OUT OF THE DARKNESS

Jennings resident Jared Fontenot now lives a hard-earned yet happy life after struggling with addiction for over a decade.

Now over a year sober, Fontenot finds joy in working hard, helping others and most importantly, telling his story of addiction.

In 1999 at age 23, after living his whole life in Jeff Davis Parish, Fontenot moved to Lake Charles to attend McNeese University for a marketing degree. This was the first time he had moved out of his parents’ house.

“I got a job and got an apartment of my own,” he said. “Soon after, I met people there who were all into the party scene. It was the era of raves and techno club scenes, and I started doing a lot of ecstasy with a lot of the people I worked with who dealt drugs on top of using them.”

From here, Fontenot said he began regularly using and selling club drugs, which began to affect his schoolwork. He sat out for a few semesters but eventually finished his degree.

In 2001, he moved to Monroe but soon returned to Lake Charles, where he got reacquainted with old friends.

“I just had identity issues at the time,” Fontenot said. “I wanted to feel like I was somebody and wanted to have the quick fix. I started dealing steroids and it just kept escalating. I took some trips to Las Vegas and that’s where I got introduced to cocaine and meth.”

This lifestyle went on until 2004. By then, Fontenot was heavily addicted to meth. In 2005, he also developed a gambling addiction.

“I started renting big suites and limos at the casino and taking out huge credit lines,” Fontenot said.

Now at a point where his sole drug of choice was meth, Fontenot lost his job. He regularly flew to Vegas and was steadily racking up debt.

Fontenot entered his first 30-day drug rehabilitation program in 2008. The main reason he did this, he said, was to keep police off his back, as Fontenot had been hanging out with a drug dealer who was starting to attract attention.

“From there I was able to stay sober for two or three months, but I relapsed and it just kept getting worse and worse,” Fontenot said. “I wasn’t working anymore. Before, it was a party scene where I did it on the weekends.”

But by 2010, partying was his lifestyle. He and his unemployed friends partied day and night and avoided much of society. One friend ended up with a 20-year prison sentence. Another developed a brain aneurysm and died.

“It was at that point when I knew I needed some real help,” he said. “I was stagnant and I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. My parents didn’t know what to do with me.”

It wasn’t until 2014 when Fontenot went to Home of Grace in Vancleave, Mississippi, to try treatment for a second time. He did not complete the program but Fontenot said it set the stage for what he knew he needed to do in the future.

He was able to keep his addiction under control for a while and landed a job as a car salesman in Jennings. But in 2016, he started regularly using again and was terminated.

“The owner (of the dealership) is a really good friend, and he tried to give me some advice and a second chance to slow me down,” Fontenot said. “But I was too deep into my addiction. It had gotten a lot worse.”

At rock bottom, he returned to Home of Grace in May 2017 for a 90-day program. He spent time writing letters to former coworkers and his previous employer.

Then, he returned as a salesman to the dealership where he had previously worked.

“Since then, people in this great community who know me and my family have shown me nothing but support,” Fontenot said.

Fontenot has been sober ever since.

“I was telling somebody a while back that you go through all of these trials, and you think you can just do it one weekend and control it, and you might get away with it that first time,” he said. “That second time, though, you do it a little more than you planned ,and it eventually takes you straight back into addiction.”

Fontenot said he was ambivalent about God in his younger years but recently began placing full faith in Him. Along with exercising most mornings, the faithbased, yet all-inclusive group Fontenot helps to facilitate at Bethel Church, Celebrate Recovery, Thursday evenings with eight other leaders, has helped him to stay on track. He said he appreciates getting to hear others’ stories while telling his own.

Fontenot has plans to expand the group, which provides support for all troubles including everything from addiction to codependence. The group meets Thursdays at 6 p.m.

Fontenot said this group is an example of how someone can bring himself or herself out of the rut they may find themselves in life. He said he knows this from experience.

“If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you get what you always got,” Fontenot said. “If nothing changes, nothing changes. It’s pretty simple. If you’re not willing to step outside of your comfort zone, you’re not ready to change.”

Fontenot, 41, said both the Celebrate Recovery group and his job give him a renewed sense of purpose.

“I’m helping so many people, it would be stupid just to throw it all away to get high,” he said. “I share my story on Facebook so much that people who don’t even know me will contact me. I lived defeated for so long and saw so much darkness that to be able to go out and help people in society, and to have people respect you again, is a big pat on the back.”