Being thankful: Flynn has a ‘whole new way of learning to live’

By: 
Patrick Fisher, pfisher@newpraguetimes.com

Colleen Flynn of Montgomery is thankful that she has cleaned up her life. She is seven years clean and sober, has better relations with her family and is now a licensed Certified Peer Recovery Specialist so she can help others. (Patrick Fisher photo)

Colleen Flynn is very thankful this year. She went through drugs and alcohol treatment and is now seven years clean and sober. She now has a better relationship with her family, is engaged and is now helping others.

“I now have a whole new way of learning to live,” said Flynn, 41, who grew up in Belle Plaine and now lives in Montgomery. On a Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 16, she detailed her life in the office of Tim Price, of Faith, Recovery & Music at New Day Church in New Prague. Flynn has been working with Price’s ministry helping people who deal with addiction.

Flynn said as a child she went through mental and emotional abuse. “By age 12, I was already smoking weed, cigarettes and drinking alcohol,” she said. By the time she turned 18, she was pregnant with her daughter, the eldest of her four children.

Her daughter’s biological father shook the baby when she was a month and-half and caused fluid on the brain. Due to that abuse, her daughter required two surgeries. “I felt very alone and scared,” said Flynn. “After the surgeries, I fell into a major depression.” During that time a friend offered her crank, powdered substitute amphetamines, that would provide energy and keep her awake. “I tried that and I was hooked on the first,” said Flynn.

She ended up hanging-out with a drug dealer while Flynn’s mom took care of her daughter.

“After a couple years, I decided enough was enough,” said Flynn.

She went back to her family and was married by the time she was 21 and had fraternal twins. They were born 32 weeks premature and had to stay in the hospital for two weeks. Doctors decided they were doing well enough to take home. Flynn and her husband had to wake every three hours to take care of their twins. At times exhausted, Flynn turned to alcohol. She and her husband were together for seven to eight years before divorcing.

During a move from one place to another, Flynn took meth and was “back on a bender.” She described that as a....

To see more on this story pick up the November 24, 2022 print edition of The New Prague Times.

 

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