BUCYRUS — Xanax, wine and sometimes heroin was the cocktail of choice for several years for Sharona Bishop. In recovery for more than five years, Bishop is now helping others.
The girl who grew up in Bucyrus began her descent into addiction as a teenager.
“I smoked pot and would binge drink,” Bishop said. “Then I began smoking crack but these were all things I could put down and walk away from.”
Once a doctor prescribed Percocet for her, she had found a drug she could not so easily put down.
“It got ahold of me and I couldn’t stop,” she said.
In 2003, she made her first attempt at detox and rehab.
“I wasn’t ready at that point,” Bishop said.
She is the mother of four children and even losing custody of them was not a deterrent from her addiction.
“The drugs do something to your brain,” she said. “Even the things you hold most dear to you, your children, do not matter anymore. Your life becomes all about the drug.”
She overdosed on drugs several times.
“I was given several doses of Narcan to bring me back after overdosing. I should have been dead,” Bishop said. “The last time I overdosed, my boys were there when it happened.”
She credits time in prison for saving her life.
“I sentenced to six months in prison but was granted judicial release then I went to Crosswaeh, also a lock-down facility, for six months,” Bishop said. “At that point, I was finally receptive for help with my addiction.”
After getting clean, she reunited with her children, two sons and two daughters, while securing a job in Findlay with Century Health.
“My children and I are closer than ever before,” Bishop said. “I now counsel addicts at the Family Resource Center in Findlay.”
She is working on her degree and offers help to addicts throughout the area, including her hometown of Bucyrus.
“There are days that I have to pinch myself because my life is so good now,” she said. “I was sentenced to prison by (Wyandot County Common Pleas Judge Kate) Aubry in Upper Sandusky and I recently ran into her. She hugged me and told me how proud she is of me for the positive changes I have made in my life. It was a very proud moment for me.”
Bishop recently won an award from United Way for her work with addicts and her mom, Theresa (Tee) Cassidy who still lives in Bucyrus, could not be more proud of her daughter.
“Her years on drugs were very hard on me as it is with families of addicts,” Cassidy said. “Now I am so very proud of her and so relieved that I don’t have to worry about her or my grandchildren. She is helping so many others and that is wonderful.”
Bishop has a network of friends she can call when struggling through hard times that life brings.
“We have a tight-knit group which includes my best friend. If I begin to isolate or she sees me struggling with something, she calls me out on it,” Bishop said.
Bishop has a goal when it comes to helping others achieve recovery from addiction.
“I try to be the person I needed when I was going through it,” Bishop said. “While no one can fix someone else, you can’t overcome addiction alone. Reach out to someone who can help.”
Bishop, who recently moved to Findlay, said anyone who is struggling with addiction may contact her through her Facebook under her name on Facebook Messenger.