Welcome to Celebrating Life In Recovery, 00:00:11.12\00:00:12.89 I'm Cheri your host. 00:00:12.93\00:00:14.17 Today we are talking about, is the meth? - meth! 00:00:14.21\00:00:17.11 Oh Man, You have got to join us, because you know what? 00:00:17.14\00:00:20.36 It is all over the country and we are going to see 00:00:20.40\00:00:22.74 what it does to people and to families. 00:00:22.77\00:00:25.00 Welcome, have you ever met someone that as you're talking 00:00:53.54\00:00:56.49 you are thinking we are so alike. 00:00:56.53\00:00:59.01 I feel like if they did a DNA test, we would be related 00:00:59.05\00:01:03.57 somewhere, and I met Chris, I exactly felt that way 00:01:03.61\00:01:08.09 about you, from the first time we met. 00:01:08.13\00:01:10.24 Oh that is quite an honor, because like I said I was 00:01:10.27\00:01:12.61 star struck by you because I've been a fan for a while. 00:01:12.64\00:01:15.11 From the show because you watch the show before. - yes. 00:01:15.15\00:01:18.19 Well you are legendary in recovery circles, and when 00:01:18.23\00:01:21.24 I first - how far is that? - yeah you are. 00:01:21.28\00:01:23.40 When I first started getting involved in recovery on my 00:01:23.43\00:01:26.64 own and also in Christian recovery, everybody said, 00:01:26.67\00:01:29.85 have you heard of Cheri Peters? 00:01:29.88\00:01:31.06 You have got to see her show, so you are out there. 00:01:31.10\00:01:34.26 Your name is out there. 00:01:34.30\00:01:35.35 You know what is really interesting about that is 00:01:35.38\00:01:38.44 I'm hoping, like I just got two letters handed to me 00:01:38.48\00:01:40.91 as we were getting ready to do this and it was from 00:01:40.95\00:01:43.31 different people that were coming out of a various things. 00:01:43.35\00:01:46.67 One says I feel like I am in a boat in the middle of 00:01:46.70\00:01:49.47 nowhere and I don't know where to land. 00:01:49.50\00:01:51.50 When I look at this program at least I know there are 00:01:51.53\00:01:54.91 people that have landed and have gone before me and 00:01:54.94\00:01:58.03 that there is hope, so I'm hoping with this program 00:01:58.07\00:02:01.30 does with those in recovery is that God knows exactly 00:02:01.34\00:02:04.53 where we are at. 00:02:04.57\00:02:05.67 He knows exactly where we are going to pull in to and 00:02:05.70\00:02:08.95 until we figure out how to stand on our own two feet, 00:02:08.99\00:02:12.20 is let's do that for each other. 00:02:12.24\00:02:14.13 I'm hoping that we do that. 00:02:14.17\00:02:15.92 On this set we have got your boss here. - that's Kent. 00:02:15.96\00:02:20.31 Your folks are here. - my mom and my stepdad. - cool. 00:02:20.35\00:02:24.67 And some folks that you work with in counseling. 00:02:24.70\00:02:28.23 Andrew and La Donna. - so I wanted to say, and Tom 00:02:28.26\00:02:31.75 works at 3ABN and also works with you. 00:02:31.79\00:02:34.29 So I want to say in the whole café they are all connected 00:02:34.33\00:02:39.25 to you in some way, which is a cool thing. - it is. 00:02:39.29\00:02:42.11 So you are going to tell your story, and tell your story 00:02:42.15\00:02:45.00 in a way that even the audience will feel that connection. 00:02:45.03\00:02:47.85 - no pressure there. - I want you to be brilliant and 00:02:47.89\00:02:51.82 normal, no. - and be real. - and all that stuff. 00:02:51.86\00:02:55.93 You know I want you to, because you know I know 00:02:55.96\00:02:59.96 about recovery is that I know the more people can get 00:03:00.00\00:03:03.58 to know us and our journey, the more they are proud of God 00:03:03.61\00:03:07.11 and our recovery, that's what I love about recovery 00:03:07.14\00:03:09.61 is that part of it. 00:03:09.65\00:03:10.62 I think to me my story starts with my earliest memory 00:03:10.63\00:03:14.95 of childhood, and I guess I was about five years old. 00:03:14.98\00:03:18.61 Maybe a little older, my mom would remember this very 00:03:18.65\00:03:21.77 well, but I remember coming home from school one day and 00:03:21.81\00:03:24.90 my dad being passed out drunk in the chair. 00:03:24.94\00:03:28.48 For some reason, I don't know exactly what he did, but 00:03:28.52\00:03:31.38 he scared my brother and I so bad that we were hiding 00:03:31.41\00:03:33.59 around the side of the house, it was wintertime. 