Running on a Mind Rewired

She was the only girl in the boys’ high school hockey league, fighting to keep playing in spite of concussions and other serious injuries. By age seventeen, she was battling her second round of severe depression, this time while hooked on crack. A near-death experience-her interrupted suicide-would haunt her through multiple unsuccessful attempts at drug and alcohol treatment. Then, Jennifer Cannon realized she had to find her own path to recovery.

“I never wanted to destroy my life, damage my brain, or come so close to killing myself that I’d wake up strangling on a psych ward floor. . . . But I did. And in the end I was the only one who could save me from myself. I’d love to say that life after drugs and alcohol is easy. Chemical dependency isn’t always as simple as going to rehab and coming out fixed, though. Nor are head injuries and concussions things you can safely play through. Sometimes the damage is permanent. But you have to keep running.” Written with unflinching honesty, Running on a Mind Rewired is at times harrowing, yet ultimately hopeful. Jennifer’s story will inspire others to persevere in the face of what may seem to be overwhelming odds.

Author Biography

Jennifer Cannon has maintained sobriety since 2004, in part by becoming a long-distance runner. Since being diagnosed with dystonia, an incurable neurological disorder, she’s continued to run, finishing her first marathon in 2009. In 2011, Jennifer came out as transgender and began undergoing gender reassignment in 2012. He is now male and goes by the name Nate. Nate lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and gives presentations on addiction, depression, and suicide at high schools, colleges, and hospitals.