Drug Addiction Stories

I was one month into my new-found sobriety, I took the day shift at the restaurant, and I was back in good standings with my family.  I think more then anything they were just relieved that I had done something about my addiction.  I still battled these reoccurring dreams where I was using, I would wake up in the middle of the night sweating and feeling like my skin was crawling.  I tried to change other things around in my life, I joined a small gym to exercise, and was watching what I ate, but the dreams were still there.  They were very powerful and at times I would find myself planning out an entire night of getting up, sneaking out of my own apartment, going to find my dealer, and getting high for days on end.  I had all the excuses, reasons, and even the alibi’s planned out, so I would not be considered using.  Somehow, I managed to stay away; however, it was not until I was visiting a group of old friends from high school, whom I have not seen in years, where things went down hill again and even faster this time.

It was the middle of summer and a group of us were attending a beach party, it was almost like a small reunion.  There were people there that I have not seen in a very long time, and of course there were many new faces.  Just like any beach party, there was BBQ, loud music, and lots of booze; in fact, it looked like two liquors stores were cleaned out just for this party.  I was watching what I was drinking, but still I managed to get buzzed, I was on my sixth beer in three hours, but the sun and the alcohol was not a great mix.  The evening was starting to come and the group of friends I was with wanted to go hit the clubs, I reluctantly agreed, as I was doing pretty good up to this point.  Throughout the day I was not paying attention to the amount of alcohol my friends were drinking, I had assumed that they were all ok to drive, unfortunately I was wrong.  My friend JT got in the drivers seat along with one other guy, and I got in the back behind the passenger seat.

We were heading west bound towards downtown, I was reflecting back at how well I have been doing this past month, things were looking brighter for me.  I was caught in my daze when I heard a loud screeching noise, and my whole body jerked forward abruptly pulling me out of my daze.  After violently jerking forward my whole body slammed into the door and my head cracked the window.  Everything was blurry, the car was spinning, and I went blank.  The sounds of metal and glass shattering and crunching were the last things I heard.  I drifted back off into nothingness and thought of home, and again I was ripped out of my dream world, this time it was my family pulling me out and they were standing over me.

I came out of a drug-induced daze, and it took me a few minutes to adjust to my surroundings.  I was in a hospital room, and my family was standing around me.  The last thing I remembered was the loud sound of metal and glass breaking apart all around me.  I looked down, and my leg was wrapped up and was put in a brace. My father told me I had broken my leg, and was actually quite lucky to be alive.  I had also suffered a mild concussion and had some cuts and bruises over my face from the glass.   I asked my father what happened, and he told me that we had run a red light through a very busy intersection, and a garbage truck came through the intersections and hit us right in the middle of the car.  The impact was so strong that the car rolled over three times and was almost torn in half.  Witness on the scene told police the car was air born, and were shocked that anybody survived.  The fire department managed to pull me out along with the passenger who was in front of me.  They had to tear into the car using the jaws of life.  The only reason I am alive is because of where I was sitting in the vehicle.

My father told me that my friend who was sitting in the front passenger side is in the intensive care unit right now fighting for his life.  JT, my friend who was driving, he died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  When the doctors did toxicology of his blood, they found that his blood alcohol concentration was over .08%.  I sat there in my bed not knowing what to think, I wanted to go back to my dream world of a good life.  This was completely unreal to me; my father said I was scheduled for surgery for my leg, which had been mangled pretty bad in the collision.  After my family was finished talking and visiting with me, the police had come in to ask me some questions.  They were conducting an investigation into the crash, because there was alcohol involved.  I told them the entire story, they simply nodded, no expression, taking notes at what I was saying.  For them this was not the first time doing this, and surely was not going to be the last.  I went into surgery and spent the next two weeks in the hospital recovering from my injury, learning how to walk on crutches, and just trying to get my head wrapped around what had happened.