00:03:33.63\00:03:35.78 We hid out there until mom came home and what I didn't 00:03:35.82\00:03:39.91 know until later was that mom was a Christian woman and 00:03:39.95\00:03:44.01 strong and everything else. 00:03:44.05\00:03:45.37 My dad of course was an alcoholic, she had to call 00:03:45.40\00:03:48.20 people to come and take him into treatment himself. 00:03:48.23\00:03:51.02 So I think a lot for me that is where my story starts. 00:03:51.05\00:03:53.80 My earliest memories of my dad being intoxicated, 00:03:53.83\00:03:57.03 and that was scary. 00:03:57.07\00:03:59.34 Unless you have been raised in an alcoholic home you don't 00:03:59.37\00:04:02.98 realize that it is never one way or another in your home. 00:04:03.02\00:04:06.16 The assessments you have to make from the time you are 00:04:06.20\00:04:08.89 really little, change every time you open the door. 00:04:08.92\00:04:11.17 - right. - every time somebody comes in the room. 00:04:11.21\00:04:13.39 And that is what people don't understand unless they have 00:04:13.42\00:04:15.85 been through that you do not know what kind of freak show 00:04:15.88\00:04:18.09 you will walk through the door and find every single day 00:04:18.13\00:04:20.30 when you come home from school. 00:04:20.33\00:04:21.66 It keeps you like in this constant state of arousal of 00:04:21.69\00:04:24.92 fear, is dad going to be drunk today. 00:04:24.95\00:04:27.81 It's dad to be sober today, because when he was sober 00:04:27.85\00:04:31.64 he was amazing and fun and wonderful man, but he wasn't 00:04:31.68\00:04:35.44 that way very often unfortunately. 00:04:35.48\00:04:37.45 I loved him very much. - but when he was drunk it was 00:04:37.49\00:04:41.61 really difficult. - yeah, yeah. 00:04:41.65\00:04:44.28 But that is all I knew. - yeah, I remember talking to 00:04:44.32\00:04:48.95 somebody I worked with one time and she said, 00:04:48.98\00:04:50.75 she wouldn't even come out of her room at night from when 00:04:50.79\00:04:54.16 she was a tiny little girl that she had a potted plant 00:04:54.19\00:04:57.38 in her room and if she had to go to the bathroom she would 00:04:57.41\00:05:00.09 pee in the plant rather than come out because it was so 00:05:00.12\00:05:02.77 abusive to come out if dad was drunk. 00:05:02.80\00:05:05.52 I'm thinking that for normal people, they have no idea 00:05:05.55\00:05:09.51 what it feels like to live under that kind of fear. 00:05:09.54\00:05:13.43 That kind of I don't know how to act, I don't want to be 00:05:13.46\00:05:17.70 yelled at, I just don't, I just don't want to go out 00:05:17.73\00:05:21.94 there. - right, right. 00:05:21.97\00:05:23.74 Well mom, my mom left my dad. - how old were you when 00:05:23.78\00:05:28.55 she left? - I think I was about five mom? Yeah! 00:05:28.59\00:05:32.49 Yes I was about five, I just remember he was the cool parent 00:05:32.53\00:05:36.39 and he was always taking off and hitchhiking across 00:05:36.42\00:05:39.16 country, he probably was in rehab and lying to me. 00:05:39.20\00:05:41.90 Which is true. - but I always thought he had this 00:05:43.62\00:05:45.56 glamorous exciting existence. 00:05:45.59\00:05:47.27 He was off hitchhiking across the country, but I honestly 00:05:47.31\00:05:49.65 think he was in rehab, wasn't he mom? - yeah! 00:05:49.68\00:05:52.56 Mom's like shaking her head, but yes hon he was. 00:05:52.60\00:05:55.41 Yeah and I can remember having to go visit him in the 00:05:55.44\00:05:58.06 hospital after a car accidents and everything. 00:05:58.10\00:06:00.36 He was good at his craft of drinking, he was very good at 00:06:00.40\00:06:04.44 it, but she left him and we were about five years old. 00:06:04.47\00:06:08.59 He moved away, we used to get to visit him quite a bit. 00:06:08.62\00:06:13.71 Some of the earliest things I remember about my dad is he 00:06:13.74\00:06:17.56 was really inappropriate with the things he would say 00:06:17.59\00:06:21.37 around me and my brother. 00:06:21.41\00:06:23.28 In what way? Talking about all his different sexual 00:06:23.31\00:06:27.26 partners and the things he was doing behind my mom's back. 00:06:27.30\00:06:30.26 You know, very crude language. 