Growing up in the quiet town of Penngrove, Shelby appeared to have everything together. She was active in 4-H, cheerleading for her school, and loved sports. But on the inside, she was struggling with mental health challenges that her sheltered upbringing hadn’t prepared her to face. At twelve years old, Shelby was hospitalized after attempting suicide. She was released back home with a prescription for Xanax and little other support.
“At such a young age, it taught my brain that I’m supposed to take something to make me feel better, or at least, to not feel,” Shelby reflects. “When drugs were offered to me at fifteen, I started to self-medicate. I was just trying to get through the social stuff that I could not figure out. I was willing to try anything.”
Shelby began experimenting with marijuana and cocaine, but her addiction escalated when she discovered methamphetamine. “I wouldn’t say I was an everyday user, but I would use it every day I could get it,” she says.
For the next five years, Shelby’s habit progressed. She tried repeatedly to quit, even moving out of state for a clean start. But her addiction always followed. “You try to outrun yourself,” she says. “But there you are.”
At twenty, Shelby became pregnant and immediately stopped using. After delivering a healthy baby via emergency C-section, prescription painkillers opened a new chapter of opioid addiction. When pills grew harder to obtain, she turned to heroin and fentanyl. As a single mother, Shelby knew her drug use wasn’t healthy for her child, but repeated attempts at sobriety always ended in relapse.
Everything changed for Shelby on Easter Sunday of 2017, when Shelby was arrested and her son was taken by Child Protective Services. For the first time in her life, substance use treatment was offered. “It had never occurred to me that treatment was available,” she recalls.
After completing sixty days in residential treatment, Shelby knew she needed more support. She reached out to Athena House, where she would spend several months in a structured environment that taught her how to show up consistently for herself and her son. Gradually, she began the family reunification process, moved into a Sober Living Environment, and fulfilled her probation requirements. The child endangerment charges were dropped.
“Athena House is what really got me to look into my behaviors,” says Shelby. “It set me on a track to be successful.”
Today, Shelby is building the future she once couldn’t imagine. She recently graduated from Lytle’s Beauty College and is now enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College. She works as a Staff Support Specialist for Buckelew and is interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. She has a close relationship with her son, who is about to turn eleven this year.
In turn, she helps the other women at Athena House feel hopeful about their journeys. Every Mother’s Day, Shelby delivers roses to the women there. It’s a meaningful tradition that honors both their struggles and their strength. She actively participates in building a supportive community, bringing women with her to meetings and freely sharing her story to help the women through their own process.
“It’s one of the most fulfilling tasks that I can do in recovery,” she says.
