A 21 Year Old’s Experience, Strength and Hope

12 Steps Ahead- Addiction Blog Submission

I am a twenty one year old from Encinitas, CA I want to use this essay to express to everyone what my life was like growing up as a teen, what my life is like today and how I made a decision to start living this different lifestyle.

Growing up I was from a nice family besides my parents splitting up when I was in 3^rd grade; I have been very fortunate as a kid growing up in the beaches of San Diego. In high school I started to use drugs mainly smoking weed and drinking. This drug progressed into other drugs and behaviors that eventually lead me to be sent away to a boarding school when I was a Jr. in high school. Shortly after returning home from boarding school I picked up exactly where I had left off with my drug use and eventually moved onto injecting harder drugs like heroin and cocaine (In AA we call this “The Vicious Cycle”). My habits lead me to moved around the state of California using my manipulative behaviors on my parents for money. I took my alcoholism with me everywhere I went. The drinking and drug use eventually lead me to an emotional bottom where I found myself so alone and separated from any real connection with society or another human being. With the push from my parents I came to realize I needed something different in my life and had to leave my old ways of living behind me.

When I was 20 years old I was living in Santa Cruz, CA and made the decision to go down the Scripps detox in La Jolla, California. On the 6^th day of me detoxing at Scripps I ended up coming up to Torrance, California to a recovery house called Reality House, a brother house of New Life. I had heard of the house because a friend of my mom’s son went through New Life and recovered from his Heroin addiction. It was here at Reality house when for the first time I truly understood the principles of the twelve steps and the lifestyle that a sober member of Alcoholics anonymous lives.

Today I have been in the house and been sober just under six months, I can truthfully say that I am proud to be apart of the things that we do here, and everyday I look forward to waking up coming downstairs to a house full of my friends. When I showed up in AA my perception on what a real friend was very skewed. Through working the twelve steps and being apart of the house I have learned how to be a true friend, a brother and a son. One of the main reasons I got high was the discomfort with who I was and the things I did. By working the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous I have gained a freedom from that discomfort and am proud of who I am and the life I live today. This house and Alcoholics Anonymous has taught me a new way to live life.  It has given me the tools to overcome the ups and downs of life on life’s terms. With that I am eternally grateful for the second chance at life I have been given and have goals to surround my new life with the community and ideals of a sober lifestyle.

-Chase P.

 

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