Successful business owner, writer, volunteer, wife, mom, grandma, lost Christian, addict. In October 2012, Lori Gottula was all of those things. She and her husband, Randy, had owned the only grocery store in Falls City, Nebraska, for more than twenty-two years. Lori had written feature articles for the Falls City Journal for fifteen years. The couple was very visible in the community. To the outside world, it looked like they had it made. But Lori was suffering from a chronic back condition, for which doctors had no answers. As a result, she became addicted to prescription painkillers. "Behind closed doors, I was taking medication that stole my soul so gradually that I had no idea anything was even happening to me," the author said. In addition, she was addicted to people-pleasing, alcohol, food, and codependent relationships. "I had gained nearly one hundred pounds in twelve years, and couldn't even walk to the end of my block," Lori said. "But it was the codependent relationships, primarily with friends, that nearly killed me. My life had spiraled out of control." A counselor told her in 2011, that if she didn't get help for her addictions, she wouldn't be alive in a year. In 2012, she truly hit rock bottom. Broken and Chained: My First Thirty Days in the Hell Called Detox tells her story in raw, gut-wrenching detail. It is a must-read for anyone whose soul has been broken by the chains of any addiction, or for loved ones who need to understand.
In 2012, Lori L. Gottula was a wife, mom, grandma, successful business owner, community leader-and opiate addict. She became dependent upon painkillers because of a chronic back condition, but is proof that opioid addiction can happen to anyone, even those who wear the most convincing of masks. Addiction is a national epidemic that knows no social or economic boundaries. Broken and Chained: My First Thirty Days in the Hell Called Detox shows, in gut-wrenching detail, Gottula's freefall to rock bottom, and her first thirty days in detox. It also includes revelations about her functional alcoholism, food addictions, and codependent relationships, and details the grit it takes to break free. It is an extremely difficult road, but in the end, Gottula finds hope, peace, life, and joy. She gives God the glory for all. Broken and Chained is neither a textbook about drug abuse nor a self-help guide with how-to exercises. It is a very personal, raw testimony that has universal connections. Everyone is weighed down by<