Recovering addict tells the tale of her success

Five years ago, Carmen Silver was addicted to drugs. She had dropped out of school and had a job as a waitress.

Today, she is a year away from finishing a three-year respiratory therapy program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

Silver attributes her transformation to her son, Keegan.

"He's been my motivation, and I haven't had any relapses," she said.

"My son just changed my life and is the greatest thing that happened to me."

Silver describes herself as "a recovering drug addict from a family of addicts."

She started using drugs when she was 13 or 14 years old, she said.

At 22, she was working as a waitress in her hometown of Edson when she discovered she was five months pregnant.

At first, she said, she planned to give the baby up for adoption, and made a few "half-hearted" attempts to stop using drugs.

Finally, "after about a month, I decided even if I do give up this baby, it's not fair for this child for me to be doing this."

She spent three weeks at the Henwood Treatment Centre in Edmonton, and has lived drug-free ever since.

In the end, Silver decided to keep the child, a baby boy she named Keegan.

Three months after his birth, she went back to school because, she explained, "I wanted to be able to give him a better life than I had."   

She received provincial grants to return to school, and spent two and a half years upgrading at NorQuest College, through YREC in Edson's provincial building.

It was a good experience, as she was able to work with wonderful, loving staff, Silver said.

She had been on the honor roll before dropping out of school, so "upgrading was amazingly easy." 

During her years at NorQuest, Silver also volunteered with AADAC because she explained, "I thought it would help me stay clean, and I wanted to help people who were in situations like myself."

She travelled to high schools to tell her story of addiction and recovery. At first, the experience was "nerve-racking." Silver said.

"But even if you can just reach that one person, even if you never know it, then it's all worth it."

When it came time to decide on a career, Silver went through career profiles on the Internet.

She was looking for a job where she could help people, follow her love of science, finish her training without "going to school for 1, 000 years," earn a good wage, "and have some room to grow and move."

Silver said she wanted to go into health care because she had seen the discrimination her addict friends had often faced when they went to hospitals.

"I don't think people should be discriminated against because of their lifestyle, especially when most addicts are addicts because they're running away from something, from pain." 

Silver had never heard of respiratory therapy before reading the profile, but decided it most closely matched her requirements, and moved to Edmonton with Keegan so she could study at NAIT.

When she has finished her program, she will be a breathing specialist who helps people with asthma and pulmonary disease and works with people on ventilators at the hospital.

NAIT was harder than NorQuest Silver said.

She had to do a lot more studying, and as a "small town girl" she found it hard to adjust to the city.

Being a single parent at school was and is also difficult, Silver said.

But two years into her three-year program, Silver said things are going well, even through she is tired of school.

Her mother, who has also turned her life around, has moved to Edmonton and helps look after Keegan.

"If it wasn't for my mom now, I don't know how I would get things done," Silver said.

Without her mother, she wouldn't be able to do her clinical practice which sometimes involves leaving home-and Keegan-at 5:30 a.m.

Silver said her friends who still use drugs have also been very supportive as she has worked to clean up her life.

"Lots of people think they're just addicts, they just want to see you fail. But I've found for the most part that my friends who still use (drugs) have been the most helpful and the most supportive."

Silver was recently asked to speak at an upcoming NorQuest graduation ceremony, and will be inducted into the college's Wall of Fame.

But her circumstances are not unique, she said: she has only been getting this attention because she is willing to talk about her past.

"I actually think it's almost silly for me to be doing this (publicity) because there are so many other people who have struggled (and) made something of themselves." 

As posted in the Edson Leader May 19, 2008 

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