- Alcohol
- Drugs
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
Alcohol and marijuana were always in the picture since he was about thirteen, but Bret periodically tried other drugs as well, taking about anything he could get his hands on. He grew up north of Houston, Texas, and lives now in Georgia. The addiction progress happened quickly and already at age 16, Bret was using cocaine. A month before he turned 21, he got sober. This was seven years ago. “I still never had a legal drink. And I never had a legal drug,” he says with a smile at the beginning of our interview.
At the age of 17, Bret got arrested for the first time, straight from school. He was sitting at the police station and remembers that he was only thinking that it must have been someone else’s fault. He was constantly looking for others to blame; he never did anything wrong in his eyes. He got arrested again at age 18 and it had not changed. There were family interventions made after incidents, such as the time he passed out at his great grandmother’s birthday party and similar occasional behaviors.
He managed to get around any consequences and his first experience with a treatment center was only in the year that he actually got sober. He was admitted to a detox facility after he had a psychotic break while taking prescription medication. While taking the prescription drug, he was not taking the drugs he used to have and went into DT’s and started to hallucinate. His parents grabbed him and took him straight to the hospital thinking that he was on drugs, while it was actually a lack of them.
The detox was followed by the first treatment facility where he found out for the first time that he is not alone with his problems. Still, as he left, he didn’t follow any of their suggestions. He didn’t go to any outpatient therapy or meetings and therefore there was no success.
A month later, his family hired an interventionist and did a professional intervention with him. He didn’t like the interventionist at this time at all, which –of course– has changed over the years. He remembers, that he thought, Do you really want me to go to treatment? I think you should be nicer to me, if you want something from me! He thought about leaving. He wanted to get out in the backyard, jump the fence and get himself out of the situation.
In the midst of the intervention, he went in the backyard and had a cigarette, and had a moment of clarity. He knew he needed to change something in his life. His mind and body still resisted, but something was pushing him forward and through and he went on the plane and entered a treatment center shortly after. I don’t want to, but I know I need to, was all he could think about and agree to at that moment. Waking up the first morning at the treatment facility he thought only, What have I done? He stayed for six weeks of inpatient rehabilitation followed by 14 months of sober living with outpatient therapy.
Once Bret was about six months sober, his grandmother passed away from cancer. For the first time in his life, he was sober and could be in a crisis situation be with his family and not add to the problem. It was a new experience for Bret.
Six months later he started to get sicker and sicker and nobody was really sure what it was at first. He thought it was a consequence of his using. Finally, he was properly diagnosed and had to accept that he was ill with Leukemia. More than three long years of chemotherapy treatment followed. He lost his hair three different times and was sick every day and in pain for over three years. He strongly believes that without his sobriety, he would have had no chance to survive it. Only his sobriety gave him the strength and discipline to go through all the treatment he needed. Today he is in full remission and cancer-free.
He gives credit to the 12-step-recovery program that he was involved in for his success in going through the years of illness and therapy. “It was very rough. It was so tough. But it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. I had this support to help me.”, Bret says, “Before I got sober, I had a phone book full of people and couldn’t call anybody. Today I have a phone book full of people and everyone would drop whatever he is doing to come and help me out.”
Today he is a student of marketing and management at Georgia Collegiate Recovery Community and he came to the 5K run to LSU in Baton Rouge to support the start-up of their program. In addiction, he dropped out of schools; today he manages to hold a GPA of 3.7. He would love to work with students in recovery and share his experience with them and help them to find the same joy in life he has today.