Photograph by scott reeder
Kriston Feleccia stated she stopped utilizing opioids in 2019, following a stint within the Sangamon County Jail.
Kriston Feleccia, 37, who has struggled with habit most of her life, stated her opioid habit started when she was prescribed Vicodin after almost slicing off one in every of her fingers.
“I all the time had points with alcohol, and I even acquired into cocaine once I was actually younger – 14 or 15. I wanted one thing to assist me get away from the alcohol as a result of I used to be wrecking my automobiles and doing quite a lot of silly issues,” she stated.
Feleccia stated at first, Vicodin appeared like what she wanted. “It makes me really feel nice. I beloved it.”
Feleccia did not initially notice there have been negative effects, till she started to get extraordinarily sick when she did not take extra.
“One in all my buddies known as me and stated, ‘Wish to hang around?’ And I used to be like, ‘Dude, I acquired the flu. Man, I really feel like shit, I have never felt good for days.’ He laughed at me and stated, ‘You do not have the flu. You are going by means of withdrawal. I stated, ‘You’re such a liar.’ I believed he was messing with me. So, he came to visit and he introduced me some Vicodin. I took them and I felt higher, and I used to be like, ‘Holy shit. What have I finished to myself?”
She spent greater than a decade after that chasing highs, fleeing withdrawal signs and escalating to morphine, heroin and eventually fentanyl.
“It is very potent. It is higher than intercourse, that feeling. When it hits, it is like, ‘Oh god, the place have you ever been all my life?'” stated Feleccia, who stated she final utilized in 2019.
Supporting her behavior price between $200 and $500 a day, she stated.
“I used to be a stealing freak. I’d exit in the course of the night time and break into automobiles. I’d normally go to the smaller cities, like Riverton, Rochester, Williamsville, as a result of these persons are a little bit extra trusting. … I’d do my first shot of the day, after which I might begin planning with my junkie associates, and we might go and steal from shops, after which take that stuff to the pawn store. Or I’d break into homes.”
Feleccia stated when theft would not cowl the price of her each day fixes, she resorted to prostitution. Though she is homosexual, she stated she had intercourse with males in alternate for cash and pimped out her girlfriends to help her behavior.
“They have been drug addicts, too, they usually knew that we would have liked cash. … I’ve actually quick hair, and I put on boys’ garments. The ladies I date, they’re normally girly. So, they’ve a greater shot at getting these dudes. … It was terrible watching them prepare and watching them stroll out that door. God, it is heartbreaking. However I did not cease them.”
The implications of her opioid use continued to mount. Feleccia contracted hepatitis from sharing needles with different drug customers. The crimes she dedicated whereas supporting her habit resulted in quite a few incarcerations within the Sangamon County Jail, she stated. She did a number of stints in drug rehabilitation services as nicely.
“Rehab helped me make connections for folks to get excessive with. … I’ve gotten excessive in rehab. I acquired heroin snuck into me. After which I sat there within the courses like, ‘Oh, yeah, I wish to be sober.'”
It was jail, fairly than rehab, that lastly introduced her to sobriety.
“They throw you in a cell with 5, six, perhaps even eight different ladies. And you’ve got one bathroom. I am fuckin’ throwing up in between my legs as I am shitting. And all these ladies are speaking mad shit to me, as a result of I am so sick, they usually’re not. They’re in there for another stuff. However they gotta cope with my fuckin’ nasty ass, as a result of we’re all in there collectively and I am unable to assist it.”
After being launched from jail, she moved into an condominium together with her spouse and stop utilizing.
Feleccia provided this recommendation for others going through habit: “Even should you imagine that you’re simply probably the most horrendous, ‘I am gonna die this manner,’ hopeless junkie, you continue to have hope. As a result of I used to be there. That is what I believed. I actually accepted the truth that I used to be going to die a junkie. And I turned it round.”
