My drug use.

For the last few days every where I turn I find myself thinking of drugs, explaining to others what I've done, where I've been and most of all how I got out of it. First I will start with what I've done, well the short answer is most everything but that answer never satisfies anyone. From age 12 to 16 I experimented with the usual stuff, pot, hash and acid. Nothing became a habit at that time but once I was 16 alcohol became a factor, I couldn't get enough or often enough, thankfully I couldn't afford as much as I would of liked, priorities were more on the girls I was chasing. After I turn 18 I was pretty well clean for a few years trying to be normal but at 21 it struck. I became a chronic pot smoker, that was my favorite. Unfortunately the people I surrounded myself with began to have an influence on that, before long I was willing to try anything, due to my living circumstances coke was the most available to me but after a few tries I decided that I hated snorting anything. So I proceeded to try smoking it, not good enough so crack and crystal meth came next, well needless to say that lead to some really dark places with some strange cast of characters, the things I saw in that period of still haunt me to this day. I even tried some of the variations of ecstasy and even tried heroin a couple of times.
Then one day I realized I was thoroughly addicted to the meth and experiencing a personality change within my self, I could not stand for these two things, after one last party (a four day event) I stopped everything but weed, it hurt like hell but the weed thankfully took the edge off. The hardest part though was the change in lifestyle, having to break contact with every person involved with the hard drugs, friends and family, it broke my heart. For a few years I was a hermit, pot, video games and family tragedies were all that I knew in my spare time. Those were the truly dark times but I slowly came through, and then one day I stopped dead in my tracks with a thought "I'm clean, I've been clean for a year and a half, no pot, no booze, no nothing" I was stunned for a few weeks with that thought.
Since then I have been relaxed about how I live, with the right people I have in my life I have little worries about becoming that person again, I can enjoy a few drinks now and again, the occasional joint and never with a craving for more. I am thankful every day that my addictions were all chemical based and that I never truly an addict. I would like to say that their is a cure because of my experiences but that would be wrong, I was lucky where to many that I knew were not.
I have helped a few people the last few years get clean, but who I try helping and my own experiences tell me the only truth I can speak to. Only those who are truly ready can get better, those that are not have to fight everyday to be clean. The path is as different as each individual is.