Preventing Youth Substance Use

[0:00]I am a recovering addict. My use started when I was 13 years old. I was, you know, in Cub Scouts, I was involved in sports, and, you know, I was in a really nice I had a really nice family. And like, there was no problems that I had and you know, life was really good. And I got to middle school and that's kind of where my life started changing. I was hanging out with my friends up the street and I got involved in marijuana. Like one of my friends was just like, oh, do you want to try this and I was like, sure and then from there I just started smoking pot like every month or so, just once or twice a month. And slowly over time, I became heavily involved in drugs, and in the last stint of my use, I was shooting up heroin pretty much every day. Whatever I could do to get messed up. I would do it whether it's pot, drinking, or, you know, some prescription painkillers. Just made me feel invincible and I was like on top of the world. Little did I know that this pill was going to destroy my life. You know, I didn't think I had a problem. I was like, you know, it's just I'm just having a good time, just being a teenager. I'm just, you know, doing what normal teenagers do. I was stealing from my family. I was stealing from my friends. I was taking whatever I could that wasn't bolted down and selling it. It was just it was like a snowball, like once I started it, I couldn't stop it. It was just rolling down this hill and I could do nothing to stop it. And I still didn't think I had a problem. I was like, oh, I can just try this drug and it'll be fine. I don't have to do it for the rest of my life. I won't get addicted to it. That doesn't happen. I'm not that kind of person. One of my friends told me he stole his stepdad's iPad and traded it for heroin, and I was mad at him. So I took that text message he sent me, sent it to his mom. His mom showed the police, the police came to my school and then I admitted to my parents that I was shooting up dope. They had no idea. They were completely caught off guard. I put on a charade that I was okay that I was getting better. I didn't need any rehab. The last day I used, I was sitting in my room and I just I don't know, something came over me and I was just like, I don't want to live like this anymore. Like I've destroyed my relationship with my family. I've lost countless friends. I'm I'm a nobody. There's nothing good going in my life, and I'm going to die if I continue this. So I told my sister, my brother, I relapsed and gave my dad my paraphernalia. Six days later, on my 18th birthday, I was admitted to my first rehab. It changed my life because it showed me that you can be happy without the use of drugs.