My Battle with Addiction - William 23

"Smoking marijuana helped me..."

At age 15, I was smoking marijuana and tobacco multiple times a day. Smoking marijuana helped me forget who I was & who I was expected to be. That’s exactly what I wanted at that point in my life. I didn’t know I was using it as a crutch, a way not to deal with life.
A year later, things got worse, and I smoked marijuana any moment I could find. Everyone around me started drinking, and I thought, why not? The first time I drank so much that I got sick. The truth is, I didn’t particularly appreciate drinking, but it was socially acceptable, so I overindulged. Looking back, it was because of peer pressure. I continued drinking and smoking over the next two years.

“Questioning my life.”

When I was 18, I began to wonder. I began to question my life and my choices. I realised I was not good at school or sports, so what would I do with my life? I was hanging around with the wrong crowd. They didn’t have my best interest at heart. I was naïve and easily manipulated. I just wanted to fit in. I wanted to feel like I belonged.

“From bad to worse.”

When they introduced me to new drugs, I couldn’t refuse, I didn’t want them to kick me out. So I began abusing these drugs even in school. I decided to start selling drugs, and the place I knew best was school, so I decided to start there. Not too long after, the principal found this out, and I got kicked out of school. I was happy he was lenient and didn’t call the police too.
My whole family was furious. They couldn’t believe what I had been doing. After this, my family thought it was all over there. But I had not changed who I was spending my time with, and It did not change my relationship with drugs and alcohol.

“The worst day of my life”

Somewhere in November, my brother and I talked and reconciled. We hadn’t been on good terms for a while. It was a good day filled with hugs and tears of joy. A week after this, I found him passed out, I tried to wake him up but to no avail. He died from a drug overdose. I had no idea he was struggling with this too.

“The moment that changed me”

It was the moment my life changed forever. I decided I was done with drugs and the toxic people in my life. Something needed to change. We were both young with everything ahead of us. But my brother didn’t make it. And I did. I had to find something positive to come out of this tragedy.

“Overcoming my addiction.”

Addiction is a disease, and overcoming it is not easy. It wasn’t easy for me to take the first step, even after that. Finally, I went into rehabilitation to help and began my life of recovery. I have been clean and sober ever since. I take it a day at a time. And every day, I live and am sober because of the strength I have been given by my brother, my family and a fantastic network of people around me supporting my recovery.