Personal Narrative: My Journey With Addiction And Recovery

Second semester of my sophomore year is when my life got flipped around. It was the middle of the season for basketball when I was struck by a knee on my shoulder at practice. I didn 't think much about it at the time, all I knew was that I was in pain. I was a starting post on JV as well as a full time varsity player. The last thing I needed was to get injured when my basketball career was just getting started.

As I spoon JIF creamy peanut butter and Breyers coffee ice cream into my mouth I contemplate my AA meeting. I purchased the Alcoholics Anonymous book a few months ago when you told me about the group therapy opportunity. The book is a little bit boring or maybe it’s too long and I get discouraged. Anyways, I was extremely excited to go to my first AA meeting.

White (2007) describes this process as being transient, with previous researchers Matza (1964) and Waldorf (1983) referring to it as ‘drift’, rather than a conscious experience. “Drift” suggests that there is little in-depth involvement in treatment with no personal change having taken place (Matza, 1964; Waldorf, 1983; White; 2007). It is often found that recovery leaves no lasting mark on the individual’s personal identity is left. For others, recovering from substance use may become a defining feature of their lives as it is a process of growth and change (Laudet, 2007; White & Kurtz,

One Recover really helped my brother get past his addiction and focus on the more important things in life. Riad instantly found a new group of friends and even got a girlfriend; He reverted his senioritis and began focusing on his future life in college; and best of all, since that incident in Sacramento my brother as been sober from all drugs and

Lani: I was helping for someone’s project for COMM 245; I was in the video lab, in the studio. I was on campus and decided to contact everyone I knew who comes to the school. I remember I sent out a snap saying guys I think there is a shooting, be careful and then I started sending out individual texts to people making sure they were okay, like hey are you good? Stay out of an area.

When I was eleven years old, I tore my anterior cruciate ligament, more commonly known as the ACL while playing in a football game. Being only eleven years old, this was a pretty unusual injury as most ACL tears do not happen until mid to later teens. Hearing that I tore my ACL was pretty devastating. I did not know much about it, but I knew enough to know I would be out of sports for a long time. The next nine months of my life were spent with one goal in mind: getting back to sports.

Our first encounter in this sinkhole of a house didn’t go over well: you might even say we hated each other. He was a conspiracy theorist, that much I knew, and he made it easy, dressed up like he was auditioning for the part of token Crack Addict. At first glance I thought today had to be Halloween, this man had to be trick-or-treating. I was wrong. Really he was crazy.

While at some times it may get easier there are things that will test your strength and you will have to overcome those things without relying on those addictions if you want to stay

I’m laying on the ground my ears are ringing as I slowly get to my feet I notice a sharp pain in my left arm.   This whole idea was put in my head about a month before. Recently,  at 5:30 I am sitting under a pavilion listening to the rock and roll music blasting in the background while eating a bagel I 'm not saying much I am looking back at the my first year of riding and wonder how i got to wear i am today, awaiting the start of my first 100 mile mtb race, i recognize how breaking my arm was instrumental to my success as a mountain biker.

This past fall I finished my internship for my bachelor of education. It was an awful experience and it is through the lens of this story that I was able to start to come to terms with how I fell towards it. It helped me realize that by continuing to allow the negative memories of past to rule my life I was essentially killing all of the good and positive things about myself while feeding the monster that threated to pull me into a downward spin.

I could not recover by simply stopping using. In AA it is said that “if nothing changes, nothing changes”. That small quote means so much. It is just that simple, if I didn’t change my play grounds and play mates, I was surely to continue down the path of destruction. Addiction is not something I am proud of, but I believe it led me to where I am today.

He/she must feel compelled to completely change their lifestyle and work every day to complete their task. The next thing a recovering addict must do is explore treatment options to help cope with the stress and feelings that may happen. Another way an addict can recover is by reaching out for support from family, friends, or therapist. Lastly, the addict needs to base their new life on a meaningful addiction free life. He/she must always focus on obtaining their goal to ensure they will be addiction free.

In my brief life, I have overcome a lot of adversity. My mom fled Mexico with her three young children to escape domestic violence. When we came to this country we had only a few personal belongings and the promise of a better future. We came to this country and lived in a small trailer with no toilet other than a bucket, and no shower except for the one that was lent to us from the kindness of a stranger, our new neighbor. As a single parent, my mother had to work day and night to support us.

Before my dad’s death in 1989 I had suffered from mental, sexual, and physical abuse at different times, from different people. I blamed him for not stopping it, for not saving me, and his death added to my pile of excuses to fail. An alcoholic right from the start, I learned how to drink like the pros around me: as fast as I could until the bottle was empty. I found this fun and the lack of accountability was empowering. I hated being weak and I especially hated being the victim, so I became manipulative, and took advantage of the weakness of others.

High school has impacted my life in so many ways. High School taught me so many things, from personal relationships to creating a relationship with my education. As a freshman, I made a huge amount of mistakes and I regret doing foolish things, but I’ve realized, I was only maturing into the young adult I am today. Freshman year, I was out of focus and I was only trying to find myself. I would also prioritize other things and ignore my parent’s advice, where they would tell me to focus in school and give it my full attention.