"You have a lot of time to think about the worst"

Stacey Addison was unable to leave East Timor for six months after being accused of a crime she did not commit. She just returned to American soil from Asia and shared her story of freedom with "CBS This Morning," reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

When Addison arrived at the Portland, Oregon, airport the first thing she did was hug her mom and then cover her ears. The 41-year-old veterinarian still plans to travel despite her ordeal in East Timor, much of it spent behind bars.

She learned she would be able to go home when her lawyer called and said he had her passport.

"I can't let it out of my sight now," Addison said.

In 2013, she set off on a globetrotting trip by herself. She started in Antarctica and ended up in Indonesia. But when she arrived in East Timor in September, the trip of a lifetime left her fighting for her freedom.

She shared a cab with a stranger who turned out to be on a drug run. Police stopped the car and Addison ended up in jail. She was then sent to prison, where they cut off her long hair and kept her locked up for two months.

"You spend about 19 hours a day just locked up in a room and I was sick a lot. You have no contact with anyone," she said. "You have a lot of time to think about the worst."

She said she learned "what you can take."

"That you are stronger than you think you are," Addison said.

She was eventually released from prison, but not allowed to leave the country.

Back home in Oregon, her friends launched a Facebook page to bring attention to her case, and Addison's mother Bernadette wrote letters to everyone from former President Bill Clinton to Pope Francis.

"A representative from the Vatican did come visit me in prison," she said. "They said they were praying for me; they had gotten that letter."

It was help coming from high places.

At a congressional hearing last week, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley pressed Secretary of State Kerry about Addison's case.

"There really is, I mean I'm familiar with the case, no legitimate explanation for how she has been detained," Kerry said.

Addison was finally given her passport Friday, but it is still not clear exactly why. Her mother doesn't care how it happened, she's just glad her daughter is home.

"Very ecstatic that she's back and she got through this and she's home," Bernadette said.

When asked if she has a greater appreciation for the American justice system, Addison said, "not really even the system but the fact that people care about justice."

"People were outraged that this would happen." she said. "A lot of places just accept it that's just the way it is and there is nothing you can do so it does make you appreciate it."

While she may have lost six months of freedom, no one can take away her sense of adventure.