My name is Lana, and I am a Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist and Program Developer who understands addiction not just from books, but from lived experience.

 

Addiction had me powerless. It had control over my choices, my thinking, and my life. I know what it feels like to feel trapped, restrained, stuck, and unsure how to break free.

 

But recovery changed everything. It made me powerful.

 

I didn’t just go through recovery, I studied it, lived it, and committed myself to understanding every layer of it.

 

I've been in jail. I've been in rehab. I've been in detox. I sat in group sessions. I participated in therapy. I faced difficult truths about myself and learned how to understand my emotions, my patterns, and my behaviors.

 

I have been in continuous recovery since March 12, 2017.

 

Recovery helped me understand who I am and taught me that addiction had made me feel powerless, but recovery gave me the strength to take control.

 

Through that journey, I grew closer to my higher power, and through that connection, my purpose was revealed.

 

I realized that everything I went through was not meant to break me, it was building the strength I needed to help others.

 

Today, I use everything addiction tried to take from me the pain, the lessons, the growth, and the strength, to help others take back what addiction is trying to steal from them.

 

Mask Off Recovery was created from that purpose.

 

This work is not theory to me, it is personal. It is lived. And the proof of what recovery can do is what you see in me.

 

Addiction had me powerless —
but recovery made me powerful.

Because now I help others, Break Free From What’s Been Breaking Them.