{"id":2748,"date":"2019-04-24T15:44:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T15:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recovery.stigmaunmasked.com\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2019-04-24T15:44:18","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T15:44:18","slug":"one-day-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/family\/one-day-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"One Day at A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By: Samantha Kupiainen<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cHey Rhea . . . I\u2019m from Springfield, Mass and I am a recovering meth addict,\u201d read the FB message. \u201cToday was a really tough day as I\u2019m 4 months into my recovery and I have had so much going on in my life that using has been quite an appealing thought! Today, I stayed in and just watched documentaries and reminded myself that no matter what the battle is gonna be hard but fighting it clear headed is the best way! I came across u and ur husband and just wanted to reach out and thank you guys for ur story it was definitely what I needed today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Brian and Rhea Graham, random messages via Facebook aren\u2019t unusual. The couple has inspired untold numbers to take back their lives. Three years ago, the couple were subjects of a Ball State University immersive learning class documentary film, magazine and web report on drug addiction called <a href=\"http:\/\/addiction.stigmaunmasked.com\/\">\u201cUnmasked: The Stigma of Meth.\u201d<\/a> The story propelled them into the spotlight locally, but also nationally and even internationally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017, Rhea served as an access consultant for an episode of a British Netflix documentary, \u201cDope,\u201d after its producers came across the Ball State \u201cUnmasked\u201d project online. The Netflix episode explored the opioid epidemic across Indiana. In her role, Rhea was behind the scenes on location, such as abandoned houses, and helped connect the filming crew with people in the recovery community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brian and Rhea have both been clean for five years now. It\u2019s still one day at a time, they\u2019ll tell you, but both are confident enough in their recovery to bring others along. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s been two years since Rhea stood before Delaware County Judge Linda Wolf at her sentencing hearing, where she faced up to six years in prison for dealing in methamphetamine. According to Rhea, \u201cif you\u2019re not doing the right thing, you don\u2019t want to have her as a judge.\u201d Brian faced up to 26 years in prison for his drug-related crimes, a much longer sentence because of his history of prior offenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both were arrested in early 2014 for possession of meth and faced Class B felony charges. Judge Wolf had the final say about whether Brian and Rhea were going to prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tAt Rhea\u2019s sentencing, the judge commented on Rhea\u2019s high visibility in the community and her work with addicts. She said she didn\u2019t see how the community would benefit by her being removed from it. Wolf told Rhea she believed it was her \u201cGod-given calling\u201d to help people who suffered from addiction, to give them courage and strength. Rhea says that\u2019s how she intends to spend her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tInstead of six years in prison, Rhea was sentenced to six years probation. Brian was given a similar sentence, despite a list of prior offenses. Her commitment to others in recovery helped get her a job as an office manager at First Choice for Women, a Christian, non-profit pregnancy resource center in Muncie. Today, she is a peer support specialist for Meridian Health Services, headquartered in Muncie and one of Indiana\u2019s largest health care providers. Previously, she was a volunteer for Meridian\u2019s Maternal Treatment Program, which helps women manage their addiction during pregnancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tBoth Brian and Rhea are popular sponsors in the recovery community. Brian has been approached roughly 20 times to be a sponsor; Rhea has been approached around 50 times. It\u2019s still one day at a time for the couple but both hope to become even more involved and lead others toward recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBeing in true recovery is not simply removing drugs from the picture,\u201d Rhea said. \u201cWe begin to achieve real recovery when we recover our body, mind, and spirit as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Samantha Kupiainen \u201cHey Rhea . . . I\u2019m from Springfield, Mass and I am a recovering meth addict,\u201d read the FB message. \u201cToday was a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","tag-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalresearch.bsu.edu\/stigmaunmasked.recovery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}