For nearly two decades, Annick has known about Our House. Sometimes she’d stay for two weeks or two days, just to find herself coming back the next year. “I was here for the wrong reasons,” Annick says. “I wasn’t ready.”
Annick’s adult life has been rocked by instability. After dropping out of college, losing both of her parents and later her sister, Annick struggled with overwhelming grief: “My parents never got a chance to meet my kids, and my sister struggled so much losing my parents that she drank herself to death.” What began as pain medication eventually became a years-long addiction for Annick, which intensified after a serious car accident. Although there were periods when Annick was able to work and care for her two sons, addiction gradually took control of her life, and she turned to more violent drugs.
Everything changed in 2023 after surviving a fentanyl overdose. “I was dead. It took 28 grams of Narcan to bring me back to life,” Annick says. After being in the hospital for over a week, Annick found herself asking a question she couldn’t ignore: “What would my children think if they found me like this?”
In the time after her overdose, Annick found herself constantly on the move. “I was running,” she says, “but the whole time I wasn’t on anything. I made up my mind that regardless of what I go through, I’m not going back to drugs.” She left a troubled relationship and traveled from Hot Springs to Fayetteville to Searcy, searching for a place that was right for her. After completing some treatment programs and making her way back to Little Rock, she was desperate to come back to Our House.
For two weeks, Annick called Our House every day, hoping a bed would become available. When one finally opened, she arrived with four months of sobriety already behind her and a different outlook than she’d ever had before.
“When I got here, everything just changed for me,” she says.
Over the next two years, Annick embraced the structure and support that had once felt difficult to accept. She found steady employment with help from the Career Center, rebuilt healthy routines, and began saving money. She paid off debts, received long-needed dental care, and worked to strengthen her relationships with her sons. Annick saved up money to fly to South Carolina to watch her youngest son graduate after joining the military—a trip that would have been impossible just a few years earlier.
Annick’s progress did not go unnoticed. She was invited to join Our House’s Community Council, offering ideas to improve the program for future residents, wanting to help strengthen a program that had helped transform her own life.
In April 2026, after two years at Our House, Annick moved into her own apartment. “I cried when I left,” she says. “I was sad to leave here, and I was nervous. I really experienced a lot of trauma. Trauma that’s so hurtful to talk about. But being at Our House, it was just like heaven on earth.”
Today, Annick still stays connected to the Our House team, while continuing her recovery through programs and counseling with UAMS. She has intentionally built a life centered on work, church, family, and the routines that keep her grounded. Her apartment is now her safe haven. Her oldest son lives with her, and she recently welcomed a cocker spaniel named Ollie into the family!
Annick no longer returns to the people and places that once pulled her backward. Instead, she’s focused on what’s ahead: establishing a long-term career, restoring her driver’s license, purchasing a car, and one day buying a home.
Life’s challenges haven’t all disappeared, but the way Annick responds to them has. “Before, anytime I got stressed out I would think that I needed to numb it, “ Annick says. “Now, whether it’s a bill or a bad day, I can deal with it. I just keep going.” Annick is building a life she can be proud of, and she is determined to keep it that way.