‘Finally living’ after a 20-year addiction

MITCHELL, S.D. (KELO) – The most commonly abused drug is one that’s easy to access — alcohol. According to a National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 28.9 million people ages 12 and older had alcohol use disorder in 2023.

One Mitchell woman who started drinking as a young teenager is now sharing her journey to sobriety.

These days, Kylee Hanson has some extra twinkle in her eyes.

“It’s just a blessing to be alive and to be happy and genuinely live a good life,” Kylee Hanson said.

For 20 years the light in her eyes was dimmed by addiction.

“I started drinking at the age of 13 and, you know, I always had older friends and my siblings are older so it was easy to get and it’s just kind of what you do in a small town,” Kylee Hanson said. “There’s not a lot to do and it’s pretty common. So I never really considered it a problem, I guess.”

In high school, she started experimenting with drugs.

“I’ve done everything from marijuana, acid, mushrooms. I even tried meth before,” Kylee Hanson said. “I was an all-or-nothing kind of girl. I was down to try anything. I am definitely a thrill seeker.”

Then came college.

“I definitely started drinking a lot more heavily then. I would drink in the morning – morning, noon and night, hard liquor,” Kylee Hanson said. “I ended up getting two DUIs and I spent some time in jail.”

Still, she didn’t see a problem.

“I had a boyfriend and we were together for 10 years and that whole time we just drank and partied really hard,” Kylee Hanson said. “I also have been a bartender since I was 21 years old and so I’ve just kind of lived that lifestyle. It’s just, like I said, what you do around here.”

But then the drinking and marijuana use started taking their toll.

“For many years, I just got violently ill and I just still couldn’t stop. It was terrible,” Kylee Hanson said. “I would throw up days on end, I ended up in the ER so many times. They would basically always tell me the same thing, you know, I’m drinking too much, I’m smoking weed too much.”

She even received a diagnosis.

“I have been diagnosed for years with something called Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome,” Kylee Hanson said. “That’s where the puking, it just comes in cycles for days on end. It’s like you develop some kind of allergy, I guess they would say, for a daily smoker of marijuana, a long-term, daily smoker.”

Kylee’s mom, Dawn, tried pleading with her.

“I just would yell at her and just, you know, ‘why can’t you just quit, you’re going to die!’ I guess until she was ready it wasn’t going to happen,” Dawn Hanson said.

“I had wanted to quit so many times before and I had tried but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t go more than a few days to a week,” Kylee Hanson said.

Eventually, something changed.

“It was just terrible and it’s just, you know, not the way I wanted to live,” Kylee Hanson said. “And I got to a point where, you know, if I was feeling like death every day of my life, I was like then I would just rather die because it’s not any way to live.”

“But I chose to live and I asked for help and I’m just really glad that there was help there for me,” Kylee Hanson said. “My family was there. My mom, I called her on the morning of August 15, 2022, and I said, ‘I’m ready to get help.'”

“I was just so proud of her for calling me and I thought, if she’s calling, I’m going and taking her,” Dawn Hanson said.

Kylee spent a week in the withdrawal management program at the Link in Sioux Falls. After that, she got inpatient and outpatient treatment through Avera.

“Now it’s been over a year since I’ve done anything at all and I’m super happy,” Kylee Hanson said. “I haven’t been sick since and life has been really great.”

“It’s a whole new world, she’s a whole different person,” Dawn Hanson said. “I feel like I had lost her when she was 13.”

Now, Kylee finds thrills through concerts and travel instead of alcohol and drugs.

“I like to still really live life because I’m finally living a life that’s worth living,” Kylee Hanson said. “I’m not scared to let anything hold me back anymore.”

And she has this message for anyone else dealing with their own addictions:

“Some people are scared to share their struggle and I am there to show that, you know, I struggled too, but I made it out,” Kylee Hanson said. “And that’s why I’m there to help anyone else that wants to get out because it’s hard, you know, and it can feel like you’re all alone. You’re not all alone.”

Kylee received a scholarship from Emily’s Hope to help pay for her treatment at Avera. Now her workplace, the bowling alley in Mitchell, carries the Emily’s Hope drug testing strips.

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