My name is A.J. and I am Silver Chipper #10 at Healing Transitions. I completed the program in 2007, and if it wasn’t for Healing Transitions, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I was in a very dark spot, and the program gave me a way to find healing and recovery. I am…
Before I came to Healing Transitions, I was living in a rooming house and was behind on the rent, facing eviction. The place was really a crack house because of all the drugs being used there. My last day using was January 23. I used that entire night and wound up going to Shepherd’s Table…
I’ve been exposed to drugs and alcohol my whole life. At age 12 I tried drinking for the first time while I was camping with some of my family. One of my relatives gave me and my cousin our first six-pack, which at that age, we thought we were being cool. Then in middle school…
Early years Growing up, I was a good kid who enjoyed playing soccer all the way through high school. But at age 16, I started smoking pot and hanging with the wrong crowd, which basically threw my sports career because I became more interested in skipping school and getting high. Then when I was 18,…
Early trauma Like a lot of stories I hear, I had a pretty traumatic childhood. My mom was 16 when she had me, and she and my dad got married because of the pregnancy. When I was 9 or 10 years old, they divorced, and my mom married a preacher who was also a child…
15 Years Ago Looking back, my problem with alcohol began to truly escalate 15 years ago. I was married at the time, and I began to get careless with drinking. I began getting into trouble with the law with charges like DUIs, and it just continued from there into a whirlwind until it got so…
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…
Note: This article is a continuation of Healing Transitions’ SEE RECOVERY series. Some of what is told in this story reflect what was told in the previous two articles, so you will want to go back and read those first if you haven’t already. Read Chris’s story HERE. Read Chris’s Parents’ story HERE. I never…