I went to my first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 1993, and one of the first things I remember is that they had coffee for just a quarter a cup. The price around here hasn’t gone up, either. And no one gave me a hard time if I didn’t have a quarter to contribute; it was […]
Heroin Addiction Stories — Jazz and Heroin: My Real-Life Heroin Addiction Story
Heroin addiction stories run the gamut, and I hate to say it this way, but I can tell you that mine is one of the worst you’ll ever read. I can tell y’all one thing for certain: I got introduced to an adult world at a very young age. The reason for this was because […]
Is Alcoholism a Mental Illness? Absolutely
Alcoholism is absolutely a mental illness, and so is drug addiction. They’re as dangerous as depression, as debilitating as anxiety, and as horrible as OCD. Setting aside for a moment the fact that alcoholism is defined as a mental illness by just about any doctor you’ll talk to (and is also defined that way in […]
Long-Term Effects of Substance Abuse
The long-term effects of substance abuse can be incredibly serious. Substance abuse destroys lives. When you use drugs for a short time, you may not experience negative repercussions, but any length of use exposes you to possible long-term addiction and potentially devastating effects. Knowing these long-term effects of substance abuse may help stop you, or […]
The Stages of My Alcoholism
The First Stage of My Alcoholism—It Runs in the Family I’m 14. We go to visit my grandmother. She’ll die a few years later. She’s drinking a handle of Jack Daniels by herself. It will be decades before I learn that my grandfather had decades of sobriety. It will be a decade before I learn […]