Hooked on Heroin and Alcohol
Levi’s dad struggled with the disease of alcoholism and he grew up in a very dysfunctional home, which eventually led him down a path to Heroin and Alcohol addiction. He spent his time growing up with a lot of ups and downs, never knowing what the mood was going to be on a daily basis. His home life thrived on the chaos and drama that surrounds addiction.
Levi played sports, did well in school, and got to the peer pressure stage. With a desire to fit in and feel accepted, he started to smoke cigarettes at the age of 12.
Levi gave up sports out of a lack of interest once he started to socialize more at school. Wanting to hang with the “cool crowd,” he started spending most of this time with the skater kids. With his new friends and lack of healthy hobbies, Levi began drinking Alcohol. He tells us that he continued drinking and using harder drugs after transitioning to high school.
Cocaine Addiction in Highschool
Alcohol wasn’t the only substance that Levi used in high school; at the age of 16, Levi started experimenting with hard drugs like Cocaine. It didn’t take long before Levi found himself seriously addicted to Cocaine.
At this time, the trouble he got into led him to get kicked out of his dad’s house and he ended up with his mom. While living with his mom, Levi didn’t have any rules to follow and was free to go down the path of self-destruction.
Addiction takes everything—still a 16-year-old boy, Levi’s addiction took over his life and he started losing the things he valued, like his truck. Soon, he dropped out of high school the last semester of his senior year.
Originally, Levi had plans of going to college and becoming a successful business person. He also talks about how he wanted to be a psychiatrist; however, at this time in his life, Alcohol and drugs were his number one priority.
How to Stop Using Meth
When he was 17 years old, Levi’s addiction to Cocaine transpired into Crystal Meth abuse. He tells us how fortunate he feels that he stopped doing Methamphetamine after about a year of using the drug.
Unfortunately, with the disease of addiction, if it isn’t one drug it’s another. For this reason, Levi’s efforts to stop using Meth only led him back to Alcohol abuse and addiction. Struggling with full-blown alcoholism, Levi drank Alcohol every day. He talks about how he just knew he had to have some mind-altering substance in his body; that he had to be “messed up” no matter what. ‘
Before he turned 19, Levi was living with Alcohol addiction but managed to go back to school and get his diploma. During his 20s, his drinking got progressively worse and spun out of control. Levi explains that he got to a point where you never knew what kind of mood he would be in, whether psychotic or abusive and controlling.
Prescription pill abuse then came into the picture, however, his “pill phase” didn’t stop his heavy drinking. He soon moved on to using a more fatal mixture of substances, Heroin and Alcohol.
Heroin and DUI Arrest
Levi decided to move to different parts of the United States. First, he moved to Tennessee and then he went on to live in Oregon. In Oregon, Levi met a girl who was using and addicted to Heroin. After a year of smoking Heroin with his girlfriend, they began using needles.
The physical dependence on Heroin kept Levi in a psychological state of survival. He would try to get just enough to feel okay and function properly, stating that you become “just a shell of a human being.” Levi made a handful of attempts to get clean by going to detox facilities but would always end up back on Heroin.
He shares that by using Heroin and Alcohol he ended up getting three DUI’s in two months. At the third DUI, Levi went to jail, got clean and was released to a rehab facility. Regretfully, he was kicked out of the rehab center for fraternizing with females and not taking the program seriously.
With a newfound desire to get clean, Levi left Oregon and moved back to Virginia, where his mother lived. However, he states that he was afraid of being back home and that he would die.
Rehab to Narcotics Anonymous
Levi’s fears immediately led him to the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous. As a regular meeting goer, he fell into a pattern of relapse. Levi would get 90 days clean then relapse, repeating this cycle several times.
One of the times he relapsed and overdosed on Heroin. When he overdosed, the people he thought were his friends, robbed him and left him in a puddle of mud next to a dumpster. He says that at this moment, he realized that “this is what my life has been reduced to, I’m worth more than this…”
After the overdose, Levi checked into a psychiatric facility for about a week and went on to work a 12-step program. With a year clean, he started dating a girl and ended up making her his higher power. He stopped going to NA meetings and fell into a state of complacency, which ultimately resulted in another relapse.
With many ups and downs, Levi expressed gratitude about how he made it back to the program alive. Now Levi has 10 months clean and gets to spend his time helping others.
Unlike before, today he is able to make a choice: to stay clean or get high. Smiling, Levi tells us that he knows what drug and Alcohol addiction means for him, “…death, so it’s not really a hard choice.”
If you someone you know is suffering from drug or Alcohol addiction and want to talk to someone who understands, call (866)578-7471. There is a way out of addiction and a better life waiting for you.
17 comments
The title of this post is so true. The choice when you’re addicted is black and white… there is no gray area.. you either choose to get sober and stop using or you continue to use. Just using once in a blue moon is still using.
The choice is black and white meaning take steps to live again or die which represents the black. The smartest move is the white believe me.
What really hit me is “I’m worth than this” all of us have our own struggle in our life. But we must remember that what we have done is already done, what we need to do is change and avoid repeating the same mistake.
Life is a choice. Background notwithstanding, people can always steer their life in the right direction if they choose to. Levi is a living proof. You’ve done it again detox.
It is absolutely true that when you get addicted to alcohol, then nothing is left in front of you except ruin. Thanks for sharing this information. This is very important for all people who are suffering from drugs and alcohol.
It is hard to get out of addiction. I even find it harder when you get addicted to the harder drugs. All in all, one needs to remain strong and battle the addition to the end.
When yoh are addicted to something, you will surely have 2 choices. Either you try to get away from what you are addicted to or you continue. Detox has really been helping
Levi forgets so soon what’s at risk when he made his girlfriend her priority. His priority should be following the 12 step program judiciously and loving himself better. Other love will follow
Stay clean or get high? Sounds simple looks simple from the outside looking in that is. This is why addicts eventually relapse as it is more of a mental battle as suppose to a physical one. This is where support system matters.
When you have made your brain believe doing drugs can boost your moral, can make you belong, that’s when you find yourself in the black side of addiction. The white side is when you believe you can change and work towards the change 100%
What a sad story from levi. But it is so great he fought it through the help of detox. Kudos detox
Hmmmḿ. This is true but the decision lies in the hands of whoever is concerned. I think the best is to take the right decision.
The only decision I know that will better the life of the addict is to desist from taking the drugs. Thanks to Detox Rehab programme.
When once you want to start hanging out with the cool crowd you might get influenced. so it better to know when to let go. But meth addiction can be a thing of the past with determination.
After the addiction of addiction, we see only two things, either white or black. this is a very bad thing we should stay away from it. Thanks for sharing this blog.
I couldn’t agree more. The choices we make daily is a go or no-go. And the decision to make your life more healthy is on our hands.
There are definitely choices and I know the choice Levi made today to live clean and be free from addictions. It is better this way