#79: Coping through counseling Ashley Cook and Nicolette Pianelli Part 1

We welcome back Ashley Cook who is a dual diagnosis therapist and Nicolette Pianelli who is a recovering addict and has been sober for 20 months. We all believe that Ashlee saved Nicolette’s life but Ashley says you have to want your life to be saved to be able to save it.
Ashley believes there is still a lot of stigma around therapy.. Ashley then shares her exciting news about her engagement.
Nicolette tells us that she is moving out of her sober house and into her older sisters house and tells us all about what sober houses are.
She then shares the devastating news about her ex-boyfriend’s death from an accidental drug overdose.
She found out while on a family vacation and she takes us through the moments when she found out and the moments after.
She talks about some of the problems that she had with her ex boyfriend of eight years and that there were also so many positives and that her boyfriend called her and apologized for a lot of things before he died and she’s very happy about that.
She tells us that it was Tommy who told her middle sister that she had relapsed and her sister found needles in her purse and in essence Thommy possibly saved her life by doing that.
Nicolette‘s mom will always be grateful for for that. Nicolette always hoped that her and Tommy would get married one day and have children and live happily ever after.
We ask her if she is in danger of relapsing with these devastating news but what she tells us will surprise you.
Nicolette wants everyone to know that it’s easy to write people off that are addicted but sometimes people forget there’s a person behind that addict and she hopes that people will not give up on addicts and she’s lucky that her parents never gave up on her.