She Found Out She Was 6 Months Pregnant While Shooting Heroin - Then Couldn't Stop

She Found Out She Was 6 Months Pregnant While Shooting Heroin - Then Couldn't Stop

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol and drugs after years of chaos, loss, and close calls? This episode of *Chasing Heroine* follows Dana’s wild, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful journey from New Jersey party girl to Orange County mum fighting for her life, her kids, and her sanity.

Jeannine Coulter sits down with Dana, whose story starts with a Vietnam vet father addicted to heroin and a childhood split between a quiet countryside home and gritty New York City. Early weed and coke at 15 lead to her first rehab, but things really escalate years later in California when a back injury ushers in prescription opiates.

Within months, she goes from prescribed pain relief to snorting 40 pills a day, then to heroin and meth, while working as a celebrity hairstylist and trying to keep up the façade of the perfect mum.

One of the rawest moments comes when Dana recalls going to A&E, convinced she’s dying, only to be told she’s six months pregnant: “There is a full-on baby… and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what the fuck is that?’” Even then, she can’t stop using, and later faces every parent’s nightmare—child protective services and the threat of permanent adoption.

You’ll hear about multiple rehabs, overdoses, selling dope for the cartel, losing and then slowly rebuilding trust with her children, and the day she finally begged, “If I don’t get sober this time, kill me when I walk out this door.” A sponsor, the 12 steps, and years of hard graft eventually bring her to long-term sobriety, a new career, and a repaired family.

This one is especially helpful if you’re a parent who’s using, someone tangled up with opiates, or you’re supporting a loved one in deep. It might leave you asking yourself: if she can come back from this, what does that say about what’s possible for you?