- Drugs
- Friends & Family
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
John is a recovering drug addict. He considers himself a “late bloomer”, because he did not start using substances until age 24. Despite some of his friends, he survived his high school and college years without falling into addiction. At age 24, he met his first boyfriend and that boyfriend introduced him to drugs.
“I was a polished addict for a long time with a great corporate career,” states John. “I was holding it together and many people around me had no idea that I was struggling with addiction.”
Eventually, his world began to crumble. His life became unmanageable and knowing that all of these issues would soon result in big problems, he quit his job and focused solely on his drug use. The drugs were strongly present, although his boyfriend was no longer around. The relationship didn’t last, but the drugs did. John was a meth addict.
It took John about three years to realize that his addiction had shifted from the point that he thought he controlled it to the point that it controlled him. Even then, he was not ready to do anything about it– it was still working for him at that point. It took him until he was about 29 years old to realize that his entire life was completely controlled by drugs. When he was 30 years old, his family organized an intervention for him. His family used a family therapist that also had personal experience with addiction.
John accepted the intervention with great relief. He didn’t know how to ask for help. His drug of choice was such a bad stereotypical ‘dirty’ drug, that he couldn’t bring himself to reach out for help. He believes if he had been addicted to pills or alcohol, he would have been better able to reach out, but he feared the stigma associated with the methamphetamines was all too much to allow him ask for help.
John got busted during his drug using years. His arrest was the beginning of his new future. His mom had keys to his home and walked in on him while using drugs. She turned around and left and John expected never to hear anything about it, since she was using pain pills herself and those secrets were never to be discussed within their family. But instead of keeping John’s secret, the intervention followed and started the process. On one hand, John was hoping not to hear anything about this incident, but on the other hand he was hoping that something would happen, because he was already so miserable in his life.
John always had an excellent relationship with his family. During the intervention, they set a boundary and told him that they would not support him in his addiction anymore, but that they would support his recovery. His parents were the first to recognize that a lot of good came out of these experiences; now John sees it as well. Today, as a family, they all engage in healthier activities. John stated, “our relationship is more transparent and we support each other.”
John’s mother has struggled with pill addiction. She is not necessary in recovery as most would define it, but she stopped using her drug a while back. She found her own recovery by attending family support group. John got in trouble with his addiction, but his entire family benefitted from the recovery process and became healthier.
John entered treatment to overcome his addiction. It took him a three different treatment centers until he found what he needed. Once he did, he was finally able and ready to talk about some of the core issues that made him relapse over and over again in the past.
Later on, John started to work in the field of treatment, because he wanted to do something that kept him strongly connected to his recovery. He felt burned out in the corporate world and found now work that is fulfilling for him. He started at the bottom of a treatment center, forgetting all about his college degrees in finance, and worked his way up. Today he is director of admissions and client services after four years of finding his way. Life is good!
John closes with this: “If I had settled for my biggest dream early in my recovery, I would have sold myself really short. There is so much more than I have ever imagined and it all happened incrementally. Once you catch the momentum of a positive, healthy life, things really pick up. The happiness and the amount of peace I have about who I am today is something that I never had in my life before. I don’t regret my addiction at all, but I would never go back there.”