DENVER — For years, one Colorado woman thought her life would be forever ruled by methamphetamine and alcohol. After battling addiction, she’s helping save the lives of people facing the same battle.
Kristabell Stansbury recently opened a treatment and wellness center in the heart of RiNo.
“I experienced homelessness,” Stansbury said. “I experienced domestic violence. I experienced being used in ways I wouldn’t want anybody to be used.”
The heartbreaking pattern started when she was just a kid.
“I was a methamphetamine addict for a while, and then later, I just drank alcohol abusively,” she said.
Stansbury battled addiction for years.
“I got to learn about the way drugs and alcohol react with my brain,” she said. “They light up my brain, they fill receptors and my brain acts a certain way towards the substances that maybe they won’t affect another person.”
Stansbury said that addressing her underlying trauma helped put her on the path to recovery, but learning new things helped her stay there.
She enrolled in a game-changing recovery program that had her volunteer with a business.
“I started with implementing a billing system for someone,” Stansbury said. “I started with these smaller tasks and then I just started building on that... I found out that I was good in this area of being able to put the building blocks together for a business and also being able to bring the perspective to the table of somebody who’s gone through this.”
She opened Chrysalis Continuing Care in November of 2020.
Brett Mendes, who sought treatment at Chrysalis, says the combination of addressing underlying trauma and trying new things has helped him make progress.
These days, he’s more invested in interpersonal relationships, things he says he didn’t prioritize in the past.
“Taking the time to invest in relationships, being willing to promote them in my life to a level of status, a lot of those things are not just valuable, but they’re challenging,” he Mendes.
Stansbury hopes the positive challenges that people face when they’re addressing their addiction at Chrysalis will lead them down a fruitful path.
“There has to be a safe place for people to let down those walls and truly be able to recover,” she says.
To contact Chrysalis Continuing Care, call 1-800-910-3896 or visit Chrysalis' website.
Denver Health also has additional addiction resources.