- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Friends & Family
I am the co-chapter lead for YPR, Young People in Recovery, Arizona branch. We heard about the Heroes in Recovery 6k race and decided to make YPR a part of it.
I’m also a person in long-term recovery. I used drugs and alcohol for a really long time.
In March 2013, I found myself going to treatment. After a long prison stint, I finally got some help. I changed my life around and it’s been beautiful.
My story began in my teens. I spent the ages of 17 to 24 in the penitentiary in Illinois. When I got out, I started doing the same stuff that led me in there in the first place. I got pulled over one day and I had a lot of drugs on me. I did not have a license or anything to drive legally. The cop that pulled me over came up to my car after running my name and seeing that I was on parole. I told him that I was out there buying drugs and he said, “You need to get some help kid.” The next day I took myself into treatment.
My life today is beautiful. I went from every day having to think about how I was or wasn’t going to get high or drunk to the way it is now. Today I get to wake up and not think about that; I don’t have to think about that any more at all. I get to be a free man. I hold a job. I am a son to my parents and I’m a brother to my sister. I’m a tax payer and I’m able to be of useful member of society. But more than any of that, I get to help other alcoholics and drug addicts. That’s the largest part of my life. Now I know my meaning in life.
My advice would be that as hard as it’s going to be at the beginning, and as scary as it’s going to be, walk through the fear and your life will change. Life can be great.
If you’re new to recovery, just know that you’re not alone. If you put the same effort that you would have put into getting drugs and alcohol into recovery, your life will be beautiful beyond what you could have dreamed or imagined. You can be the person that you never thought you could be. There is no top to the sober mountain.