“It’s possible to get better”

Tiffany Jones has a tattoo on her left forearm that says My Brother’s Keeper. “To me, it represents my need to give back to those who are struggling with mental health or addiction, because I can relate," Tiffany said.

About 10 years ago, Tiffany was a Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center client, struggling with her own mental health. Today, she is a Peer Behavioral Health Specialist with the Bert Nash Center Supportive Housing team.

The road to how she got to where she is now was traumatic and painful. It included the loss of her stepsister and her grandfather, a marriage that ended in divorce, toxic relationships, drugs, manic episodes, and two suicide attempts. From the time she was 21 until she was 27, Tiffany was hospitalized at least 10 times. Her first suicide attempt was six years ago.

“I had given up,” Tiffany said. “I was coping by drinking and partying. My dad called me and said why are you partying so much. Someday when you have kids you’ll understand," he said. "Ever since I could remember, I wanted to be a mom. I thought, I don’t want to pass this on. And it broke me. I came up with a plan and two days later I did it. I took a lot of pills, like hundreds. I was so toxic, because I had taken so much. I was in a coma for five and half days. They said on day two I would never make it. If I did, I was going to be vegetable. They asked my family to take me off life support.”

Five and a half days later, she woke up.

“I took a nap that changed my life forever,” Tiffany said. “I feel like I am alive for a purpose. That’s where my faith comes from. I asked God, if you have a purpose for me, save me. If not, let me come to you. That’s all I asked. I woke up and I remembered what I had prayed.”

Tiffany continued to struggle for the next two or three years. She was delusional. She thought everyone was out to get her. Her second suicide attempt put her back in the hospital. The last time she was hospitalized was June 5, 2017.

When Tiffany first came to the Bert Nash Center as a client, she was going through a rough time. She was a smoker at the time, and she was outside of the Center when Amy Hammer, a therapist on the Bert Nash Dialectical Behavior Therapy team, saw her.

“I was losing it,” Tiffany said. “My emotions were all over the place. Amy said, ‘Oh, honey,’ and gave me a hug and I just hugged on her. I didn’t want to let go. She said, ‘Tiffany, I’m a DBT therapist and I think you could benefit from it.’ I didn’t know what DBT was at the time. But I went to groups and individual therapy with Amy. Amy Hammer, I feel like, saved me.”

Tiffany has bipolar disorder, but it doesn’t define who she is. “I say I have it; it’s not who I am,” she declared.

Fast forward years later, and Tiffany is a Peer Support Specialist through the Douglas County Peer Fellowship program, the position she started began at the Bert Nash Center. She recently reached out to Amy Hammer and asked if she remembered her.

“She said, ‘I do and you’re doing so well.’ I said thank you, you were one of the first ones who grabbed onto me,” Tiffany said. “That’s what it’s about. That’s why I’m passionate about it. That’s why I love working here. It’s more than a job; it’s something I really care about. So, now when I work in crisis, I can really relate to those people. I tell people, even if you feel like it will never get better, it can. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can happen. It’s possible to get better.”

Tiffany got better. She is now remarried, to the man who was her first boyfriend. They have a 2-year-old girl she calls her little miracle.

“He’s so supportive,” she said of her husband. “We support each other. It doesn’t mean I don’t have down days, but I don’t have delusional days. I just appreciate life. If I do have to get help, I always tell my husband, I’ll let you know.”

Tiffany feels like she has come full circle.

“God bless a broken road, you know,” she said, “because we’re here.”