Drug Addiction Stories

One day I went to the corner store.  When I came out, a young man approached me for some money because he was hungry.  I noticed some marks on his arm and face.   I talked to the young man for a few minutes, and then I went back into the store to get him something to eat and a soft drink.  We talked for a while out in the parking lot and he told me his story.  He said he was homeless because his parents had found out he was using drugs.

I knew I could not give him money because as a drug addict, he would just spend it on drugs so I listened to him.  He told me he was down about as low as he could get and did not know what to do.  I told him there was help for him.  He was not the first young person to fight an addiction and he would not be the last.

How can I help a drug addict quit?  I can get him into a rehab clinic, let him get checked in and he can start therapy.  He seemed relieved and grateful as I called information and then the clinic.  They asked to talk to him and after a few minutes, to me.  We made arrangements for him to go to the rehab clinic right away.

I then talked to the young man and together we called his parents.  I told them who I was and that their son wanted to get help.  They were relieved as they had been trying to call him, but he had apparently traded his cell phone for drugs.

I will always believe I was meant to be at that store at that moment in time.  To this day I occasionally hear from that young man and his parents.  He is back on the right track and I am glad we ran into each other that fateful day a year ago.  He tells me he believes I was a gift to a drug addict.  I got a gift to, by helping him that day.

I have been a drug addict for nearly five years.  I got hooked in high school at a party.   People say that is one of the easiest ways to get addicted.  I just wish it was as easy to quit, but it isn’t.  Other kids started avoiding my friends and me.  Some of my friends finally wised up and got clean and they even avoided us.  Not out of snobbery, but so they would not be tempted.

As time went by, I saw friends graduate and move on to college.  All I was doing was working as often as I could at the local fast food restaurant so I had money to get high.  Eventually, my boss caught on to what was going on with me.  After several repeated warnings, I was fired.

I know I am a drug addict and I need to quit.  Life seems to pass me by.  Do I just keep losing myself for a few hours?  It doesn’t do any good.  Whenever I come down, I still have the same problems: no job, no goals, just a monumental need to get high again.  The desperation of an addict is even worse when he they no money to pay for drugs.  This affected my relationships with family and my closest friends.

A friend’s mom gave me a phone number for a rehab place.  She told me there was something special inside of me that needed to be found.  She told me I needed to give this something special a chance.  She said it would be hard, probably the hardest thing I will ever do, but nothing worth having in life comes easy.

I know what I have to do.  I stared at the phone number my friend’s mom gave me for hours that night.  I could not sleep.  I could not think.  The need for drugs burned within me.  I could not remember the last time I got excited over anything that was not drug related.  My life was passing by and all I lived for was drugs.

The next morning I picked up the phone and dialed the number on the sheet of paper.  When it was answered, I told the truth: “I know I am a drug addict and I need to quit.”  Saying the words out loud was the first step of my addiction recovery.

At the height of his career, David Bowie, whose given name at birth was David Robert Jones, and cited to be one of the most influential writers of the pop age was hiding a secret that few knew. A secret that many hide, he was addicted to cocaine.

David Bowie's Cocaine Addiction

While David Bowie was on his “Diamond Dog” tour, he was cited as living on a diet of milk, hot peppers, and yes, cocaine. During the height of his drug addiction, videos and interviews show him sniffling almost constantly, and responding to the questions with answers that only David Bowie could understand.

His appearance was almost ghostly, with his thin pale structure and gaunt face. It doesn’t seem ironic that one of his more well know alter egos was known as ‘The Thin White Duke’, in which the title alone seemed to personify his very appearance. It has even been reported that during the height of his drug addiction that he weighed a meager 95 pounds.

Eventually David Bowie was able to kick his cocaine addiction and used his celebrity rock-star status as a way to reach others who were also struggling with cocaine and other addictions. He became an advocate for anti-drug usage and reaches out to children and adults alike warning them of the lingering affects after drug use is discontinued, sometime enduring for the rest of a persons life. David Bowie has been quoted in the past as saying that “He has unbelievable holes in his memory, along with his mind being like Swiss cheese, and suffering emotional damage.”

Like David Bowie, there are many celebrities and musicians who also suffer from cocaine addiction and other substance addiction. It shows that cocaine and drug addiction can strike anywhere, any place, anytime, and doesn’t care who you are, or whether you’re a celebrity or rock-star.

The fact that so many celebrities, such as David Bowie, have made the decision to use their life experience to share with others and possibly touch the life of another and keep them from walking down the same path is inspirational and encouraging.

It humanizes them, and allows people to relate to them, when generally people tend to put celebrities on a pedestal and exempt from the everyday life struggles and choices that we all face. The truth is, they’re people just like we are, with a gift and an opportunity to share their story, which could make all the difference in the life of another