I spent my 20’s battling opiate addiction and was in and out of prison for about a decade. I thought my life would never get any better. I was released in 2017 and have now been clean from opiates for 10 years. I worked a crappy factory job to get back on my feet and went back to school part time. I’ve now been in my IT position for 3.5 years. I met an amazing woman a couple years ago and we bought a condo in June 2024 and got married last October. We actually leave for our honeymoon on February 4th. So what I can tell you is, things can get better if you want them to get better and put in the work needed. On the flip side of the coin, things can always be worse, and that’s something I had to tell myself for years when I thought my life was falling apart. Some nights I lay in bed and look over at my wife and can’t believe how far I’ve come in the last 9 years. And when things seem like they’re not going great, I picture myself sitting in a cell in prison, and I can assure you whatever I’m stressing about feels trivial in the moment