Faces of addiction: Eric's story
Eric had his first drink in his teenage years, but didn’t realize he has a problem until he failed out of college. At that point, he feared his choices would begin to kill him, so Eric sought help. Today, he encourages others to do the same.
Transcript
I knew that I could not go on. Something was pulling the strings,
and I had no choice in the matter anymore.
I had my first drink around 14, 15. That was the first time I started. There was a time that I recognized
that my drinking and drugs were causing a problem. One of the first symptoms that I saw it wasn't working for me
was when I flunked out of college. And I was about 19, 20 years old.
And I knew something was wrong. I just didn't know how wrong it was. In that moment, I knew, for me, that if I continued
to live, be, and function a certain way,
that I was going to die. That scared me more than anything else.
As a recovering person, I attend 12-step meetings on a regular basis. And I utilize that to the best of my ability.
To someone who's watching this, it's OK. What's not OK is to pretend that you
don't have something going on. But if you're struggling with something, anything, talk to somebody.
Get with somebody. At this point in the game, you're not unique. There are people out there who would
addiction recovery
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