Road to Recovery is an ongoing series featuring real stories from CORAS clients.
Rachael grew up in a close-knit family. Vacations at her grandparents’ timeshares, weekends at the firehouse with her dad, and a childhood she describes simply as good. Nothing about her early years pointed toward what came next.
She was 18 when she met the man she would eventually marry. He was already using prescription pills. One day, she tried one. Then she kept going.
“It was fun at that point,” she said. “We would get high, feel good. We were more outgoing, we wanted to do more stuff.”
The fun did not last.
The First Sign
The turning point came at dinner one night. Neither of them felt right. When they got home, it got worse. Stomach pain. Diarrhea. Restless legs so severe Rachael had never experienced anything like it. Her husband had the same sensation in his arms, involuntarily hitting them trying to get relief. Rachael felt like she was having a panic attack on top of the physical symptoms.
It was withdrawal. The first time either of them had felt it.
“I kept saying I have to stop,” she said. “I was thinking the right way, but I wasn’t physically doing the right thing.”
She and her husband had two children under the age of two at that point. Being sick constantly while raising two babies made the situation impossible to ignore. Rachael went to her family, specifically her mother, stepfather, and grandparents, and told them the truth. They had already suspected. They were ready to help.
Her grandmother watched the boys. Her mother covered other days. Rachael started calling treatment centers and found a bed within a couple of days.
She and her husband both got sober. They stayed sober for seven to eight years.
Relapse and a Harder Fall
When they bought their first home, a neighbor introduced them to Dilaudid, a powerful prescription opioid. They slipped back into use, but told themselves it was different this time. They were functioning. Her husband kept his job. Rachael managed the house and the kids.
Then Rachael got pregnant with her daughter. The pregnancy was complicated. Her daughter arrived at 27 weeks. Rachael was still using Dilaudid at the time.
When the neighbor’s supply became unreliable, withdrawal set in again. This time, to get through it, they turned to methamphetamine.
“That was my kryptonite drug,” Rachael said. “That’s when things started getting bad.”
The house that had always been spotless deteriorated fast. Dishes piled up. Cat waste covered the floors. Flies and maggots appeared. A bathroom drawer filled with needles. Her boys, seven and eight years old, were being called into meetings at school for acting out. Rachael slept until 1 in the afternoon while her baby sat in a wet diaper in her crib.
“Being sick is like the worst part,” she said. “You just can’t be a mother or a parent or a caregiver at all if you’re sick.”
A domestic violence call brought police to the house. Both Rachael and her husband were arrested. The home was documented by police: mattresses against walls, conditions bad enough to fill a thick case file. With both parents in jail, their children were taken.
Coming Home to Delaware
Rachael’s parents drove from Delaware to Kansas, where the family had been living, the day she was released from jail. They could not take the children across state lines, but they took Rachael. She came home.
That was when she found CORAS.
She looked up local detox options and found the CORAS Harrington location. She went through outpatient detox. The early months were still rough. She struggled with alcohol after detox and had to return for another round of treatment. From there, she entered CORAS inpatient rehab and started the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program at the Newark location.
“It was probably one of the most important and best times of my life,” she said, “being in the inpatient program with all the other women.”
What MAT Actually Felt Like
Rachael walked into the CORAS Newark location expecting to feel judged. Instead, she found a waiting room full of people in similar situations and staff who made her feel less ashamed about needing help.
The intake process was straightforward: a physical, bloodwork at LabCorp, a urine screen, paperwork, and a meeting with the doctor. She was dosed that same day. Within 30 minutes, her withdrawal symptoms were gone.
“The first day I went in, they got rid of my withdrawal symptoms,” she said.
She went daily at first, then earned take-home doses as she accumulated clean urine screens. At the time she started, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so her in-person visits were reduced to two or three times per week with take-homes for the other days. She struggled for a while with consistency. But then she got pregnant again.
Pregnancy changed things. She stopped using. She ended an abusive relationship that had kept drugs in her environment. She worked closely with CORAS doctors throughout her pregnancy: monthly appointments at first, then every two weeks, then weekly toward the end. Her dosage was adjusted as needed to prevent withdrawal during pregnancy.
When her son was born at 36 weeks after CORAS staff detected signs of preeclampsia at one of her appointments and sent her directly to the hospital, he did experience some withdrawal symptoms and spent time in the NICU and then the pediatric unit. He came home in his third week.
Before he was born, Rachael’s counselor had helped her complete a safety plan packet for child services. When her son arrived, the case was reviewed and closed.
Life Now
Today, Rachael visits CORAS every two weeks. She stays home with her baby. Her older kids, her daughter (age 8) and her sons (14 and 16), live with their paternal grandmother in a temporary guardianship arrangement that Rachael herself asked for, because she wanted them with someone she trusted while she rebuilds stability. She recently enrolled in school to pursue a career and eventually bring them home.
Her husband died of an overdose in 2021, shortly after she entered the inpatient program. She thinks about him often.
“I wish he was alive to see the things we talked about doing when we were younger that I’m doing now,” she said. “It’s bittersweet.”
Her youngest son, carried through his mother’s recovery, was asleep in a baby carrier during the interview. He woke up smiling.
Rachael described what a normal day looks like now: waking up at 2 a.m. with the baby, caring for him through the day, not once wondering how she is going to get through it.
“This is my first baby sober,” she said. “There’s never a moment where I don’t feel good enough to take care of him.”
If You Are Ready to Take That Step
Rachael’s recovery started with a single phone call to find a bed. It was not a perfect process. There were setbacks. But the foundation was built at CORAS, through detox, inpatient rehab, the MAT program, and consistent clinical support at every stage, including through pregnancy.
CORAS Wellness and Behavioral Health operates five locations across Delaware: Newark, Dover, Millsboro, Harrington, and Wilmington. Services include medication-assisted treatment, outpatient programs, and specialized support for women in recovery.
If you or someone you know is ready to start, visit coraswellness.org or call 833-886-2277.
You do not have to have it figured out before you call.
The Road to Recovery is an ongoing series. Each story is shared with the participant’s consent.
