<\/p>\n
WOODRUFF, Wis. (WJFW)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Bill Shope spent most of his adult life addicted to alcohol and drugs; an addition that grew in college but never truly went away.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I continued down the road of drinking and it escalated eventually to other substances,\u201d Shope said.<\/p>\n
Shope\u2019s substance abuse led him to getting arrested on December 12, 2020 and sent to the Vilas County Jail. Not the first time he\u2019d been in trouble with the law, but he made sure this time would be his last.<\/p>\n
He started his rehabilitation process but needed the help of a local homeless shelter, staying at Frederick Place in Rhinelander. After just 45 days he was back up on his feet, but still felt like he needed to do more.<\/p>\n
Shope said: \u201cBecause so much was freely given to me, I think it\u2019s important that I\u2019m involved and able to give back to the places that helped me get where I\u2019m at today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shope also said the accountability and support at Frederick Place gave him the confidence to start his life again. He started studying substance use disorder counseling at Nicolet College and officially became a licensed counselor at the Majestic Wellness Center in 2024 to help others who are struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill is a fabulous example of how a life can change if you humble yourself just a little bit and say \u2018”Okay maybe I do need a little bit of help and I need that hand up,'” said Abbey Dall Lukowski, Frederick Place Executive Director.<\/p>\n
Shope added: \u201cIt\u2019s not really a hand out, it\u2019s really a hand up. They provide you the tools that you need to actually take the steps to rebuild your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shope says he\u2019s helped around 60 people with substance abuse since getting licensed, but never thought he would be in this position all those years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the last thing I expected to be doing,” he said. “I\u2019m grateful for all that\u2019s been given to me and the opportunity to help other people has been a true blessing in my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WOODRUFF, Wis. (WJFW)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Bill Shope spent most of his adult life addicted to alcohol and drugs; an addition that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[243641,6116,243636,64,63,243635,27461,243643,137,243645,243644,243638,514,243637,515,243639,136230,243640,243642,84092,58906],"class_list":{"0":"post-479491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-abbey-dall-lukowski","9":"tag-addiction","10":"tag-addiction-psychology","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-bill-shope","14":"tag-counseling","15":"tag-frederick-place-executive-director","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-licensed-counselor","18":"tag-licensed-substance-abuse-counselor","19":"tag-majestic-wellness-center","20":"tag-mental-health","21":"tag-mental-health-counselor","22":"tag-mentalhealth","23":"tag-nicolet-college","24":"tag-substance-related-disorders","25":"tag-vilas-county","26":"tag-vilas-county-jail","27":"tag-wis","28":"tag-woodruff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}