Where I came from, drinking and using drugs was the norm. Everybody did it, which is why I started at age 14. I’d smoke every day and then drink on the weekends. I was always a good kid and an honor roll student, but eventually I got tired of being the good child. I…
I never felt comfortable in my own skin as a kid and that discomfort ultimately led to my substance use. The first time I drank and smoked weed, it immediately relieved my pain. Within a matter of months, I was drinking whiskey out of my backpack at school and constantly under the influence. Naturally, my…
I grew up in Cary, NC, in a close-knit family and had the most splendid childhood imaginable. But when I was 12, one of the guys in our neighborhood who I looked up to accidentally shot himself in the head while playing a game of Russian Roulette with his friends. I was playing outside at…