From addict to volunteer to connecting others to recovery.

Diana Dubbs has a passion for connecting people to recovery and helping them find themselves.

About Diana Dubbs

Diana grew up in Mercer County, NJ and currently lives in Allentown, NJ with her husband and 2 boys who are 4 and 3. She has worked in treatment services for 5 years. Diana is a graduate of Rutgers University with a BA in English.

Her career in the addiction recovery field involves connecting people to recovery. She is employed by Dream Life Recovery, a treatment center, but has spent the last 5 years learning how to help all people, whether they have private insurance, Medicaid, or no insurance at all, find recovery-based solutions and options for a better way of living.

First Phase

Alcohol, then Drugs

Drugs and alcohol are a symptom of the disease of addiction. Diana used them for many reasons but primarily from a very early age she constantly felt like she was displaced. Like she didn’t belong. Therefore, when she first found alcohol, she found her solution to that problem.

Alcohol allowed her to make friends and be comfortable in her own skin. When drinking, she didn’t have to hide who she was or be embarrassed. She spent the majority of her days making poor decisions and being victimized by her own thinking.

Diana grew up in a really good family and was never introduced to addiction. It didn’t make sense that she was like she was.

Later in life, she found painkillers and it was the quickest slow death she had ever found.

After a while, she couldn’t feel better because she couldn’t get high and needed them to not be sick. Her self-loathing resulted in her covering all of the mirrors in her apartment with curtains. She hated who she’d become.

Intervention

Eventually, the family that loved her, knew something was wrong and asked her to come home. Typical of addicts, she tried negotiating her way out of it but eventually threw her hands up and knew she had to ask for help.

Shortly thereafter she ended up in detox, then treatment. While in treatment, she heard someone talk about how their thoughts didn’t make sense. How there was a bunch of white noise between their ears. Diana immediately was hooked and knew she wasn’t alone. She needed to get more information about why she was the way she was and made the choices she made.

“When you don’t know who you are, you can be a chameleon, blend in in any crowd. No sense of self-identity.” – Diana Dubbs

Second Phase

Finding Herself

In the treatment center, she spent 32 days learning about the disease of addiction and why her brain functioned differently. She knew things were going to be different after she left but had no idea that her entire life would change.

The new design for a living would become the entire center by which she determined how she interacted with people.

When she left treatment, she was 31 years old and like a toddler. I had to learn how to communicate. She had to learn how to be sober and have fun. Not only did she have to learn how to be sober, but she also had to learn how to laugh and make friends. Now, she has done all of that.

Eventually, like so many people, she decided she wanted to save the world and wanted to work in treatment but had no idea what to do. A friend suggested that she volunteer at a treatment center.

Following Advice and Volunteering

Diana followed the friend’s advice and volunteered for a year with an organization that then asked her to work for them. She did amazing things with the organization and learned how to help community members of all types. Her knowledge of the treatment and recovery world grew.

She now works for Dream Life Recovery, is married, and has children. Diana and her husband are raising two boys who are aware of recovery and what it looks like to have sober parents, and how it’s okay to be imperfect and authentic.