Woman’s path to sobriety inspires alcoholics to change

It was 7½ years ago in bed No. 24 at a WestCare detox facility that Heather Frost reclaimed her life from alcoholism.

“I got my life back in bed No. 24,” she says. “I have no idea where my life would be (otherwise).”

Frost not only faced her addiction and ventured on the road to recovery, but she became the director of residential services for WestCare and has helped other women down the same path.

For more than 40 years, the organization has offered substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation and detoxification shelter.

At the Las Vegas Women and Children’s campus, the nonprofit offers substance abuse treatment for pregnant adults, outpatient counseling, family support groups, temporary housing, intake services available 24/7, individual and group counseling, drug and alcohol assessments, and health education and prevention.

WestCare also offers a place for homeless youth and domestic minor human trafficking victims.

Many of the women Frost sees daily would never know she once walked in their shoes.

“Everyone has a story,” she says. “Everyone has something they dealt with.”

Frost was a home drinker, thinking her lies were hidden behind the safety of her door.

“At least I thought I hid it,” she says. “You never think the cat is out of the bag.”

Through a DUI, being arrested and constantly letting her family down, which included her two children, her life swerved out of control under her addiction.

“It was Dec. 1 and I remember thinking, ‘All I need to do is make it to Jan. 1,’ ” she says, referring back to 2006. “Either something was going to shift or I was going to kill myself.”

New Year’s Eve in 2006, Frost made up her mind that suicide was the only option.

“I woke up in the morning, and I don’t even know how I got home,” she says.

Frost did something she still can’t believe.

“I called my ex-husband and told him I needed to get sober,” she says. “There is no way I would have called him.”

She says it must have been a higher power who prompted her to call.

When people are in the grips of their disease, Frost says, getting from point A to point B isn’t as easy as it seems.

“To everyone else it seems obvious,” she says. “But when you’re trapped in a snow globe, you’re paralyzed.”

Frost moved from the WestCare detox center to a residential recovery program known as We Care Foundation, a private nonprofit that helps women with sober living.

“It was a lot of love and a ton of honesty,” she says. “Women would tell you they think you’re fabulous but a crappy mom. It’s that brutal honesty that saved my life. If it would have been any gentler, I would have died.”

Frost began to face her demons, make amends with her family, own up to her addiction and come to terms with many of the secrets that came from alcoholism.

“You had to face the things you swore to God you would take to the grave,” she says.

Part of the journey was also reclaiming her self-worth. Frost acknowledges leaning on a higher power in her life to get her through the obstacles she faced on the road to sobriety.

“God removed places, people and things that kept me from him,” she says.

In her recovery program, Frost realized she wasn’t alone and that many people went through the same issues she did. But those realizations did not make it easy.

“It’s like the movie ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,’ ” she says. “There is this scene where there is a bottomless pit and he doesn’t know how to cross it.”

But as it turned out, there was a way to cross — in the movie there was an optical illusion that concealed the narrow path.

“He throws the dirt to show part of the path,” Frost continues. “For me, God revealed just part of the path for me to see. The rest was faith.”

During her time in her recovery program, she worked as a concierge.

“I took odd jobs so I could focus on my recovery,” she says.

But with a background in capital campaigns and fundraising, she had the expertise to eventually take on bigger jobs.

About two years into her sobriety, WestCare hired her.

Starting as the deputy director of recovery, she wrote grants, raised money and performed other tasks.

“It really helped me grow and learn,” she says.

But that’s not where her passion is.

“I get to watch the light come on in someone’s soul,” she says. “That is the best part of my job.”

Frost adds she also loves watching staff change and grow.

Alyson Martinez, the deputy director over the women and children’s campus, says working with Frost has been inspiring.

“I very much look up to her,” she says. “You see this strong, independent woman who has gone through trials and tribulation yet sits up straight and commands a room in a very powerful way. It’s very powerful for me to witness.”

Martinez knows Frost’s story has helped many clients.

“From Day One, I’ve seen her take time out of the day to know the women’s stories on a personable level,” she says. “She always speaks the truth even if it’s difficult to say because they need to hear it.”

Martinez says Frost inspires her staff as much as she inspires her clients.

“To see her and all she has done makes me think I have so much more to accomplish,” she says.

Staff members are often surprised by Frost’s past.

“The other day, someone noticed my (sobriety) chip,” she says. “They told me, ‘It gives me hope that someone with the mind of an alcoholic woman can maintain the job and rethink differently.’ It was the sweetest thing I’ve heard in a long time.”

Because she has been where they once were, Frost can help clients be honest and own up to harsh realities, such as leaving behind children to get drugs and alcohol or exchanging sex for a fix.

No matter how many steps forward she takes, Frost says she never forgets her journey.

Every year for New Year’s Eve, she gathers with her family to celebrate her recovery and the people who have made it possible.

“My kids are my oxygen,” she says. “Without a doubt, they were a huge part of my recovery.”

Contact reporter Michael Lyle at mlyle@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5201. Follow @mjlyle on Twitter.