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LANE COUNTY, Ore. - A Brownsville woman shares how she went from struggling with homelessness to a newly published author.
Stephanie Koontz looks back on old photo's from her teen years at age 14, she developed bulimia, an eating disorder characterized by throwing up food to avoid weight gain.
Koontz said having this control over her body became an addiction that soon led to drinking. “By the time I was 18, I was drinking and throwing up each and every day,” Koontz said. Koontz battled her addictions for years, but then tragedy struck. Her four-year-old daughter Carly died from health complications related to ulcerative colitis. Koontz buried herself further in her addictions. "I gave up on life and that's when I was drinking rubbing alcohol and hand sanitizer every day and I was having seizures from alcohol withdrawals,” she said.
Koontz says in the 15 years she battled her addictions, she faced homelessness and run-ins with the law. But it was after her second child was born that she finally found herself ready to make a change. It was an intervention at her church that started her on the path to recovery. "I was sick of being sick, and I fell to my knees and I begged God to help me." After six years of sobriety, Koontz started pouring words onto a page instead, publishing her book "A Wretch Like Me." "It's always been on my heart to write it because bulimia is such a lonely addiction,” she said. “I know so many people keep it a secret and I know for a fact that secrets keep you sick." Koontz is now married and a mother of three boys. "My children are definitely the reason I wanted to change my life. I knew that Carly was up in heaven, and I know that I'm going to see her someday.” From the streets to the shelves, helping people, one page at a time.
Koontz's book "A Wretch Like Me" is available on Amazon.
You can go to her website thewretchedredeemed.com for more information.