A Q&A with my sister, Katy Anderson, who co-authored a feature with me for the latest issue of The New Territory Magazine
In the fall of 2021, I started collaborating on an article with my sister, Katy, for The New Territory Magazine, a biannual print publication covering the lower Midwest. They don’t always focus on Illinois, where Katy lives and we both grew up, since much of the state is considered part of the upper Midwest. But they accepted our pitch about Katy’s struggles with methamphetamine addiction and her subsequent path to recovery, situated in relation to the struggles our hometown of Greenville, Illinois, has had with the drug, the stigma surrounding it in rural Southern Illinois, and the punitive criminalization of addiction as well as the unhelpful arrest and incarceration of people in addiction.
The magazine issue featuring our story — Katy’s story, really — is fresh off the press. I just received my copy in the mail.
Our article isn’t mentioned on the magazine cover, but it’s listed in the table of contents within the first few pages.
The magazine posted our brief bios on subsequent pages. You can find Katy’s toward the bottom of page four and mine on the top of page five, as shown below.
For the piece Katy and I co-wrote, we interviewed several sources in Illinois, most all from Bond County where Greenville is located. Per the suggestion of an editor assigned to our story, we also incorporated direct quotes from Katy and one or two from me, despite my reluctance about that.
We also filed an Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Bond County State’s Attorney. Ironically, given the reputation of the local State’s Attorney for tough-on-(so-called-)crime and retributive decision-making within the local criminal punishment system, the office opted not to respect the law regarding public records requests in the state – until we reached out to the Illinois Attorney General’s office. In Illinois, unlike in California where I live now, there is recourse when a public entity in the state refuses to comply with or respond to a records request with the required time.
“If the public body does not respond to your request within 5 business days after receiving it, then their inaction is considered a denial of your request,” according to the section on what to do if a public body fails to respond featured on the sixth page of an Illinois FOIA FAQs document. “If that occurs, you can either file a Request for Review with the Attorney General’s PAC or file a case in court.”
So we contacted the Public Access Counselor (PAC) with the Illinois Attorney General’s office. After I submitted what was required, the PAC emailed the following letter to the Bond County State’s Attorney’s office.
The letter prompted the office in Bond County to soon after provide the majority of the documents we requested. In addition to drawing heavily on Katy’s personal experience, and on what we gleaned from interviewing sources, we also drew on what we obtained from the FOIA request. We asked for Sheriff Department records pertaining to meth-related arrests and incarceration in Bond County. We received several incident reports, like the one we partially redacted below.
The issue of the magazine containing our feature — “Issue 12: Flight” — can be purchased for $15 from The New Territory. You can subscribe to the magazine here.
To celebrate the publication of our piece, I interviewed my sister about our collaboration, her thoughts on the article and what we covered, and what she’s been up to since we worked on the story. Below you can find my Q&A with Katy Anderson, which has been edited for clarity with her encouragement.
James: When I first mentioned to you The New Territory call for pitches and the idea for the story we’d go on to write, what did you think? Were you excited to tell your story of meth addiction and recovery, or was the thought of putting your past struggles out there for the world to read at all intimidating?
Katy: Very much so – intimidating and terrifying. I was worried about what people would think. But you, however, reassured me that, if anything, people will get the positive notes from my life and how I got through so many struggles, instead of seeing all my faults and mistakes.
James: What do you hope TNT readers take away from our article?
Katy: That recovery is possible. You can practically pull yourself out of the midst of the slums, the deepest of the depths. Not that I’m so high up, but it’s possible to rise up to where you're content with life. They say that “it takes a village” to raise a child; similarly, I guess, it (often) takes a community to help people overcome addiction and to continue living sober.
James: What do you hope TNT readers think about you, about Greenville and/or about Southern Illinois (and the state of Illinois more generally) after reading what we wrote?
