PONTIAC - Today marks the 175th day that Farrah Foster has been clean and sober. The 28-year-old was born and raised in Pontiac. In school, she was into sports like softball, basketball, volleyball and track. | Heroin problem grows in Livingston County

At 15, she was introduced to marijuana and alcohol - and everything changed.

"Going into high school, I started hanging out with different people like the crowd that was a little more rowdy that would get into drugs and alcohol," she said. "I was trying to fit in with the crowd and the people who were using it. It made me feel like I had friends."

After a while, marijuana didn't do it for her anymore. She tried heroin when she was 17 or 18. She was hooked from the outset, she said, and was a heavy user within two years.

"It made me feel like no one could touch me and like I was in my own little world," Foster said. "It was like nothing could hurt me. There are some bad things that happen when you do it like vomiting, but the feeling is like you don't have any cares in the world. It seemed like after the first time I was addicted and I wanted it every day."

Foster routinely went to the Chicago area to buy the drug, she said. At the same time, she couldn't keep a job. She would ask her parents for money to pay bills, but go to the city instead. Even today, she said driving north on Interstate 55 triggers something inside her.

During the height of her addiction, Foster said she used heroin three or four times a day -snorting it at first, but later using a needle. She described this time, the height of her addiction, in one word: Hell.

"I actually lost a lot of people in my life," Foster said. "I lost a lot of friends and respect for myself, and I didn't care about anybody and I didn't care about who I hurt. That drug was all that I wanted."

Treatment

Foster was treated at Pontiac's Institute for Human Resources, but it was far from a smooth road to recovery. She also underwent treatment at Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington, but neither stint in rehab was her choice. She did it for everybody else, she said, and was always thinking about how to get back to heroin after treatment.

Last October, she was arrested for DUI. She spent about two weeks in jail and ordered to complete 75 hours of treatment at IHR. That was it. She was ready to stop and paid attention to details of how heroin can affect the brain and how to cope with life after addiction.

"It was coming back here to this place and having people who care about me," she said. "I knew that I wanted to do it for myself because I'm almost 30 years old and I was hurting myself so much and the people around me so much. That was my bottom line."

She found faith that helps her through the hard times, she said. She moved to Chenoa, and is looking to hold down a job. She still thinks about drugs, but knows that she can read, meditate, pray or call someone for support. She hopes her story can influence others to seek help.

"Don't be afraid to cry out for help because it's OK and you don't have to feel ashamed about it," Foster said. "It is a disease that can ruin your life."

"We are addicts and it's not going to get better overnight, but you need to want it and be willing to say that I have a problem and need help. Somebody will listen."

Education is key

Teresa Diemer, substance abuse director and counselor at IHR, said IV drug users like Foster are considered priority clients. IHR allows them to see a doctor or enter a treatment facility within 24 to 48 hours to detox, a process that can be a harsh experience with a drug like heroin.

"With any narcotic … it could be like having a very bad flu where you are aching, throwing up, having the shakes or sweats," she said. "We want them to be OK and medically stable before we can continue to help them."

While Diemer agreed heroin is a growing problem in Livingston County, other drug users can be harder to treat, she said.

"I feel it's harder to treat someone addicted to marijuana over heroin because heroin users can see the harmful effects but marijuana users can't," said Diemer, adding that of IHR's 269 clients in 2008, 40 were heroin users. "A lot of times when someone is addicted to heroin, they are also addicted to all opiates and "people who have access to medical insurance can abuse it, which leads to an addiction to prescription drugs.''

The solution, as Foster learned, begins with education, said Diemer and Pontiac Police Maj. Jim Woolford.

"I think that the best that we can do to stop is to keep targeting younger kids and explain to them the dangers of it and how quickly they can become addicted," Diemer said.

"Education has to be a key to stopping it and we have to make sure that people understand what the effects are," agreed Woolford. "As long as human beings are capable of making bad decisions, then I don't see us ever eradicating the problem. But we can never give up and we have to continue to educate people and enforce the laws that exist."