Nikki Munitz speaks about how prison changed her life

For two decades, Nikki Munitz hung onto life the same way one would at the back of a fast-moving vehicle, painfully scraping along the tarmac, knuckles white, tightly clenched in fear, and struggling to hold on.

She recently launched her book Fraud: How Prison Set Me Free, in which she says her journey through addiction came not only from committing fraud but from feeling like a fraud in her skin for most of her life.

The journey of self-discovery for the Sandhurst Manor-based wellness counsellor is indeed a scary and eye-opening one.

She noted that there was always a missing piece, and the realisation ultimately came to everyone who was addicted to something.

Munitz added by the time she was 25 years old, she was a full-blown heroin addict who had faced several near-death experiences yet continued to chase her addiction through rehabilitation centres across continents.

“I was also a divorced mother of two, completely alienated from family and friends, bound by a string of toxic relationships with a messy trail of destruction that I had to face alone.”

She described her prison sentence for fraud as a blessing.

“The truth was, I hated myself; my loathing ran so deep that addiction, desperation, betrayal, and crippling anxiety were all just part of my normal life.”

She said the penny dropped in prison where it was not about getting clean anymore or grasping at the leftovers that life had handed her, as she had been sober for six years before being sentenced and had already mastered the art of survival.

“It was living that was beyond me; regardless of my damaged self, I realised that living my life for others had become unsustainable and that no one could ever give me what I had been craving all along, the love I never had for myself.”

Munitz added a random self-esteem course that she took in prison became the catalyst and her beacon for a profoundly life-changing journey of self-discovery.

“I not only learned how powerful I can be in my own life but that I had the right to choose how I wanted my life to be, how I wanted my relationships to manifest, where I wanted to be successful, and so much more.”

She emphasised that this pursuit of inner connection highlighted so many hidden aspects of who she was and ignited a fierce determination to piece together the life she wanted to live.

“After having worked extensively in the field of addiction treatment, I realised that the power of self-development is so profoundly all-encompassing that I decided to dedicate my life to helping others find their freedom, not only from addiction but rather from the prisons created by their self-doubt and negative belief systems.”

Munitz pointed out that she was now living her best life, curated by her, and had a healthy and loving relationship with herself, a wonderfully supportive husband, and two incredibly well-adjusted teenagers.

“I am a trusted businesswoman, a passionate professional, and a proud community leader who is excited about life. My life experience has become my life’s work to assist others in changing their stuck narrative, as I did for myself.”

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