‘HIGH ACHIEVER’ – THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF ONE ADDICT’S DOUBLE LIFE

I spent the last couple of days (this was a very quick read) plowing through a memoir by Tiffany Jenkins: High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict’s Double Life

Through lies and ingenuity, Jenkins managed to stay high on opioids for several years while living with a sheriff’s deputy, but her desperate acts result in her withdrawing on the floor of the county jail, surrounded by her boyfriend’s friends. And this is where the memoir begins! The following pages detail her journey from a secret junkie to an extremely unpopular inmate to, finally, a life of sobriety.

The first part of the book reads a lot like Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. From the setting in the county jail, Jenkins takes the reader back in time as she remembers her first pill and the consequences.

Her boyfriend had known she struggled with addiction but believed she was clean. She moved in with him hoping that would keep her sober.

“But addiction is a sneaky bitch. It doesn’t care who you’re dating, who you love, if you have kids, a job, or goals. It doesn’t care who you were or who you plan to be. It creeps up when you least expect it, consumers your thoughts and, eventually your life.”

Besides being jawdropping and cringeworthy in how far this woman went to get her fixes and keep her dealers paid, I appreciated this book for teaching me more about addiction and how it works.

For example, she could not go more than 5 hours without her body going into excruciating pain from the withdrawal. At that point if she had no more pills she would do anything to get one. The withdrawal symptoms as they are described seem like the worst hangover ever times 10. At these points she wanted to die and would choose getting another pill (at any cost) to having to experience these symptoms and therefore admitting where she was in her addiction to others.

This was an interesting and inspiring read for anyone who may need to know there is hope in a situation or anyone who wants to better understand addiction.