I have been a nurse for 15 plus years and was busted halfway through my career for stealing narcotics that were never wasted as a pediatric ER nurse in some of the top ER hospitals in the nation and then later receiving a well deserved felony for writing fraudulent scripts and then doing two years in jail walking out with a destroyed career and nothing but wreckage to piece together the best way I could and there was no room for self pity if I was going to do it successfully. That was a horrible run on sentence but then again I am a science /nursing major not an English major.......(humor, it all has to be funny to be bearable).

The point is that it took me multiple tries to become a successful nurse again. I did get my nursing license back again only to give it back after succumbing to my addiction again. I am now a sober woman after being given back my life by going to a 6 month program called Integrity House in New Jersey. I still have yet to go in front of the Board of Nursing but I have had amazing jobs in my sobriety with all the experience I gained as a nurse and yes, a felony limits me in ways that on some days are very hard to swallow but I have to remember that my life is my fault and I have to take responsibility for that and help other nurses not to do the same. I have worked as a transplant coordinator, I have worked on the University level working with college students who have been raped as an advocate and a counselor, I have worked in a women's health clinic doing education on birth control and woman's rights, I have worked as a federal fundraiser for Nurse Family Partners raising money within federal institutions to fund this amazing organization for two years and I have also worked with HIPS, a sex worker organization that gives out condoms and does needle exchanges to sex workers on the street to keep them safe. I believe and have avidly supported everything I have done and maybe losing everything was a blessing because I got to do a lot of things I never would have done before.

So make it a positive. There is always a positive in every negative I guarantee it.

Related: Addiction, Drug Addiction