Cenikor<\/a> rehab facility on Cantwell Street, counselors say they hope more homeless veterans seek treatment before more lives are lost.<\/p>\nScott Bullard is one of those veterans who finally walked through the doors looking for help. The former Marine says unresolved trauma after returning home in 1997 led to years of alcohol and drug addiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe night that I got home from the Marine Corps in 1997, driving up the Harbor Bridge I put my first line of cocaine up my nose and it destroyed me for 25 years,\u201d Bullard said. \u201cIt was very progressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bullard said addiction eventually cost him his family, his housing and his dream of working in law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the guy behind eating out of a Whataburger dumpster,\u201d Bullard said. \u201cI know a lot of people wouldn\u2019t say that here on the news but I was that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Counselors at Cenikor say many veterans entering treatment are determined to rebuild their lives once they commit to recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sit down and they tell me, \u2018What do you need from me? What do I do? Help me move forward,\u2019\u201d veterans counselor Caitlyn Bailey said. \u201cWhen we go through the different steps and goals they set their mind to it and they do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior Regional Director Crystal Aguilar said asking for help is often the hardest step.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always applaud people who walk through our doors who are brave enough to ask for help or come in for services because there\u2019s a lot of people out there unfortunately still struggling,\u201d Aguilar said.<\/p>\n
Bullard is now continuing his recovery at home while searching for work and training for marathons as he focuses on his future.<\/p>\n
After years of running from addiction, he said he is finally running toward something better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How one Corpus Christi man fought back after 25 years of addiction and homelessness CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-294026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}