00:06:30.30\00:06:33.34 So I grew up with this mixed message of one thing 00:06:33.37\00:06:37.17 coming from my mom who by this point was taking us to 00:06:37.21\00:06:40.85 church and I accepted Christ at a very early age. 00:06:40.88\00:06:44.48 The first time, you know how that goes! 00:06:44.52\00:06:46.50 I remember at one point, even as a child, wanting to be 00:06:46.53\00:06:50.02 an evangelist and would line up all my friends and I give 00:06:50.06\00:06:53.16 them the what for and would preach to them and make them 00:06:53.19\00:06:56.43 listen to me, but on the other hand I would spend weekends 00:06:56.47\00:06:59.68 with my dad and he would be talking about some girl 00:06:59.71\00:07:02.74 over, talking about his different sexual exploits. 00:07:02.78\00:07:05.77 Really explicit, sexualized talk in front of us. 00:07:05.80\00:07:08.73 Just for a lot of people, do you know now that, that is 00:07:08.76\00:07:12.58 a form of sexual abuse? - yes that is what I was getting 00:07:12.62\00:07:16.41 ready to say, I have learned since then. 00:07:16.44\00:07:17.89 I've done research that's sexual assault, when you are a child 00:07:17.92\00:07:22.05 even just hearing these things - it's to sexualized. 00:07:22.08\00:07:25.01 It is, it is, kids aren't supposed to hear that stuff. 00:07:25.05\00:07:28.26 On top of that, he started, well I guess he kind of 00:07:28.29\00:07:31.47 started making passes at me. 00:07:31.51\00:07:32.82 That is the cleanest way I can put it. 00:07:32.85\00:07:35.86 I was just a kid and I was confused and I didn't 00:07:35.89\00:07:40.09 understand, so by the time I was 12 years old mom had 00:07:40.13\00:07:45.94 married my stepdad and they moved away. 00:07:45.98\00:07:48.21 He is an amazing man, kind of a hero of our family. 00:07:48.24\00:07:52.11 But I still wanted my dad, and I will go see him on the 00:07:52.14\00:07:55.98 weekends and I had started sniffing gasoline. 00:07:56.01\00:07:58.97 So I was doing inhalants by the age of 12. 00:07:59.01\00:08:01.89 I would go and run off and hide in culvert and sniff gas. 00:08:01.93\00:08:06.40 And why? Why what was up? - I don't know. 00:08:06.43\00:08:09.08 So there was no understanding or connection to what that 00:08:09.11\00:08:14.60 was doing for you? - I liked the high. 00:08:14.64\00:08:17.49 You know it is almost like, I don't know if it is just 00:08:17.53\00:08:20.46 something that gets in our blood when ever we come from 00:08:20.49\00:08:23.39 an addict family, but - genetic, generational. 00:08:23.43\00:08:27.68 - generational curses, I call it all of those, behavior. 00:08:27.72\00:08:31.24 But by the time was 12 years old I was sneaking off and 00:08:31.28\00:08:34.77 starting to get high and I was smoking pot. 00:08:34.80\00:08:37.29 My dad's behavior towards me got more and more sexualized 00:08:37.33\00:08:41.76 and he started touching me. 00:08:41.80\00:08:43.86 So anyway I was drinking and doing a lot of things 00:08:43.89\00:08:49.14 I shouldn't have been doing at a very, very early age. 00:08:49.17\00:08:53.99 What is really tough about... as this sexualized behavior 00:08:54.03\00:08:57.96 starts to manifest into some physical behavior, something 00:08:58.00\00:09:01.90 I can point at, is we think it started then and do not realize 00:09:01.93\00:09:05.80 that you were groomed for years before that. 00:09:05.84\00:09:08.08 By the time it was a physical touch you are already prepared 00:09:08.12\00:09:12.95 for that. - right, and of course when you are a kid and 00:09:12.98\00:09:16.67 that is what your dad thinks you are worth, that is what 00:09:16.71\00:09:20.37 you think you are worth. 00:09:20.40\00:09:21.68 So - I'm sorry about that. - me too, me too. 00:09:21.71\00:09:25.72 So I started by the time I was dating I didn't hold on 00:09:25.76\00:09:30.20 to my virginity very long. 00:09:30.24\00:09:31.88 So by age 15 I had given that away and for some reason, 00:09:31.91\00:09:37.22 and I don't understand why, I decided I wanted to go and 00:09:37.26\00:09:41.18 live with my dad, my older brother had gone and lived 00:09:41.22\00:09:45.11 there and he stayed sober for a year. 00:09:45.14\00:09:47.31 Every time I would go visit it would look so cool there, 00:09:47.34\00:09:50.70 my dad is now sober and he threw my brother a kegger party 00:09:50.74\00:09:53.66 for graduation and he was remarried and I thought it 00:09:53.69\00:09:59.23 looked like it was a cool place to be. 00:09:59.26\00:10:00.94 My mom and my stepdad, I consider my dad, were taking me 00:10:00.98\00:10:06.74 to church - boring. - and I would get out - too strict. 