Katy: Well, I hope that they see that — now, finally, after I decided to get sober — they’re doing something about the hard drug addiction problem in Bond County. And they are doing something — the Bond County Recovery Community, all the different meetings and church organizations are all out there to help. You just have to reach out. And also, what I hope they take from me and my story is I just hope they don't judge [*Laughs*], which I know they will. But I guess that’s the good thing about writing it and putting it out there — not having to watch people's faces while they read it.
James: How do you think growing up in Greenville when we did compares to growing up in Greenville as an adolescent or even young, early 20-something adult today, especially but not necessarily exclusively in relation to the availability and use of meth?
Katy: Okay, so meth is a lot. I feel like meth is prevalent here right now. I feel like more people are on it now. Honestly, I think the people you surround yourself with the more prevalent it can be, right? In high school, I didn't know a whole lot of meth users, but I found it. But it wasn't like the top drug. I don't think a lot of high school kids are using it now, though. I think adults between about 20 and 40, and maybe some a little older, probably use it the most around here.
James: In the article we mentioned the legalization of cannabis in Illinois, and we alluded to some of the dispensaries now open in the state. Do you distinguish drugs like marijuana (and use of THC) from the addiction that can be spurred by use of a drug like meth?
Katy: For me, I don't think THC is a drug [in the sense most people think about drugs]. I think it can be used as a drug. But doctors also give prescriptions for it, right? I think it's medicinal if you use it that way. I personally don’t use it because it makes me paranoid. I mean, I'm sure it would help with anxiety big time for me, but I can't handle paranoia. I think it's way better than a lot of prescription drugs that are out there.
James: What would you like TNT readers or the awesome readers of this Waywards newsletter to understand about addiction, the stigma around it and how it’s criminalized, and what would you like them to know about addiction recovery?
Katy: It’s hard, especially at first. It does get easier, though, and you have got to find a community of people to surround you and help you through it, especially in the beginning.
I’m stigmatized now, after getting clean. People are still judging me based on my past mistakes. Now matter how long you’ve been clean, some people will probably still look down on you. That might be inevitable in such a small town; however, there are also so many people looking right at you, standing with you and treating you with respect.
Sometimes it takes a few times in rehab before someone can get clean. Rather than incarcerate, it’s good to give someone dealing with addiction the chance to rehab and recover at least, even if it doesn’t stick the first time. I've been to rehab a couple of times. Sometimes it takes a few times. Whether it works or not that first time, it puts an idea in your head and it can ruin every other high you have. Once you go to rehab, and then say you get back out and use again, it ruins every high because you know now what sobriety can look like and you have an idea of what sobriety is.
James: Is there an anecdote or any particular section of the feature we co-wrote that stands out to you or that you consider especially significant for understanding your story of addiction and recovery and/or the overarching narrative of efforts to destigmatize addiction and to enable non-punitive recovery efforts in town?
Katy: It would be the stabbing and it would be the brain injury, both of which we discussed in the story. They were both traumatic events. The second one was worse. The brain injury was the worst, James. The cops laughed and joked, in part because I was talking nonsensically and, according to what I’ve been told, I mentioned something about Beyoncé when they asked me if someone pushed me. They thought that I was fucked up. But my brain was bleeding in three different areas.
James: Can you update everyone on what’s happened in your life as of late, since we wrote the feature for TNT?
Katy: Yeah! I got a scholarship to the local college. And I got that through CORE Community. My husband and I got scholarships, actually.
Katy and Blake are pictured alongside our story in the new issue of the magazine.
We’re also almost done with a custody case involving the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, after a relapse a year and a half ago brought DCFS into our lives. We’ll be completely finished with DCFS by mid-July. I’ve been clean since March 24, 2021. It’s been more than a year since I’ve used meth.
James: Do you anticipate us collaborating on future pieces, and do you intend to solo author anything going forward?
Katy: I probably won’t solo authoring anything. But yeah, we're probably going to collaborate, possibly on a DCFS piece.
The above photo of me and my sister was taken last fall in Giant City State Park, I think.
James: What else would you like people to know about you?
Katy: I’m sure I sound like I may have lived a horrible life. But I'm not a horrible person! I’m so content now just being a mother and a wife and living the simple life. I'm just content today.