She tries to stay sober despite her drug addiction. Here's what they think would help

Just last month, Jennifer Capannelli woke up realizing there was a war raging in her head.

Part of her wanted to give in and use cocaine, but another part of her knew she couldn't bear to go backwards again.

Meditation and walks with her 10-year-old son are helping calm the struggle now, but she's still fighting to finally end her decades-long drug addiction.

Over the past 24 years, Capannelli has used multiple substances, but was primarily addicted to cocaine. An increasingly toxic drug supply has also meant that her drug tests have all too often revealed a cocktail of substances coursing through her body.

Earlier this month, Capannelli completed a five-week addiction treatment program in Windsor. It's the fourth time she's tried to get sober through an inpatient recovery program, and she hopes it will be her last.

“I wanted to die [this recent] “I had a relapse so I had to walk away,” said the 45-year-old Windsor resident.

“This time I recovered and just knew I had to go somewhere.”

One of the things that has made Capannelli's recovery difficult in the past is that when she completes treatment, she finds herself back in the same environment as before: her mother's house.

And while Capannelli says she's grateful for everything her mother has helped her with over the years, it's hard to cope when she's back in the area where she previously used drugs and overdosed .

“You can’t just go out into the world after treatment,” she said.

“It’s too much of a shock to the system and you collapse. You can’t handle it.”

Addiction is not truly a linear progression and patients are always at risk of relapse while in an inpatient setting.-Dr. Tariq Elsayegh, addiction doctor

That's why she wants Windsor to have more transitional housing for women – housing where people who have just completed residential addiction treatment programs can stay for up to a year after recovery. These spaces often have social workers or treatment counselors who can help people stay on track, teach them to establish routines, and help them get a job, find housing, or reunite them with their children .

Currently, women recovering from addiction in Windsor do not have many transitional housing options.

House of Sophrosyne, a recovery center for women, has a unit where a woman who is pregnant, has children or is working to regain custody of her children can stay for up to a year. The Brentwood Recovery Home now has space for 11 women. Hiatus House, a women's shelter, is currently working to build a 40-unit transitional housing building in the area.

Every person's recovery journey is different, says an addiction doctor

It's difficult to know the exact tools that will help someone recover successfully, emphasizes addiction medicine physician Dr. Tariq Elsayegh. That's because every case is so different.

The substances the person is addicted to, coupled with the mental health issues they may be suffering from, mean everyone's recovery path looks different, he said. Elsayegh, who runs the Downtown Wellness addiction medicine clinic in Windsor, added that it also depends on whether the person has housing, a strong support network and access to medical services.

“Any inpatient stay sets you up for success, but that needs to be continued with long-term follow-up,” Elsayegh said.

“Addiction is not really a linear progression and patients are always at risk of relapse while in an inpatient setting.”

He added that there is also no real clear timeline for how long it will take for the addiction to stop somewhere – he stressed that it depends on living conditions, drug use and further treatment.

As for transitional or supportive housing, he agreed that's an important part of the conversation because it's typically a group of people working toward the same goal: staying sober.

Elsayegh's practice focuses on breaking down barriers as much as possible so people can easily access the support they need, whether with safe substance use or recovery. But he notes that dealing with addiction has only become more difficult in recent years, and COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem.

Regional initiative to support homeless and addiction support centers

This week, leaders of health and addictions organizations in Windsor said they will use a pool of money the province is providing to improve regional support for homelessness and addiction treatment.

In an effort to move away from drug consumption and treatment centers where people could use substances under supervision, the government will now focus exclusively on recovery options. Last month, the provincial government announced it would fund Homelessness Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) centers across Ontario.

The province will fund 19 of these hubs and is accepting proposals for 10 of them.

According to City of Windsor Health and Human Services Commissioner Andrew Daher, this hub will help increase the number of transitional or supportive housing units available. So he talked about people waiting for treatment.

“There's no way for people to get out, whether it's the hospital or…” [the Homelessness and Housing Help Hub] or the prison system to actually go into some kind of supportive housing,” he said.

“Where [the HART hub] will be really effective and, assuming they want to receive the services and support, this will give them a path forward now. There will be a bed, there will be units available so someone can get the services and support they need and not be released back onto the streets.”

And while Capannelli believes this is an important time to make sure people have support, she says it's also important that those coming out of addiction treatment also have a place to turn.

She says giving them a routine and teaching them life skills can help slowly reintegrate them into everyday life.

“Because of all the chemicals I've put into my body, and I'm embarrassed to say this, you literally lose interest in being a mother. The drug becomes more important than your child and I hate to say that,” she said.

She wants time to “make the transition just to be a mother.”

But without that support, Capannelli is now back with her mother. She says this time she is learning from her past relapses to move forward. For her, that means cutting certain people out of her life, regularly attending anonymous drug talks, spending time with her family, and leaning on support rather than isolating herself when she feels like she's going off the rails.

“I have hope and I see the sunlight at the end of the tunnel – not too much, I’m not going to lie – but I know it will get better.”