A Life of Kayos: My Opioid Journey Through Hell, Hope & Healing

By Chekesha Kay Ellis

It's said that every 11 minutes another life in America is lost to an opioid overdose. But not everybody dies. Living with addiction can be harder. What's now an epidemic of pain pills and controlled substances affects old and young, rich and poor. It stretches across genders, races, state lines, and religions.

Growing up in PA, Kay was a fashion model, living well with a top-notch new job, the most expensive clothes, many friends, and an amazing social calendar. But at 27 she had an accident and started using prescription opioids for pain without being educated of the risks. What began as treatment became a decade of deception and disaster as she joined the millions of casualties in the opioid epidemic. Her fall was the start of addiction, the monster within, and substance use disorder. Her determination was the start of opioid recovery, the will within, now her desire to serve her community and bring hope to those personally struggling or loving someone struggling with addiction and opioid abuse.

Lorcet 10/650 contained hydrocodone (an opioid pain reliever) and acetaminophen (an analgesic pain reliever like Tylenol) that blocked pain receptors in the brain and became more widely prescribed by doctors beginning in the 1990s, before information was widely available about its risks and side effects. Could the incentives provided to doctors by pharmaceutical companies have led to the opioid crisis we see today? How did a hard-working, compassionate, licensed therapeutic support staff become a pill hustler addicted to prescription pain killers? Is it possible to come back from a dead place and really live? You've got to read this brief memoir from Kay Ellis- the woman, the model, the disc jockey, the survivor. This short read personally introduces you to the epidemic from the inside, to just how easily a person can slip from upstanding citizen to desperate prescription drug abuser. A Life of Kayos: My Opioid Journey through Hell, Hope & Healing is memorable, revealing, and necessary.

Kay works with:
*Mobilize Recovery which trains people to advocate within their own communities. They work with people in recovery, harm reductionists, families and allies impacted by substance use. Anyone who wants to make a difference in their community on drug policy and recovery advocacy. Their initiative is a response to the ongoing drug epidemic, which is the biggest public health crisis of our time.
MobilizeRecovery.org

*Recovery Advocacy Project as a NJ State Lead for a network of people and organizations across the country advocating and training on local, grassroots levels for addiction recovery policies.
RecoveryVoices.com

*Shatterproof as a Volunteer Ambassador, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the United States. It works to eradicate stigmas associated with substance use disorder or addiction.
Shatterproof.org

*Inclusivity Caucus, an organization that is working to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive safe space for individuals from all pathways of recovery, including harm reduction. Through Inclusivity Caucus BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), LGBTQIA+, and people living with disabilities are invited to the table to voice the need for culture change within the recovery community. Members work together and create change in the recovery community where all forms of diversity are seen and valued.

She is the founder of ChaseNoMore.org which serves as a bridge to help people across America by pointing them to resources that can assist with treatment and recovery. Visit her website and request one on one consultation or invite her to speak at your event.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08RC5RCV6
• ISBN13: 9798586163530
• Release Date: December 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 58 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"