There is no aspect of our lives that COVID-19 has not impacted. Addiction is no exception, and in this case, it’s accelerated.

Drug overdose deaths are increasing across the country at an alarming rate during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a year.

Tyrone Thomas and Alonso Woods are recovering drug addicts, and they’re not proud of their past.

“Stealing from my mother was the worst thing I ever did,” Thomas said. “This disease lives in deceit.”

Woods also shared his experience, “I used drugs. I used people. I manipulated. I conned and I stole.”

After decades, they decided to leave the streets and turn to the light, getting help with the Salvation Army’s Harbour Light program. It is an intense, patient substance abuse treatment program that provides free holistic treatment, counseling, and rehabilitation therapy for individuals fighting substance abuse.

This center provides inpatient and outpatient services to more than 200 individuals.

Harbour Light has locations in cities like Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, and Denver.