- Drugs
- Friends & Family
submitted by Susanne Johnson
Andrew works in business development for a treatment center. He deals with clients and helps them all the way to admission and beyond. Today he is 30 and successful in life, but during his teenage years, he was drinking and using marijuana. In college he started with opiates and other drugs. His drugs of choice became heroin and coke.
Andrew grew up in a very good family and had all the support he needed. His older sister never drank or took a drug and left for boarding school when he was in fifth grade. He describes himself as highly sensitive and always over-thinking. He was always afraid of what people were thinking of him, and drugs took this feeling of discomfort away.
It was not easy for his parents to go through this process with him. His parents were very angry when they first found out about his drug use, but they educated themselves, and with this knowledge they became more understanding and supportive of his recovery process. Andrew went to treatment twice. The first time he chose to go. The second time the legal system forced him. When he got in trouble with the law, his attorney suggested getting into treatment before things get worse, and that’s what he did. He was facing a five-year sentence in prison and chose a one-year treatment program instead.
It took him a couple weeks in treatment before he was at all willing to try. Something happened, and he saw his higher power, and everything changed from there on. It was a moment of clarity for him when he thought, “I don’t want to do that anymore.”
He went to a 12-step program, and the steps are still the most important aspect in his life. He has several sponsees, talks to his sponsor every day and goes to four to five meetings a week. He was asked by the treatment center he went to if he would continue working for them after he graduated. He went back to school and earned his certification to become a licensed counselor. He was previously in the hotel management business and is happy in his new career and does not want to go back.
“Reach out your hand. Ask for help,” Andrew tells people who have not yet entered recovery. “Be willing to follow someone else’s guidance, and stop thinking you know everything. Follow the path of all the other people that have had success, and give yourself over to your higher power. Let these people and your higher power guide you in a direction that will save your life.”