KANSAS CITY, Mo. — About one in 10 of us deal with some sort of substance abuse. For those who have asked for help, the path to recovery is full of roadblocks, setbacks and heartbreak.
READ: Stories of Addiction - The struggle, despair and hope
Despite the hurdles, a human with hope remains.
In this week’s edition of the 41 Files podcast, we detailed the addiction and recovery journey of Henry Costigan.
Henry, who is 23, is part of a story by 41 Action News anchor Christa Dubill on the path to recovery for young men dealing with addiction. The story is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. on May 13.
“I spent about a year in jail before I got into drugs,” Henry said during our interview, which included his mom, Kathy Costigan. “When I got out, I moved back to Kansas City with my dad and I just started wandering around the city.
“I started doing things that no one had shown me how to do. I just started doing all this stuff. It was miserable.”
His mom has been along with him during the despair and through the glimmers of hope.
“I want him to be happy, healthy and free,” Kathy said during the episode, “and not to carry the guilt around with him because that’s painful for me to know that he’s carrying around this guilt about the bad things he’s done.”
Kevin O’Grady, founder of the Midwest Recovery Center, also joined the discussion and said recovery can be a hard, slow process.
“For a lot of people, they’ve got to fall down three, four or five times,” O’Grady said. “But you’ve got to get up six.”
If you need help or know someone who needs help, reach the Midwest Recovery Center at (816) 599-7382.
The episode was hosted by Dubill and fellow anchor Taylor Hemness.
The 41 Files podcast is released every Wednesday and covers issues important to Kansas City. Subscribe and leave a rating on Apple Podcasts , Stitcher , Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
