First-year TRU student chronicles four-decade addiction journey she has overcome

“Because of the abuse that I endured, I was very angry. I was very hostile. Nobody was going to hurt me anymore,” she said.

Fabian continued down that path into her adult years, attempting suicide multiple times. It wasn’t until her mid-40s when she began to realize the damage she had caused herself and her family.

“I needed a different point of view in life. I knew my will and my way wasn’t working, so I needed to listen to other people.”

Image Credit: CFJC Today / Chad Klassen

Through word of mouth, the now 48-year-old discovered the Round Lake Treatment Centre near Vernon, an Indigenous-based recovery centre that has changed her life. Today, she is 27 months clean and sober.

“Round Lake helped me identify that shame is put upon you. The names that you’re told, the things your parents may have taught you, not knowing that this may have hurt you in the long run,” Fabian said. “I learned that my parents did the best they could with what they knew how to do. The residential school and the traumas that are inter-generational. Things that were done with my grandparents to my parents to me. I even carried it forward with my children.”

This Sunday (Oct. 27), CFJC is airing a documentary on Round Lake called “Our Stories: Forty Years of Healing Through Culture.” Fabian appears in the half-hour feature that outlines the great work the recovery centre has done to bring Aboriginal peoples out of addiction.

From the time she arrived at the centre more than two years ago, Fabian had a plan to do the treatment, but do it differently this time. She knew she couldn’t go back home to northern Alberta. It was a trigger. She needed a fresh start. She chose Thompson Rivers University as the best fit — both educationally and culturally. She’s in her first semester, working on a social work degree to give back.

“I’ve always wanted to go back to school, and a lot of things, any kind of jobs these days, you have to have a certificate, so that was one of my biggest drives,” she said. “To get sober, to do all the work I needed to do, and to get an education in order for me to give back now the way Round Lake helped me.”

Fabian hopes her story of recovery helps others struggling with addiction.

“Being a part of a society where there’s so much addiction, and where there’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, where our people are still on the streets, sharing my story is huge for me because I do this so somebody else might hear something they might want to have.”

The documentary airs at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 27) on CFJC-TV.

by Chad Klassen

First-year TRU student chronicles four-decade addiction journey she has overcome

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