Today we’d like to introduce you to Britney Baier.
Britney, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am born and raised here in Alaska I am a fourth-generation Tlingit Indian. I was raised in an Alcoholic home and surrounded by a lot of violence growing up. I am the oldest of 4 and I spent my childhood years raising my younger siblings. I spent my spare time dancing and playing softball. Those were the times I felt the most free. I was sexually molested from the ages of 6-10 and I never told anyone. That shame brought me to loosing my virginity at 12 and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. By the time I was 13 I was sneaking out and putting myself in dangerous situations to try and feel loved. I was raped at 13 and left at a party where people from school saw me naked, drunk and bloody..I was then the slut of the school. My high school career was basically ruined. I just turned more and more to drugs and alcohol. When I was 16 years old I came home and my mother had read my journal and found out that I was pregnant. She forced me to get an abortion. So then there was more shame and I just kept bearing it and wanting to drowned out even more, I went through a period where I wanted to die. As time went on I found myself very much addicted to drugs I got my first DWI when I was 18, I got another one when I was 20 and I moved to Arizona when I was 21 where I was badly beaten and left for dead by a man I started dating. At 23 I had my daughter I thought that she would save me and that I would finally get clean and sober but that wasn’t the case. By the time I was 26 years old I had three children who I had lost to the state of Alaska. I eventually found myself being forced to prostitute on the streets of California. I never thought I was going to make it home… Until one man helped me escape and come back home. I finally hit my bottom when I woke up one morning and realized I had nothing, my children were gone, my family had disowned me, and I hated the person I saw in the mirror. I decided to go to treatment in at the treatment center I got on my knees and I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. When I got up off the floor I was a different human being, absolutely determined to get my children back! When I graduated from treatment, I got pregnant with another son. Today I am seven years clean and sober, I have custody of all my children, I bought my childhood home that used to be my nightmare, Where I make new, sober memories with my family.I married the man of my dreams who also has seven years clean and sober. I have a life today that is second to none! I have a job that I absolutely love, I am a certified radio marketing consultant where I get to build relationships with all the local businesses in my community. I am involved in many different nonprofit organizations that spread hope and awareness for addiction recovery and human trafficking.. I am a women’s mentor here in my community and I help other women get clean and sober and get their children back. It doesn’t matter how deep down the scale you have gone there’s always hope if you choose to surrender. I am so incredibly grateful for the life I have today! My sobriety date is 12-22-14!!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have definitely been struggles along the way. I had to relearn how to be a good human being. I had to learn how to be a mom, a wife, a coworker, a friend, a sister, a daughter, I had to re-learn how to be a functioning successful member of society. Alcohol told me when you get up in the morning, it told me where I was gonna live, it told me who was gonna be my friends, it told me when to eat… I go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly where I get to be around people just like me. I surround myself with godly human beings and people that I want to be like.
Some of my family members did not like the fact that I got sober, so I am not very close with some of my family members like I wish I could be. But setting healthy boundaries is so important and if they are not for me and my recovery then I’m better off without them.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a certified radio marketing consultant and I work for KSRM Radio Group on the Kenai Peninsula. I absolutely love my job! I love that I get to build relationships with my community and the people in it. I love that I get to help them boost their businesses, I have such a love for people so this profession definitely fits me. I absolutely love being a radio talent and I get to share my life, my silliness, my authenticity with my community through radio and I love it!
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I am pretty much an open book everybody knows my story, because I truly believe your story and your testimony sets you free. I speak at many different conferences about shame, human trafficking and I use my story to spread hope. So it’s kind of hard to find something that people don’t know about me… I guess one thing people don’t really know, is that I love writing poetry And I have been doing it since I learned how to write.
Contact Info:
- Email: Britney@radiokenai.com
- Website: ChooseRCVRY.com
- Instagram: Radiogirlksrm
- Facebook: Britney Baier
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