Homeless in America

This series, Lost Roads, is a visual exploration of a fragmented reality shaped by psychosis, addiction, and the consequences of prescribed medication. My journey began with an adverse reaction to Adderall, prescribed by a doctor, which triggered a psychotic episode that altered the course of my life. Coupled with SSRIs and a past eating disorder, the powerful combination of these substances sent me spiraling into irrational behaviors and a state of being I could never have imagined. This work isn’t just about my personal story—it’s about the devastating ripple effects of a system that hands out powerful medications as the solution for anything and everything. Seek and ye shall find.

When I left for Wyoming, it was meant to be a return to a place I once loved, a landscape that had brought me peace during my time serving with AmeriCorps. But that time, it was different. I found myself living out of my car, directionless and on edge, unable to understand how I had ended up in this state. It was as if my life had taken a turn down a dark, twisted road, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find my way back.

The images in this series capture moments from that period—long, desolate highways cutting through the open Wyoming landscape, the claustrophobic interior of my car, and the shadowy, ominous presence of people I encountered who felt like threats. One particularly powerful figure from that time was Tanya, a woman I met at a shelter. She was an ex-Mormon, battling addiction to methamphetamine, yet she saved my life. Her kindness, humanity, and love for her daughter and her pet ferrets contrasted with her own unraveling. When we first met, she said "do you like chocolate?", a small gesture that meant everything in the darkness of that time.

Lost Roads doesn’t romanticize these moments. It reveals the stark reality of addiction, mental health crises, and the crushing weight of poverty, especially for women. In the shelters I visited, I saw so many women caught in the throes of addiction and struggle. These are women whose stories are often forgotten, whose lives unravel quietly on the margins of society. The starkness of these images reflects the emptiness and isolation I felt during that time, but they also carry the weight of a broader societal tragedy.

One image depicts a gas station, a place where I once called 9-1-1 convinced I was witnessing human trafficking. That paranoia, driven by the psychosis and amplified by the isolation of living out of my car, shows how far I had detached from reality. But it was real, terrifyingly so. These images are not just about my personal descent—they’re about the haunting reality of mental health crises in America and the broken systems that often fail to catch people before they fall too far. It starts with you.

This project doesn’t have a clean resolution because my life still carries the marks of this time. I’ll never be the same person I was before the medications, and the road I’ve walked since is one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But through photography, I can offer a glimpse into this experience—the confusion, the terror, the small moments of connection, and the deep awareness of a world that is far more fragile than I once knew.

Tanya, like many women I met during that period, left a lasting impact on me. She was a beacon of humanity in a time when everything seemed to blur into chaos. This work is, in part, a tribute to her and to all those navigating the complexities of poverty, addiction, and mental health struggles in America. These roads are difficult, unforgiving, and often isolating, but they are real and traveled by far too many.

Lost Roads is my attempt to make sense of it all, to tell the story of a life altered by forces beyond control, and to shine a light on the hidden struggles that so many face in the shadows. These images are not pretty, but they are honest. This is a road many travel, it's not a frequency to emulate on purpose.

I was only 23.5

My eyes were forever open to the raw realities of women living with their children in states of desperation, fleeing bad family lives. Women suffering from physical violence. The impact of poverty. It was as if the before and after of my personal timeline ended and began all at once at this juncture. It was a magnifying class on the haves, and have nots.


So many health coaches and gurus talk about the law of attraction, of frequencies. Of creating our reality.

I know in my heart this was a reality I wouldn't have encountered had it not been for prescribed medications.