Thrive’s peer supporters walk alongside individuals as they work to build lives rooted in recovery, stability, and self-sufficiency. As a Peer Supporter integrated at Mended Reeds, Misty Breedlove has supported one peer across multiple chapters of her recovery journey, including the past year with Thrive. This story, shared through Misty’s experience with the peer, reflects years of persistence and the powerful difference that consistent support, accountability, and a safe environment can make when someone is ready to build a different life.
Misty has known the peer for approximately four years, having worked with her at other treatment centers before reconnecting with her at Mended Reeds. Throughout that time, the peer had become familiar with nearly every aspect of the recovery process. She had participated in numerous treatment programs, specialty programs, boot camps, and periods of incarceration. She knew the language of recovery and understood what she was supposed to do.
Knowing recovery, however, was different from being able to build a life around it.
The peer had spent much of her life surrounded by substance use and prostitution. From a young age and throughout much of her adult life, that environment had shaped how she survived and earned money. When she entered treatment, she would often complete programs successfully, only to return to the same circumstances that had contributed to her substance use.
For years, she viewed the lifestyle she knew as a form of independence.
She knew how to survive on the streets. She knew how to find food, clothing, and money. She knew how to take care of herself without relying on anyone else. But the independence she had developed was rooted in survival rather than stability, and returning to that lifestyle repeatedly placed her recovery at risk.
Misty understood that breaking that cycle would require addressing more than substance use.
During this chapter of the peer’s recovery, Misty began having conversations with her about the importance of building a life where she could feel safe, respected, and proud of herself. The conversations were difficult at times, particularly because the lifestyle the peer had known for years had also provided an immediate source of income.
But Misty continued encouraging her to consider what true independence could look like.
This time, something began to change.
Rather than returning to the streets after completing treatment, the peer decided to remain in the area and continue building her recovery. She began working—not one job, but two. For approximately four or five months, she maintained employment while continuing to work toward greater stability.
Then came a milestone that Misty had hoped to see for years. The peer graduated from the program and moved into her own apartment.
For the first time in her life, she had a home that was truly hers. She was no longer living in a tent, a shed, someone’s backyard, or with someone who could jeopardize her safety and recovery. She had a place of her own where she could begin creating a life on her terms.
The apartment was modest. When she first moved in, she had an air mattress and a television. But to the peer, those things represented something much greater than their material value. They represented a beginning.
Misty watched as the peer’s confidence grew. Someone who had once been accustomed to surviving day-to-day was now taking pride in her home and thinking about the kind of environment she wanted to create. She began developing a stronger sense of responsibility and accountability, not only for herself but for the recovery environment around her.
Misty even noticed the peer encouraging others who were newer to recovery.
When she saw another woman struggling, she spoke up and encouraged her to make choices that would protect her recovery. She was beginning to recognize behaviors she had once struggled with herself and use her own experience to help others avoid similar pitfalls.
For Misty, witnessing that transformation was especially meaningful. She remembered when the peer was the person others worried would return to the streets as soon as she walked out of treatment. There had been a familiar pattern: treatment, release, a return to the streets, and eventually another period of incarceration or treatment.
This time, the peer chose something different. She chose continued support. And, perhaps most importantly, she chose herself.
Misty recognizes that structure and accountability remain important parts of the peer’s recovery. Because of their established relationship, she will continue supporting her through Thrive’s community-based services. Maintaining that connection will provide the peer with continued sober support as she adjusts to life outside of a structured treatment environment.
For the peer, this next chapter is about learning how to live independently while maintaining the connections and accountability that help her remain grounded in recovery.
For Misty, it is the continuation of a story she has been rooting for over several years.
The peer’s journey is a powerful reminder that recovery is not simply about knowing the right answers or completing a treatment program. It is about creating a life where those lessons can become part of everyday living. After years of surviving through circumstances that repeatedly pulled her back into addiction, the peer is beginning to experience a different kind of independence—one built on employment, housing, stability, healthy relationships, and self-respect.
Her first apartment may have started with nothing more than an air mattress and a television, but it represents something much bigger: a foundation. And for the first time, the peer is not simply leaving treatment and hoping for a different outcome. She is actively building one.
