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In the spirit of my upcoming 8 years of sobriety anniversary, I thought I would write a little bit about my time as a junkie and my recovery.

Looking back, it is amazing how much I have changed during the last 8 years. I remember when I first quit using my drug of choice, Heroin; I thought I would remember the experience, vividly, for the rest of my life. I had assumed that it would be etched into my “mental book of personal experiences” deeply. I was incorrect in my assumptions. With time, memory fades and it is almost impossible to feel those raw emotions that you thought would once suffocate you.

Now, on to the story…

How Heroin Stole my Soul and the Long Road to Recovery

The year was 1998. I was working a great job and was stressed to the max with the long hours, constant traveling and lack of personal life. I needed an out and unfortunately found that “out” in the form of drugs.

Heroin is not JUST a drug, it is a lifestyle. It has this way of numbing you from pain, not just physical pain, but emotional pain. Let’s face it, everyone needs a break from reality from time to time. Most people do not make that leap to something as serious as heroin, but I have always been an extremist so the leap was not that far for me.

I was 23 years old and I went down hard. It started as just a weekend thing – then progressed to every other NIGHT. I kept telling myself that as long as I did not need a shot in the morning, then I did not have a problem. Denial is amazing that way, it can play some serious tricks on your mind. Denial can literally force you to believe your own lies, the lies you tell yourself to make it through the day without conflict or pain. Denial is the easy way out of hell.

Before I knew it, I was a hardcore junkie. I was not working because of the whole Martha Stewart issue, which I believe was the catalyst to my downfall. I was home all day, every day, with nothing better to do but “medicate” myself.

6 months went by and I was losing weight at an alarming rate, I was 80 lbs at my worst. I was getting sicker and sicker. I finally decided it was time to quit. I came to that conclusion one chilly Spring morning at 6AM.

The night before I decided to attempt quitting, I used every last drop of my heroin supply and went to bed. I had every intention of toughing out the next morning. I woke at 6AM chilled to the bone, but laying in a pool of sour sweat. I had to pee, but dreaded making the 20 foot trek to the bathroom to do so.

I finally forced myself out of bed, the urgency to pee taking over. I walked to the bathroom and began to feel sick to my stomach, I had to vomit.

I leaned over the toilet, which had not been cleaned in months, and began to dry heave into the dirty water. I happened to look down at my right arm and noticed an abscess leaking puss. This site made me even sicker.

After my episode, I pulled myself up and started to splash my face with water in the sink. While doing this, I caught a glimpse of myself in the dirty mirror and what stared back at me was not me at all, but some horrifying shell of me.

My skin was pale and pock-marked, my eyes, once green and bright were now black accented by the deep black circles under them. My hair hung in dirty clumps around my emaciated face and neck. My teeth were a grayish/yellow from not being brushed in weeks. I scared myself so badly that I just screamed and cried at the top of my lungs for what must have been 45 minutes.

I was 23 years old and my life, as I knew it, was over. Everyone who ever doubted me, my success, my happiness – were being proven right. I had succumbed to a life of nightmares.

I picked up the phone and called the ONLY person who I knew would understand and do anything to help me, my Father. I was on a plane to South Florida the next afternoon to detox.

The process of detoxing from heroin is EXACTLY like you see in the movies. There is no over dramatization, it is REALLY like that. You can’t eat, you can’t lay down, sit still, you yawn every 30 seconds, you have insane bouts of diarrhea which last for 20 minutes at a time, your spine feels like it was replaced with a cold metal object, you hallucinate and most importantly you do not sleep for one single second for at least 2 weeks.

During my detox, I was rushed to a hospital by my Father who felt helpless watching me in such agony. I could see in his eyes that he would do anything, give anything to rid me of what I was feeling. There was nothing he could do to alleviate my pain. I felt so bad putting him through that.

After waiting in the ER for what felt like days, I was brought to an examining room in the back where I was told to remove all of my clothing and put on a blue paper “Johnnie” (gown). Dreading taking off my clothes because I was SO DAMN COLD, I did what I was told and sat on a cold metal table. I must have passed out because the next thing I remember is waking up to short, yet insanely profound conversation.

I opened my eyes and to find a blonde girl wearing a short white coat and a stethoscope, I now realize that she was 3rd year Medical Student but did not make that connection at the time, staring at me.

“So, what brings you here today, Gloria?” Medical Student

“I am going through heroin withdrawal and its bad”, I replied.

“How long have you been using and have you been injecting or snorting?” Medical Student

“Mainline injections for 6 months”

She then does a short exam, checks my legs (circulation) and checks for blood clots and/or swelling. She feels my liver for swelling, checks my heart rate and reflexes.

When she finishes, she sits down and looks me straight in the eye and asks…

“How old are you, Gloria?”

“23, I will be 24 in July”, I replied

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I am just about your age and I am a Doctor. You are a heroin addict. How could you let that happen?”

I still remember the feeling I had when she asked me that. Tears sprung to my eyes and I couldn’t answer her. I wasn’t offended; it was a real eye-opener for me. There she was doing something I always dreamt of doing and here I was with an abscess in my arm and my life flushed away. How could I let that happen? She was right.

From that moment on, I decided that I would never let myself go down this dark road again. Drugs are the “easy” way out of hell and I would be damned if I would ever take the easy way out of anything ever again.

The two years of depression that followed my physical withdrawal solidified my decision. There is NO PAIN and no hell worse than a depression that deep. I would wake up every morning and try to think of reasons to not kill myself.

However difficult, I made it through. Statistically, only 2% of heroin addicted people get off the drug and stay off without methadone per year. 2%! That is a crazy statistic, almost unbelievable, but completely true.

That girl made a HUGE difference in my life at that moment. She took a huge risk in saying that to me, considering that she was only a 3rd year Med Student. I respect her for taking that risk and thank her for being the alarm clock that I needed to rouse me from that dark slumber.

So 8 years ago I was in a place I never thought I could come out of. I was in a place I never imagined I could be in the first place. While it was a hard time for me, I do not regret it, for it made me the person I am today. On the same token, if I had never fallen like that maybe I would be happier today. I will never really know the truth and I guess it really doesn’t matter…

One last thing, kids…. Don’t do drugs. Seriously. It’s just NOT worth your life, trust me.