By age 25, I was really addicted to Marijuana. Anyone who tells you that Marijuana is not addictive is a complete liar. This was my drug of choice hands down. In fact, at the age of 25 I really didn’t drink that much or do any other drugs regularly. My one and only drug was [...]
Unfortunately, people make too many assumptions on how I feel about the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana does not need to be legalized because it tells our youth that it’s okay to do one more drug. So instead of saying it’s okay to drink, we are also saying it’s okay to drink and smoke pot. Why [...]
The problem isn’t making pot legal for all the “Normal People”. The problem is making it legal for all of the addicts. I remember that I really liked going to weddings and concerts. Because it was okay to get really drunk or stoned because everyone else was “doing it”. So making [...]
The person in charge of the halfway house at RidgeView was Susan. Susan was a very strong individual and very commanding. She definitely had the halfway house under control for me and the other participants. One of the things that I notice early on was they wanted you to do chores while you were in [...]
The first week at drug rehab consisted of this daily routine of going to meetings in small groups with counselors, as well as meeting with family members and drug counselors. In the evenings after these meetings with various drug counselors and possibly a short meeting with a psychiatrist earlier in the day, we attended AA [...]
As I mentioned in my previous article, I was using “fake it until you make it” in the beginning of my recovery. The next day at the halfway house (after almost going out and drinking with Jay), I told Susan the halfway house manager that I’d almost drank the night before. The response I received [...]
On the 10th day at Ridgeview I experienced anger. I remember the night before sitting in bed thinking about all of the money this place was charging and how we were expected to do those “chores”. Wasn’t this place supposed to be club med at $1000 a day? Why were the beds so hard that [...]
Drug addiction and alcoholism is a disease. This disease is something that is genetically inherited from our ancestors. No one chooses to become an alcoholic or an addict. Alcoholics and addicts (like me) are generally really nice people. What sets us apart from “normal people” is when we use alcohol or [...]