a using buddy.
“He taught me how to be a drug addict. I mean it was like education with my old man. He taught me how to doctor shop. He taught me how to forge scripts, how to live like that. I mean he taught me everything—taught me how to cook cocaine, taught me everything. Then he went to prison.”
Stepherson met a girl who became his new using buddy. They moved to Georgia under the guise of making a new start, but truthfully Stepherson says they left town on a Grehyound bus with $1.67 in change and a bottle of vodka so he could escape arrest in Porter County. They got jobs to support their drug habit and came back to Indiana when Stepherson got in trouble with the law again.
He quickly fell back in with his old crowd, but two weeks later his best friend died of an overdose. Stepherson coped with the chaos by getting high.
Later, on Sept. 16, 2011, Stepherson’s son Lucas was born addicted to heroin. At the time he and his girlfriend were living in his grandma’s car and doing whatever was necessary to feed their dope habit. He says they were at a gas station in Valparaiso when she told him she hadn’t gotten her period in awhile.
“She had to go into Speedway and steal a pregnancy test,’ Stepherson said. “I don’t know why that fact disturbs me so much, but it does. We had been spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars a day in the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more but couldn’t afford a $6 pregnancy test.”
Stepherson says his girlfriend, now his ex, continued to use heroin with him throughout her pregnancy and did not seek any prenatal care. The baby spent about a week with a foster family before her parents got custody. That arrangement lasted about 18 months until Stepherson and his girlfriend got sober enough to convince DCS they were fit parents. They relapsed after the case was closed.
Stepherson finally hit bottom a few years later after being arrested in Gary on numerous felony charges. He was 29 and facing 37 years in prison, and he credits the grace of God for his freedom. In January of 2016 he was released from the Porter County Jail to a respite house where he got a sponsor and started attending multiple support group meetings each week.
Stepherson says recovery is about getting latched into a whole new culture.
“New friendships, new relationships, people who can support you and love you no matter what, you know, and show you how to be successful – show you how to handle and cope, make amends and turn your life around. I did that like it was my job, and I would not be standing here today if I didn’t.”
Stepherson told the inmates in the Starke County Jail/Porter-Starke Services Addictions Education Program it is hard to stay off of drugs and alcohol if you are around other users. He strongly suggests getting into a recovery culture outside of your own back yard in order to lessen the temptation to relapse.
In the nine months since the partnership between Porter-Starke Services and the Starke County Jail was formed, 33 inmates have graduated from the program, and 24 are currently enrolled. Of the 88 inmates who have gone through the intake process, 68 have participated in prior drug treatment.
Stepherson now works as an intervention coordinator and referral specialist for Intervention Services, Inc. and is the author of the book “Junkbox Diaries, A Day in the Life of a Heroin Addict.” Visit https://www.herbstepherson.com/ for more information. Stepherson spoke to the Starke County Jail inmates for an hour Monday afternoon. We’ll share his story in its entirety on the May 14th and 21st “Kankakee Valley Viewpoints” shows at 12 p.m. CDT on WKVI.
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