A 13-year-old all-American boy, he had his life ahead of him: sports, fun, friends and girlfriends, cars, college, jobs, and more. He could have been whatever he wanted to be—if only he’d known what to do and what not to do. The American Dream was in his future—until drugs and alcohol shattered it into thousands of tiny pieces.

How low can a person go? How dark can life become? Matt (not his real name) can tell you; he knows because he’s been there. Alcohol and other drugs make a pretty good combination if you want to feel good for a little while but mess up your life for a long time.
 
By the age of 13, Matt was experimenting with inhalants and alcohol. The early teen years are impressionable years, and he was easily impressed by others, including an older stepbrother who got Matt started drinking. Then he tried mixing the alcohol with marijuana. According to Matt, each was good by itself, but mixing the two “felt so good that I was hooked.”

Life continued some degree of normalcy, though, until Matt turned 16. He had farm chores to do in the evenings, played football for two years, and had a part-time job after school. In the meantime, however, he was drinking and experimenting with drugs whenever he had a chance. He says that he did most of his drinking and drugs in high school, but he continued using after graduation too.

Getting alcohol was never a problem for Matt; he got it from “older guys, brothers, dads . . . . They had marijuana too, but I usually got it from a group of bikers.” When he arrived at school two or three mornings per week, he and his buddies would get high on marijuana before they went to class. Once a week, they left school halfway through the day to go drinking and do drugs.

By the time he was 16, Matt had moved beyond experimenting, noting, “When I got my driver’s license, I really began using. I used for three years—solid. I used anything I could get my hands on. I drank some in the evenings and every weekend.” Everything he could get his hands on included meth, acid, mushrooms, cocaine, and assorted prescription pills. He sold marijuana to get other drugs, explaining that a pound of marijuana “could get me anything I needed.”  He bought the prescription medication from people who had “extra” pills from their own prescriptions and used and/or traded them. In fact, prescription medicine became his “drug of choice” because it was readily available and because he could control the pills he took to guarantee the result he wanted to achieve. For example, if he needed to wake up, he took one pill; if he needed to calm down, he took another. Drugs, Matt says, “completely rip you from reality and any emotion. The pills calm chaos and make you completely numb.”

During this time Matt was arrested several times. Sometimes after he got into trouble, he “cleaned up,” but he always got into trouble again. As he said, “I hung out, sold drugs, and partied.” After high-school graduation, Matt tried two days of college and quit. He reports that he became very antisocial; had a high level of fear, which he displayed as aggression; and had no friends. His lowest point came after three events: a bad acid trip, a girlfriend left him, and he had fights with some friends. In a drunken stupor, he was told by the one person remaining, “You’ve just about lost your last friend.”

Matt explains, “I had nobody left. I took stock of my life—but then I drank the next day. But that was the beginning of the end.” He tried recovery on his own for about 30 days, but he was miserable. Then he found his way to Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) He reports, “I was so young; I had no idea. Others at A.A. shared where they had been, and I realized that others had done these things too and were struggling. Then I met a guy who had been sober for four years and had all that I wanted. This guy was willing to work with me.”

Over a period of several years, Matt worked at recovery. The first two years were difficult, but by the fourth year, he says, “I had a good year and felt I had built a foundation—that I knew what I had to do to stay sober.” Although he had doubts, he had good moments as well. He formed solid relationships with other recovering alcoholics and put safeguards in place. He also found faith in God.

Matt states that today his life has come full cycle. Friends ask him for help. He has re-established a relationship with his family and enjoys life. Matt earned an associate’s degree and would like to return to school to earn a bachelor’s and perhaps a master’s degree. At 31, he has a good job as a union trade worker and is also involved in a successful business arrangement. He is clean and plans to stay that way, stating, “Life is what I make it.”

When asked, Matt says he thinks kids get into trouble with alcohol and other drugs for several reasons. For one thing, kids are impressionable; the rap and rock culture leads them to believe that particular lifestyle is glamorous. He also blames the breakdown of the American family. Of great concern, according to Matt, who knows from personal experience, is the availability of, and kids’ curiosity and sampling of, prescription drugs. “Kids are open to anything; so much is readily available that kids will try whatever they can.”

Of course, the majority of young people do not choose the same path that Matt chose. Using drugs is, after all, a choice before it becomes a habit. Personal responsibility should play an important role; it can lead an impressionable kid to choose not to participate in that lifestyle. Fortunately, many kids do choose more wisely. Others, however, make the same unwise choices that Matt did. For them, alcohol and other drug abuse can cause medical, physical, and emotional effects that can become permanent.

Matt is still young, but his life has been filled with challenges. He faced those challenges, many of which he created himself, and overcame them the hard way. His story—and the story of many others like Matt—lead us to ponder related challenges. Substance abuse is all around us. What can we do to help?