Jess Neal is a Peer Recovery Coach working with pregnant and parenting mothers in recovery at Project Hope. She knows firsthand the good this Marshall Health program can accomplish—because it helped her overcome a 12-year addiction.
“They built me up from rock bottom to where I am now,” said Neal, who completed treatment in 2023. “I was in a real dark place when I got here, and now I’m like a ray of sunshine. I’m a rainbow.”
A native of Richwood, Neal’s first exposure to drugs came at age 20, when she took painkillers at a party. What began as casual social use quickly spiraled. Within six months, she realized she was addicted. Although she managed to quit pills after two years, Neal then discovered methamphetamine—and everything went downhill, culminating in several months in jail.
Eventually, a Nicholas County Drug Court judge referred Neal to a program in Charleston. But after two months, she fled custody and spent six months on the run. During that time, she became pregnant with her second child.
Fortunately, when the law caught up with her, authorities sent her to Project Hope instead of prison. The program allowed her to keep her daughter and begin her path to sobriety. After six months, she spent another three months at Hope House before moving into her own apartment.
“It’s pretty crazy,” said Neal, who is now working to regain custody of her older daughter. “I didn’t realize how many years went by. I was in the ‘madness’ for 12 years, which is what I call deep addiction.”
Neal admits she didn’t take her recovery seriously at first. But finding her “own village”—others in recovery and staff members from the Marshall Health community—helped her find balance. In her early stages of recovery, she also avoided her hometown and old friends, recognizing the risk of being pulled back into the madness.
In 2024, Neal celebrated her second anniversary of sobriety. Her desire to see others reach the same milestone now drives her. She visits inmates at the regional jail and has helped many transition from incarceration to recovery.
She’s especially grateful for the continued support from Project Hope, including assistance with filing a successful court motion to visit her older daughter—whom she hopes will one day live with her again.
“I’m pretty much living the dream now,” Neal said. “I focus on people who are still in the madness and get them out of the darkness I was once in. That’s what keeps me sober. I’ve already been there and know what it feels like. It’s terrible. That’s what makes me not want to go back to that.”
