Every quarter we will be taking the time to highlight someone’s recovery story in our Newsletter. This quarter we are highlighting Justin Mandosking from Chippewa county.

My name is Justin Mandosking and I am a person in recovery. My drug use started when I was 13 years old. I began smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, and experimenting with opiates. As the years progressed so did my drug use. When I was 18, I used intravenously for the first time. The next five years of my life was a downward spiral. During this time I would use syringes that I grabbed out of a used sharps container or that I found on the ground. I was court ordered to inpatient treatment twice and was unsuccessfully discharged both times. I was in jail countless times and overdosed many times as well. I was sentenced to the MDOC twice. As my addiction progressed, I cared less and less about what my family thought or the negative impacts on my life. My addiction had become all consuming.

My recovery journey began in 2014. It has been full of triumphs and failures. I started attending AA meetings. I did not think I fit in there because I was not an alcoholic, but I learned to look for similarities instead of focusing on differences. It was hard for me to relate to people who believe that the root of addiction is selfishness, but I found commonalities in their experiences and my own. Then I found my way into Narcotics Anonymous. I felt like I had found people I could relate to better. Over the next several years I became heavily involved in N.A. My experience with this fellowship was not always pleasant, however I saw
that it worked for some people. I still felt like something was missing in my recovery though. That all changed when I was introduced to Wellbriety. I fell in love with this program, all my recovery needs were addressed by the holistic approach that Wellbriety takes. Wellbriety works for me. My recovery has become empowering for me. Today I try to use my personal experience with addiction to empower others to begin the process of recovery. I find that my service as a peer recovery coach strengthens my own recovery while helping others find theirs. Although my own experience with recovery has been heavily influenced by 12 step recovery models, I have learned that there are multiple pathways to recovery and there is no one size fits all. I encourage anyone struggling to find recovery to investigate all avenues of recovery until they find something that works for them. My goal is to support people while they improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential.