How Shawn Pasch went from struggling with addiction to leading others to sobriety

2016 is already off to a great start for the recovery industry. There are exciting things happening all around the world with the addiction recovery community. Even many of the presidential candidates understand how important the addiction issue is and have made it a point to address it. It has been a busy month so far at the Ascent headquarters as well with the launch of the Ascent solution, the hiring of our first wave of peer coaches and the partnering of our first few treatment centers, whom will be announced soon.

Amongst all of the exciting news, we want to continue to profile our amazing peer recovery coaches. Without their commitment and passion for helping others, the success of the Ascent solution would not be possible.

This week, we are telling the story of Shawn Pasch. Shawn is from Sandusky, Ohio and studied at the University of Toledo. He has two daughters, a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old.

 

 

Shawn had a rough childhood because his father wasn’t around very often and his mother was an alcoholic. He had a hard time trusting people growing up because of this. “My mom was mentally, emotionally and physically abusive,” said Shawn. “That’s pretty much how my early childhood went until I was 16 years old and my grandparents bought me a car.”

It was at this point that Shawn stayed away from home as much as he could. He would be constantly searching for the love and attention missing from his life in all of the wrong places. Unfortunately, Shawn filled those voids with drugs and alcohol. He continued to use for the next 18 years. “I hurt a lot of people along the way,” said Shawn. “The ones that loved me the most. My grandparents, my mom, my children.” Shawn reached such a low point that he even attempted suicide.

It was at this time that Shawn finally began reaching out to others in order to turn his life around. He prayed and got help from positive connections that ended up leading him to sobriety in 2009. In a couple of weeks, Shawn will be celebrating seven years sober! “What I chose to start doing from that time is helping people that have that hopelessness that I had,” said Shawn. “Today I know that recovery is possible.”

Shawn was able to completely turn his life around and is now able to help others do the same through Ascent. “When I heard what Ascent was doing, of course I was all in,” said Shawn. “Today, I have a passion for sharing with people how to recover and that recovery is possible. I bring hope that I myself at one point didn’t have and what I want to do is to share that hope with people and walk that journey with them.”

We are grateful to have peer recovery coaches like Libby and Shawn working for Ascent and can’t wait to see what they are able to do for our clients. Each new treatment center that signs on with Ascent will bring a whole new group of people for our coaches to help.

Shawn is thankful for the people he had in his life who helped him turn it around when he was at his lowest point. Now he–and the rest of Ascent’s peer recovery coaches–is prepared to do the same for every client of Ascent.

For more information about the Ascent solution, visit Ascent.org or contact . Whether a treatment facility, person looking for post-rehab assistance, media member or potential peer recovery coach, feel free to reach out for more information.

Check back here often for updates and more stories from our peer coaches.