- Drugs
- Friends & Family
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
Hunter started using marijuana at age 14 and was drinking as almost all high school kids occasionally on weekends. His oldest brother was one of the first people he saw using opiates. Opiate use became widespread among his friends and it seemed like it was just a matter of time until he tried it as well. Opiates became his drug of choice.
One day, his brother had Roxicodone at home and he just broke it up and said, “snort this,” and Hunter did. Hunter threw up everywhere and describes it as a horrible experience. “It was a long journey that followed where I tried to find myself and the way I was going. I still struggle sometimes,” Hunter says.
Hunter went through several different programs over the years and followed a strong regimen at most times. A bad accident lead to five different surgeries when he was 20 and he almost lost his life at that time. He relapsed on the opiates again and again and it was very hard for him not to keep using them. Every day was a struggle for him. It was a struggle to just get out of bed, go to work or do any other daily activities. At one point he had two years of sobriety, but then he kept getting surgeries and couldn’t stay that way.
“I didn’t even know that there was a different way of life. I was a young kid, wanted to live at 110% and party,” explains Hunter. He was happy that the surgeries were behind him, still he did not know how to live without drugs. He went to 12-step programs and also to treatment, sometimes with his brother. He learned a lot about himself during treatment and describes that time as a good experience today. Hunter had to first learn who he really was in order to change and find out who he really wanted to be.
“At that time, I didn’t know anything. I tried to do the best I could, but I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I didn’t know how to stay clean for just a day, didn’t know how to function, or how to be a better person. I wanted to live without stealing, cheating and lying, but I didn’t know how to reach this point,” says Hunter. “Four years without stealing is a huge ‘Hurrah’ for me today. I didn’t know it was possible.”
Hunter got in trouble with the law a few times and got some small felony charges on his record from his teenage years. when he was nineteen he went to an IOP class totally drunk. He was not willing to change yet. Next thing he knew was, that he was shipped away to a residential facility. “It was fun, it was interesting, it was different from anything I was doing until that point. I met a lot of good people, but also a lot of very sick people,” he says.
“Give it a shot! Listen! Sit down and cherish what you have; look at the mirror and do something on a daily basis to encourage yourself. Once you are in a hole, you don’t know how to get out. Try to do it one day at a time and try to be a better person,” Hunter likes to tell people that have not tried to enter the recovery process yet.
At first, Hunter wanted to get the monkey off his back, but he says that it’s still there. Now, after all the ups and downs during the past several years of his recovery process, he finally has 40 days of continuous sobriety and works day to day to build it back up. Hopefully no more surgeries will follow, so he can stay on track now. The relationship with his parents has improved big time. He is trying to bond with them again, especially with his father. He realizes that his father was always there to support him, although they fought a lot in the past. At the age of 26 he is finally aware of many things in life that he totally missed during his using times.