Trigger Warning: This episode discusses traumatic brain injury, drunk driving, substance use and addiction (including heroin), overdose, sexual assault, not caring whether you live or die, psychiatric hospitalization, a serious car crash, and the overdose death of a close friend.

At 15, Rachel was flying through the air at Worlds. Cheer wasn't her hobby. It was her whole life. Then one summer evening, a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit her while she was crossing on her bike. She jumped up and told everyone she was fine.

She wasn't. The brain injury nobody could see took her grades, her muscle memory, her sport, and her friends. What came after took her to places her family still can't fully talk about. In this conversation, Rachel talks about the years she barely remembers, the parents who never stopped showing up, and the surprisingly ordinary moment she finally walked away.

This is a story about teen addiction, invisible injury, regret, and what it looks like to build a quiet life after years of chaos.

For The Hayters is a podcast that normalizes hard conversations. Listener discretion is advised.

Interview, narration, and editing by Becky Hayter, with post-production, scripting, and sound design by Emily Nadal.

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