HEROESSurvivors

Who: Pam Emmil

What: 5 Second Rule Bracelet

Why: “Back in 2018 I started my journey in recovery. I had become heavily addicted to opioids after several failed surgeries. I had the perfect storm of medical things, and all my prescriptions came from doctors,” says Pam Emmil. Around that time a new recovery clinic opened in Bismarck called Ideal Option, a medically assisted program intended to help treat substance abuse. Pam was the clinic’s very first customer. At the same time, Pam started trauma therapy which she did for the next two years to get at the root of her addiction. Additionally, Pam began attending AA in Bismarck and joined a recovery group on an app called Clubhouse. “You have to have a lot of tools in your toolbox when you’re in recovery,” says Pam.

One of these tools is the bracelet Pam designed after discovering Mel Robbins’s book The 5 Second Rule. The five second rule is a method where you count backwards from five, take a deep breath, and either change a negative thought to a positive one or immediately act on a positive action. Pam loved the method, but quickly realized she needed something tactile, too. Already a jewelry-maker, Pam designed a bracelet with sections of five pink zebra jasper beads separated by an aura bead. She would then count backwards touching each of the stones before resting on the aura stone as she made the positive change.

After keeping the bracelet to herself for a year, Pam began to feel a pull to share her story and her bracelets with others. “I felt a call from God saying, ‘Pam I did not put you through this to not help people,’” describes Pam. With support from family and friends, Pam attended her first vendor show, Applefest, in the fall of 2019. All 30 of her bracelets sold out. Each subsequent show she attended, she brought more bracelets and sold out every time.

Pam is now a Pride of Dakota vendor and attends several vendor shows, sharing her bracelets, but more importantly her story, with countless people. “Just by sharing my story to others, it gives them the door to share their story… The stories I hear are very humbling. It truly feels like I’m doing God’s work… helping people break that stigma of addiction, break that stigma of mental illness,” says Pam. Pam now has a website where you can order her bracelets. And to further her mission of breaking the stigma of addiction and mental illness, Pam has started to give motivational speeches, sharing her own story of addiction and recovery to offer help and hope to countless people.

Want More?

pamemmil.com

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