Growing up, Mariah Allbee knows she was a good kid. Born and raised in Reno, she did well in school and enjoyed camping and road trips with her family. She was the youngest of 3 siblings from her mom, and her dad’s only child.
Mariah’s shift happened gradually. At 15, she started smoking weed and skipping class from time to time. At the beginning of her junior year, she dropped out of High School and began using painkillers with her then-girlfriend. During their breakup three years later, Mariah Allbee fell into a severe depression. She tried turning to drinking but, still underage, ran out and didn’t have access to more.
Allbee was hurting. So, she explained “I had some friends that were using meth and I told them I wanted to try it, just because I didn’t want to feel my emotions anymore. I tried it one time and I just didn’t stop after that.” A year later, she was arrested for the first time, for selling to an undercover cop. Mariah spent three weeks in jail. When she got out, while awaiting sentencing, she continued to use meth. She was arrested again, this time on her 21st birthday.
She spent her 21st birthday in jail. When she got out, she went to treatment for the first time, for one month. After only a few weeks, she relapsed. Mariah had a warrant out for her arrest for six months before she got caught at a traffic stop. This time, her third time in jail, she served three months.
Coming to The Empowerment Center
Sitting in jail, Mariah knew she was ready to change her life and that this time would be different. Waiting for release, Allbee started participating in substance use programming, took her GED, and began tutoring other women in the GED class. She didn’t know what awaited her outside. Fortunately, her family was fighting for her.
Mariah’s dad reached out to The Empowerment Center and shared her story. While at first it didn’t sound like there were beds available, one room was about to be remodeled. So, The Empowerment Center held off doing it – making spacing for Mariah.
Looking back, Mariah recognizes “I think I needed a more structured, longer program. One that was more involved. My first program kind of just slapped a Band-Aid on it.” In contrast, at The Empowerment Center, she felt like she benefited from more group sessions, supportive staff, and help finding work. “It taught me how to live like a human being again. How to cook, how to do the programming, go to work, pay bills, and just live a normal, sober life.”
Finding Her Career
As Mariah advanced through the Empowerment Center’s treatment phases, she began by spending most of her time focused on treating her addiction before taking steps towards building her new life. A big part of that? Finding work.
When Mariah got off blackout, her first job was doing data entry. She enjoyed it immensely, but since it involved working with medical records, she quickly learned that once her background check came back, she wouldn’t be able to continue. Next, she took a job serving food at a casino. It paid well, but Allbee recognized that the raucous crowd she dealt with here wasn’t who she wanted to be around forever. She stayed committed to her sobriety through this job, before leaving for other retail and casino positions.
Mariah knew she was smart and had more potential. So, she started looking into going back to school. She wanted a profession that had a positive impact on people’s lives and found herself drawn to the medical field, where her background had denied her access in early recovery. Allbee considered a few options before enrolling in nursing school at TMCC. She was excited to earn a 4.0 GPA in her first semester – and is currently enrolled in her second. She’s considering whether she’ll want to stay in Northern Nevada or try living in a greener region, perhaps Colorado, Oregon, or Washington.
Mariah’s Family & Support System
School isn’t the only thing that’s changed in Mariah’s life. Now 29, she’s living with her boyfriend Kyle and their two kids, ages 6 and 3. Mariah and Kyle met at an NA meeting and today spend most of their free time playing outside with their kids. They camp, hang out by Truckee River or Lake Tahoe, go to Coconut Bowl, and visit their cousins. Mariah has a tighter social circle than she did when she was using but knows that her friendships today are stronger for it.
While, like so many others, Mariah relapsed when she was out of work during COVID, she immediately sought help. She came back to The Empowerment Center for counseling and is grateful to be back on track.
Mariah’s Advice
When Mariah talks to people she feels could use support in their addictions, she often recommends they come to The Empowerment Center. She knows that since it changed her life, it could also be the right choice for them. She feels the biggest thing is that “someone who needs to get sober has to want to get sober. A lot of times, people unfortunately have to go through being arrested to get to that point, and forced into a program. But sobriety is definitely possible, even without having to go through all that. I think you really just have to be strong minded.And you have to want this, because if you don’t, no one else can convince you or push you. You have to free yourself.”