Jeni’s Rx Awareness Video Transcript

Rx Awareness Long Form Video Transcript

• Candidate: Jeni
• Length: 2 minute and 21 seconds

On-screen text: Prescription opioids can be addictive and dangerous. Jeni: I was abusing prescription opioids.

Audio description: Jeni looks down and picks up a photo of her younger self. Jeni: I had backed away from my culture and I had pushed away from my family because I knew I was doing wrong. Audio description: Jeni looks down and strokes a piece of tribal clothing.

Jeni: I had hit my bottom. I come from a big Tlingit (pronounced CLINK-IT) family. I had learned our traditions at an early age as you do in a small village. I remember all of the things that my grandmother had taught me about being traditional.

Audio description: Jeni plays a tribal instrument.

Jeni: When I was 14, I was raped. I had immediately buried that and became the good child. I wanted to be the perfect child so that I was never left alone.

Audio description: Jeni picks up a photo of her younger self.

Jeni: So I became excellent in sports. I joined all the committees I could at school. The first pill was the problem. I remember thinking that it was from the doctor, so it was okay because the doctor is not going to give you anything that’s not going to heal you.

Audio description: Jeni stands outside and looks at the snow-capped mountains.

Jeni: After the first initial time that I did it, I was like, man, I don’t feel really anything. I don’t feel any pain. Like it masked the problem.

Audio description: Jeni stands outside, looks at the snow-capped mountains, and closes her eyes.

Jeni: And like anything, it starts to not work over time. It was no longer—I’m taking this for fun. It was, I need to have it to function. That’s when I essentially knew that it was a problem.

Audio description: Jeni walks along the edge of a lake and looks out at the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Jeni: And it took me a long time to figure out that from when I had started using to understanding fully that it was an addiction to realize how bad it was.

Audio description: Jeni looks out at the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Jeni: I had everybody fooled that I wasn’t an addict. My biggest thought when I was in active addiction was, that’s how I was going to die.

Audio description: Jeni is stands on the edge of a lake looks out at the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Jeni: I didn’t know where to look. I didn’t know how to ask for help. I didn’t know who I could trust. I had made this point that I was going to reach out for help, and something kept pulling at me, and the little voice kept telling me keep asking, keep asking.

Audio description: Jeni dances with a group of women at a tribal celebration.

Jeni: I had given up at one point and was like I don’t want to practice my culture anymore.

Audio description: Jeni dances with a group of women and plays music at a tribal celebration.

Jeni: And then, when I had fully become in my recovery is when I was, like, this is who I am, this is me. This is my culture and I’m going to practice it. There was a lot of healing with it. And I’m going to carry it on and teach it to whoever I can teach it to.

Narrator: If you or someone you know is struggling, there is hope. Recovery is possible.

On-screen text: There is hope. Recovery is possible. cdc.gov/RxAwareness