- March 28, 2024
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Ormond Beach’s Laura Cyr will answer questions about her addiction, and recovery, at Florida’s Recovery Month Celebration Saturday, at the Daytona Beach Bandshell.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Laura Cyr's life was “chaos,” a “never-ending cycle” of getting clean then relapsing.
For nearly 14 years, she battled drug addiction. But it wasn’t until last September, when she was thrown in jail, lost custody of both of her children and finally “lost herself” that she knew what she needed to do.
She asked for help.
“It was so much easier to get high then to get help,” she said. “Until you can learn to humble yourself, you are not ready.”
But she’s ready now. She has been clean and sober for more than a year and completed residential treatment at Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare Sept. 12, where she “walked out a completely different person.”
Laura Cyr and her mother, Debra Beaulieu, will speak Saturday, Sept. 21, at Florida’s Recovery Month Celebration, at the Daytona Beach Bandshell.
Hosted by the Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare and Keep Kids Drug Free, the event kicks off with a Ride for Recovery motorcycle run, which starts at 1:30 p.m. at Flagler Beach High Tides at Snack Jacks, and ends at 5 p.m., at the band shell.
When the ride ends, the celebration starts.
There will also be a “Recovery’s Got Talent” show, a cop-dunking booth and other activities.
“We’re trying to battle the stigma,” Keep Kids Drug Free Regional Prevention Director Victoria Kress said. “(Recovering addicts) don’t blame anybody else. ... They take responsibility. ... That’s what recovery is: It’s just learning to overcome”
For her, the most important thing is letting people who are struggling know they’re not alone, “and there are people who understand and want to help them.”
“We have a wonderful, amazing recovery subculture in our community,” she added. “And they’re all going to be at this event, celebrating life.”
Residents of Ormond Beach for more than 20 years, Beaulieu’s family “fell apart” because of drugs, according to Beaulieu.
“I was ignorant of drug addiction and of what it does to the whole family,” she said, adding that she attended the 12-week Stewart-Marchman-Act Family Education Program. “Vicki Kress brought me to reality. ... It has been priceless.”
“When I was in active addiction, I had no idea that my addiction affected everyone in my life,” Laura Cyr said. “(But) today, I can say my recovery has renewed my relationship with my family. I can now proudly say I am a good mother, good sister and good daughter.
“The person I am today is not the person I was just a few years ago,” she added. “It can be done. ... It’s worth it.”
Visit floridarecoverymonth.com, or call Victoria Kress, at 254-1241.