11/03/2025
It's November and time for a new Recovery Spotlight of The Month. Introducing Mr. T.J. Dawe
Clean date January 20th 2020
Sheridan Wyoming
County: Sheridan
Employment: Patient Engagement Volunteers of America,
Board member of Created New NOTW
Recovery Pathway: My journey started in Federal Holding in El Paso County Colorado. I was extradited back to Wyoming and spent 18 months in county jail. I came to inpatient treatment in Sheridan. Transitioned to VOA recovery home. I started in Celebrate Recovery and have been involved with CR since. Currently I am a CR leader in Sheridan and work for the same place I came to treatment to.
Story: I feel my story is not much different than so many others. I spent majority of my life in and out of jails and institutions. I can honestly say my addiction to chemicals was daily by the time I was 14. I had good parents who tried their best, but low self-worth and mental health lead me down a path of destruction for years. It all got me to a point in 2020 where I was on the run from felony charges and got arrested by a federal task force team in Colorado. I was under investigation for 61 accounts of online identity fraud. Today I find it interesting because my whole life I was trying to be something I was not. So, I guess one might say what got me in recovery was a case of mistaken identity. Recovery has taught me who I really am. Who God says I am.
I have been placed in many mental health facilities throughout my life for attempts on my life. By the time I got to VOA I again was ready to end my life. In treatment God spoke to me telling me if I truly wanted to die, I could die to self and live for Him. It’s my daily prayer today that my life is proof of this commitment. I jumped into this new life full on. I got involved in Celebrate Recovery in Buffalo Wyoming which is where I met the woman who has taught me what true Godly love is, and she became my wife.
Brooke has been with me through it all. Including going to sentencing where I was literally facing 68 years of jail. As you can tell I had that number suspended and am now under a year away from completing probation. After a year of reintegration, the Lord called me to full time work at the same place completed treatment.
Brooke and I both work in inpatient treatment with the VOA in Sheridan. We both have been trained and work peer specialist roles. She helps bring them to treatment I help keep them in treatment and work at creating a safe place for them to transition to. The Lord used the program of Celebrate Recovery to give me a family, hope, purpose, and connection I never had before. We love our CR family. The picture is Brooke, Greg, Casey, Mac Owen, and me at a CR summit this year in California. I have two awesome children in Powell Wyoming who I am still working at intergrading back into their lives, but I trust God that gift to is coming.
Today I find myself sitting in an office or driving to work and wondering who TJ is. Before recovery I was Travis, today, TJ, yes literally changed my name. Every day I thank the Lord I didn’t take my ability to serve Him in this world. I’m still learning and growing every day. Life still has is valleys, but nothing like to pit and slavery I was once in. Love won! While at CR summit my wife and I felt another call to help create even more long-term stability for people in recovery and out of it came Created New NOTW stay tuned for more on that as it develops in our community. We truly love serving people. Truly love living recovery out loud so people don’t die quietly. Our hope and heart in this life are that no one will suffer alone. That people who suffers can know there is help and they are loved and valued. First by a oh so gracious God and next by the people who love and serve him. If I can say one thing to someone who thinks they are too far gone it, YOU ARE NOT!!! RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE!! YOU ARE LOVED!!! If a lifetime criminal with more mental health diagnosis than the DSM can hold can do it so, can you. Reach out ask for help, get plugged n and loved on, come with us on the journey God intended for your life. Don’t ever stop fighting, don’t ever stop asking, you are loved and worth it. Thank you, Recover Wyoming and all the people we have met there along the way, so proud to call you family. I do need to shout out to Brooke, your faithfulness to both God and me have taught me what true love is. I am forever grateful and proud to call you wife.
