PERSONAL JOURNEY: Overcoming addiction, helping others

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It often takes incredible strength to rise above a dysfunctional childhood. Brian Katz was only four when he ended up in the foster care system.

“My dad passed away from a heroin overdose when I was nine years old,” Katz said. “I was 11 when I was adopted by a family in Huber Heights.”

Though his adopted parents provided the most stable home he had ever known, Katz said it was rough going over the years. He was still recovering from the abuse he experienced in foster homes.

While Katz was in high school and attending the allied health program at Miami Valley Career Technology Center, he decided to seek out his biological mother.

“My adopted mom didn’t agree with my decision to reconnect with my biological family,” Katz said. “I was stubborn and working through a lot of trauma.”

In 2005, when Katz was a high school senior, his biological mother passed away. Katz dropped out of school a few months before graduation.

Katz’s grandmother invited him to live with her and before long, he was going out drinking and taking drugs with friends. His biological brother also lived with their grandmother.

“I was socially awkward, and the drinking and drugs took that away,” Katz said.

Though his grandmother was loving and tried her best to care for her grandchildren, she didn’t want to create conflict and allowed Katz and his brother to do whatever they wanted to do.

Then in 2013, Katz’s brother passed away at the age of 16, after contracting an infection caused by using dirty needles. Katz was devastated.

“By the time my brother died, all my friends were drug dealers,” Katz said. “I had started using heroin with my brother.”

The evening Katz’s brother passed away; Katz called the paramedics after his brother said he knew something was badly wrong with him. Two days later, he was removed from life support systems after the infection spread to his organs.

“By this time I had accepted that this was going to be my lifestyle,” Katz said. “I honestly didn’t care if I lived or died. Losing my brother was an agony I carried with me for years.”

In 2014, Katz met the mother of his children — Sierra — at a friend’s house in Middletown. It was love at first sight.

Katz (center) with his daughters Jayla (Left) and Jaymi. His relationship with his children and their mother has improved after he overcame years of his drug addiction struggles.

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“I ended up moving to Middletown with her,” Katz said. “She didn’t like that I was using heroin.”

In 2021, the couple moved to Trotwood and Sierra had been asking Katz to get help and get sober for many years. They had three girls, Jaymi, now 15, Jayla, now 13 and their biological children together, Jazzmynn, born in September of 2014 and Kristopher, born in December of 2016. Sierra began threatening that she was going to leave Katz and take the children if he didn’t get sober.

“I didn’t know how to beat it,” Katz said. “Drugs highjack your brain and you don’t have the ability to prioritize anything. Sierra was and is my best friend, but the drugs were stronger.”

Katz's younger children (L-R) Kristopher, Jayla and Jazzmynn.

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When Sierra finally did leave, Katz was left alone in the house in Trotwood and blaming everyone else except himself. He was crying often and had thoughts of suicide.

In 2021, Katz finally went into a treatment center for the first time in Kentucky. He stayed for just three days. Then in April of the following year, he tried again, and was referred to the OneFifteen Outpatient Clinic in Dayton.

“On April 7, 2022, God did for me what I couldn’t do for myself,” Katz said. “The facility wasn’t like anything I had ever done before.”

While in treatment, Katz began to mourn the loss of only lifestyle he’d ever known, and of his best friend Sierra, and his children. Throughout it all, he discovered the one constant about himself he didn’t realize was there – his love of people.

After his 60-day treatment program at OneFifteen was complete, he moved into a sober living facility in Dayton. Shortly thereafter, he was presented with an opportunity that gave him a second chance at life, through Goodwill Easter Seals of the Miami Valley.

“Goodwill usually won’t hire you unless you have a year of sobriety,” Katz said. “But they took a chance, and I was certified as a peer supporter in August of last year.”

Throughout his first year with GWESMV, Katz ran groups and helped people establish recovery plans. Then in October of last year, he applied for a behavioral health specialist position at Miracle Clubhouse in Dayton, also part of GWESMV.

“I didn’t know a lot about Clubhouse, but I did know it was a place where relationships are formed,” Katz said.

Katz has learned the power of having meaningful work and helping others. He said he recognizes his part in the damage he caused within his family, and he now has good relationships with all of his kids and their mother.

“God put me in a position for these opportunities and I have learned that It’s not what lies behind us or before us but what lies within us that counts most,” Katz said. “It’s a privilege to go to work and to live this life.”

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