Hunter’s story
For Steps Together, there are no words in the English language that can be used to describe my gratitude for you all.
Sober since 2017
At the age of 12 I was already completely powerless over drugs
It was just, it was a completely normal life. But at twelve years old, I started to really experience I was diagnosed with ADHD and some other stuff like anxiety and depression, which is quite young to be diagnosed with that. And they prescribed me tomedications and also I was very, very uncomfortable with who I was as a person. I was overweight and I had this weird haircut and my teeth were crooked and I definitely wasn’t like one of the popular kids. And I really, really felt that.
So I started to become attracted to older people that were just a few years older than me, but were already experimenting with weed and alcohol and all of that. So I kind of gravitated toward that. I started to mix weed and alcohol with the medication that was being prescribed to me and I became a very angry young man. I wasn’t happy anyway, but it made me more so angry. And essentially I got arrested for the first time at twelve years old as well. So this is just like amassive turning point in my life and all these things are happening and I getthen put on probation at twelve years old. At that time, I was completely, already completely powerless over drugs. So I would continuously fail drug tests knowing that I was going to get in trouble, but I would do it anyway. And when I was 15 years old, I just turned 15 years old, my childhood best friend got into a drunk driving accident and he passed away. And it was very, very traumatic for me. So it just progressively got worse and worse. And by the time I was 16, I had already been in and out of different juvenile detention centers and just already on a bad path.
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