A Life Reclaimed: Jen Brown Shares Her Strength
In just four years of sobriety, Jen Brown has mentored, encouraged, or guided hundreds of women in recovery, from Portland, Maine, to Tampa, Florida.
“I moved to Tampa a year ago and hit the ground running,” Jen says. “I wanted to take everything I learned in Portland and make a difference here. The gift of sobriety allows me to be of service. Someone comes in broken, and six months later, the light is back in their eyes. Someone saved my life, and I want to do the same for others.”
But Jen has also lost people, including someone she had been closely supporting. “Her mom called me asking why, and I didn’t have the answers,” she says. Jen eventually found herself disassociating from the pain. Through therapy, she realized her depression was partly due to Maine’s long winters. The Florida sunshine made a difference.
Even so, moving to Florida seasonally wasn’t an easy decision because her three kids live in Maine.
“My ex-husband and I decided together,” Jen says. “I took a full year to plan, so my kids wouldn’t get hurt. I brought each of them down separately to see what it would be like when they visit, and I come back in the summers. My ex is an amazing dad and co-parent, and his girlfriend loves my kids.”
Jen’s journey into addiction started early. At 14, she had her first drink and realized she couldn’t stop. “What I came to understand in recovery is that I’d been thinking alcoholically my whole life,” she says. “I used alcohol to avoid feelings.”
After high school, Jen majored in Communications at the University of Southern Maine. “Truth be told, I majored in drinking and frat parties,” she says. Her five-year relationship ended after she discovered her partner’s inappropriate behavior online, and she turned to alcohol to cope with the heartbreak. Later, she married, had twin daughters, and got addicted to pain medication after back surgeries.
During the pandemic, financial pressures forced her family to move in with her in-laws. Feeling trapped, Jen turned to drugs.
“Within six months, I was knocking on death’s door,” she says. After being sent to a motel, her husband texted, saying she’d never see her kids again. That was the wake-up call Jen needed. “I looked in the mirror, and it looked like the devil staring back at me. I called the cops on myself and went into detox.”
The detox facility suggested sending her to Florida for treatment. “I said I couldn’t leave my kids, but truthfully, I’d left them a long time before,” she says. Her kids encouraged her to go, and what was supposed to be 30 days turned into seven weeks that changed her life.
“I hadn’t realized alcohol was a problem too,” Jen says. “When they gave me a 12-step book, a lightbulb went off, and I realized, ‘I’m an alcoholic.’”
Back in Maine, Jen chose to stay in a sober living residence and involved her kids in her recovery. “I wanted them to understand that being in recovery is a good thing,” she says. One of her daughters even began writing a book about sobriety.
When Jen was about 18 months sober, one of her daughters told her, “When you were drinking and doing drugs, I didn’t trust you. Now, I trust you completely.”