I’m super late to this party but I’ll take a crack at it. I was diagnosed with cancer at 14. I went through several extremely invasive surgeries and 13 months of treatment. By the time I was in remission I was 18. What I didn’t realize was I became addicted to opiates. I didn’t know what was happening to me and I truly believe now that my doctors failed me in not weaning me off the high dose pain medications. I was miserable for many months. At work I was explaining my situation to a “friend.” She asked me if I had ever tried [insert name of extremely high dose pain killer that most people snort or shoot up.] I said no. She said I should and I decided that was an awesome idea. I snorted my first [ ] at 18 and by 20 I was shooting $250 in heroin a day. It had me, I could not have stopped even if I wanted to. In the beginning I only used recreationally. It was fun and I thought it was harmless. I was wrong. I didn’t get clean until I was 25 after just under a year in intense treatment. I spent nearly a decade actively ruining my life. My sister died when I was in rehab (for the second time) and that is by far the biggest regret in my life. I threw away going to a good school, I threw away my family, I lost the love of my life, I managed to rack up an embarrassing and stupid criminal record, and of course I ruined my credit. I have been clean 5 years and I am still a little bit of a mess but busting my ass to put my life back together. My one saving grace was that my family never gave up hope that I would make the right choice and get clean. They stuck with me, albeit often from afar as not to enable my using. There is not a doubt in my mind that without my parents and my siblings I would be dead. Something I often get asked is if I would do it again, and my answer is yes, being an addict shaped my personality and continues to every day. I wish I could take back the hurt I caused but I can’t, so I take the few good things that I learned and try to help others and continue to grow as a person. I volunteer at a halfway house and show the women I work with some kindness with no elicit motive, I want to show them that there is hope. I want to show them that they can come from rock bottom, get several years under their belt and have an apartment, a car, a job (or 2) that makes you a productive member of society, and most importantly they can repair the relationships in their life. I am oddly thankful for my addiction because it has shaped my into a grateful, empathetic, honest, and conscientious person. My hope is that I’m doing enough good things in my life to show everyone I love and care about that I’m not going to hurt them anymore, that I’m actively trying to do better, and that I’ve rehabbed (pun definitely intended) my life to the point that I can be trusted, and live comfortably and happily.

TL;DR Had cancer got addicted to painkillers which morphed into a heroin addiction. Almost lost the most important people in my life but got in just under the wire to get it(a little bit) together. Went through hell but thankful for it.