If you have breath in your lungs, you can change your life for the better.
Instagram: higgy02.0
Recovery date: 1/11/2025
Drug of choice: Alcohol, Heroine and Crack
Facebook: Higgy
“Robin Higginbotham, come out with your hands up. We have you surrounded.” The officer’s voice came through the megaphone as it pierced my soul. I had just got back from a 2-day shopping spree with stolen credit cards. I was surrounded by a roomful of stolen merchandise that I had intended to trade for crack and heroin. I was already sick from opiate withdrawal and full of fear when this life-changing event happened in 2007.
Like a good addict, I refused to come out and was looking for an escape while begging God to save me from the consequences of my own decisions. My foxhole prayer worked out, but not in the way I had asked for.
God had other plans….
I opened the door, and the sheriff walked in and explained to me that the person who was my driver and accomplice had turned me in to avoid prosecution. Shaking already from withdrawing, my anxiety and self-disgust went into overdrive. How had I gotten here to this newfound low in my addiction?
I was indicted on 34 felonies, facing 44 yrs.
I wasn’t just arrested in 2007; I was rescued. God saved me from myself and my destructive behaviors. While incarcerated, 12 people from my circle overdosed or passed away from the drug and criminal lifestyle. No doubt, I could have become a statistic also.
I ended up with a sentence of 4yrs 11 months, which was a plea agreement. In Ohio, anything under 5 yrs you can get out early for judicial release to go to drug treatment. I needed that.
After almost 2 years of incarceration, I was sent to a Community-based treatment facility where I spent 6 months.
From detoxing in a jail cell to walking a prison yard, I had to learn to accept my role in my predicament, learning to sit with myself, be comfortable in my own skin with my crazy thoughts. God made it very clear my life wasn’t over as I had originally thought.
Upon release from prison, I was scared. I was a felon for the first time ever. I got involved with a mentoring program in Columbus, Ohio. From there, I volunteered for a Community Action agency in Columbus called IMPACT Community Action, which turned into a full-time position as a case manager for the Emergency Services dept.
That’s where I found my passion and purpose for helping people. The rest is history, and I’ve never looked back professionally.
Today, I am the CEO and owner of “A Vision For Veterans Inc.” where I employ homeless veterans to take care of a 10-acre hospital campus. I am also the CEO of No More Heroin 501c3 nonprofit.
I share this with you to show that if you have breath in your lungs, you can change your life for the better. We don’t have to stay stuck if we don’t choose to. Fight for your dreams and believe God has a plan for you.
I am so very grateful for those who have supported me, corrected me, and loved me unconditionally throughout the years as I’ve strived to live a life in recovery.
I have lost so many people along the way, and it’s heartbreaking,
My journey has been anything but perfect, and there’s so much more to it, but I keep showing up no matter what.
My story is being rewritten right now… daily, so it’s my responsibility to show up, deal with my wreckage, heal my traumas, and be the man God intended me to be. Not who my addiction said I would always be.
I keep trudging.
I hope you do too!
“I thought I was being buried when in fact I was being planted.”