Drug Addiction is Like a Nightmare

by Stephanie
(Bloomfield, IN, USA)

Growing up I was surrounded by drugs. My mom did them. My dad did them. My older brother also did them. It was inevitable that someday I would feel pressured into doing drugs myself.

My brother was a pretty big heroin addict. He had been doing the drug for as long as I could remember. When I was about 12 years old I decided I wanted to be "cool" like my big brother. After all, my parents let him do it so how could it have not been cool? I knocked on my brother's door and sat down on his bed. He asked me, "What?" and that's when I told him I wanted to try heroine with him. He laughed. He thought it was funny, but he gave me some anyway.

It was that day that I became addicted to heroin. There hadn't been a single day since then that I had not used the drug. It's a sad life but it's one I lived. I dropped out of school, didn't have a job, not did I have any "real" friends. I lost interest in anything but the drug heroin.

There was one point though where someone actually reached out to me. There was this man, Jacob, whom I had met at a gas station. He knew I was on drugs just by looking at me - it was easy to tell. He asked for my cell phone number which I gave to him. I was probably high at the time anyway.

Two nights after that I received a phone call. It was from that man I had met. I asked him what he wanted and he said, "I want to help you."

Several days later I found myself in a rehabilitation center. I was going to recover from my heroin addiction? I couldn't believe it at first, but slowly but surely... I started to get better. I started to not crave the drug. I started to see how low it had made me.

I have been clean for two years now. For some reason my family does not understand why. I am now married to the man whom helped me recover from heroin addiction. I can no longer talk to my family because they are still encased in their shell of drugs. If it weren't for Jacob I would still be addicted.