Talk Addiction: The Social Media Experiment|Mary Beth O'Connor
Mary Beth's Story
Mary Beth's journey through childhood abuse and other traumatic experiences eventually led her down the path of substance use disorder. Starting with alcohol at the tender age of 12, she spiraled into years of drug abuse, eventually discovering methamphetamine at 16 and progressing to injection at 17. Mary Beth grappled with meth addiction until she reached the age of 32.
Through a personalized, non-faith-based recovery plan, Mary Beth amalgamated insights from various sources, ultimately achieving sobriety in 1994. This approach also helped her address the trauma and its associated anxiety.
Now, as a distinguished board member for both LifeRing Secular Recovery and the She Recovers Foundation, Mary Beth advocates for diverse routes to recovery, while also shedding light on a multitude of subjects related to substance use disorder and rehabilitation. Her scope of advocacy extends to issues like sexual abuse, rape, childhood maltreatment, domestic violence, PTSD, anxiety, and the process of recovery from these experiences.
Mary Beth's acclaimed memoir, "From Junkie to Judge: One Woman's Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction," is accessible on various platforms including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bamm, Indie Bound, and local bookstores. Additionally, her thought-provoking essays have been featured in esteemed publications such as The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Recovery Today.
In her professional journey, six years into recovery, Mary Beth embarked on her legal education at Berkeley Law. She went on to work at a prominent Silicon Valley firm before engaging in the litigation of class actions for the federal government. In 2014, she was appointed as a federal Administrative Law Judge, a role she held until her retirement in 2020.