00:10:06.77\00:10:11.05 Yes, yes, they always wanted me home and know where I was. 00:10:11.09\00:10:14.95 I didn't have those rules over at my dad's house and dad 00:10:14.98\00:10:17.72 would let me smoke in the house and I thought that was 00:10:17.75\00:10:20.45 the coolest thing ever. 00:10:20.48\00:10:22.11 He knew when I smoked pot and he thought that was cool. 00:10:22.15\00:10:25.32 He would feed is when we had the munchies, me and my 00:10:25.35\00:10:28.49 friends so I wanted to be there. 00:10:28.97\00:10:30.87 Ignoring the fact of all the warning signals, I remember 00:10:30.91\00:10:34.98 my mom of course and stepdad didn't want me to go but 00:10:35.02\00:10:39.06 I thought it was going to be different. 00:10:39.09\00:10:41.05 I thought he was going to be different and mom had warned 00:10:41.08\00:10:43.55 me that she thought he was drinking again. 00:10:43.59\00:10:45.59 I of course didn't listen to her. 00:10:45.63\00:10:47.15 Did you move in there? - well the day we got there, me 00:10:47.18\00:10:50.59 and this guy that I was dating drove me to Centralia, 00:10:50.63\00:10:54.00 Illinois and the day I got there I walked in the door 00:10:54.03\00:10:57.36 and there was this sign hanging. 00:10:57.40\00:10:59.86 He had hung a banner that was half hung, and half was 00:10:59.89\00:11:03.37 under his feet saying welcome home Chris. 00:11:03.41\00:11:05.49 He was passed out in the chair and had a bottle of Jack 00:11:05.53\00:11:08.79 Daniels in his hand, and as like a burning bush for Moses 00:11:08.82\00:11:12.05 which was no more prophetic than that was. 00:11:12.09\00:11:14.22 You know, it was like God trying to tell me - run. 00:11:14.26\00:11:17.43 - get out, get out and instead I was too proud to have 00:11:17.46\00:11:20.60 to go back and tell my mom that she was right. 00:11:20.63\00:11:23.98 So instead you just cleaned him up. - yeah. 00:11:24.01\00:11:27.29 I moved in and I was 16 at the time and I remember the 00:11:27.32\00:11:31.99 second night there he went out and bought a bottle of wine 00:11:32.02\00:11:36.66 for me and my stepmom, because he was drinking again. 00:11:36.69\00:11:39.52 I remember I was sitting there being really uncomfortable 00:11:39.55\00:11:42.34 thinking this isn't right, but we are doing it. 00:11:42.38\00:11:45.70 Because I don't know why, because we loved him. 00:11:45.73\00:11:48.99 It was these crazy mixed messages while I lived in that 00:11:49.02\00:11:54.27 household and he would once again all this sexualized talk 00:11:54.31\00:12:00.01 towards me and so I was dating a lot and had no regard for 00:12:00.05\00:12:05.72 my body, you know. 00:12:05.76\00:12:07.77 I started, I became very promiscuous. 00:12:07.81\00:12:11.40 I would like to, to me sometimes I hear people making 00:12:11.43\00:12:16.67 judgments on kids that are just running around and crazy 00:12:16.70\00:12:21.32 out there doing things, and to me I know I had never met 00:12:21.36\00:12:25.59 one that is acting out to that level that doesn't have all 00:12:25.63\00:12:29.83 that history, not one. 00:12:29.87\00:12:32.87 Things don't happen in a vacuum. 00:12:32.91\00:12:34.54 - yeah, talk about that for a minute. 00:12:34.58\00:12:36.36 Because I think we tend to, what rises up and we hear 00:12:36.40\00:12:40.45 somebody use, whether it's male or female is that we want 00:12:40.49\00:12:44.50 to make a judgment, we want to say something. 00:12:44.54\00:12:47.05 I think all of heaven says oh, please don't. 00:12:47.08\00:12:49.52 This child is damaged so much already, and unless you can 00:12:49.56\00:12:52.49 approach them in love, unless you are going to reach out 00:12:52.52\00:12:55.42 and offer them a lifeline for some time. - right. 00:12:55.46\00:12:57.78 I think that that is where a lot of times we go wrong is 00:12:57.81\00:13:00.20 because everybody wants to concentrate on their behavior. 00:13:00.24\00:13:03.50 The more you concentrate on the behavior, from the Bible 00:13:03.53\00:13:06.72 it tells us the more you look at the law, the more you are going 00:13:06.76\00:13:09.38 to instead of concentrating on the love of Christ, 00:13:09.41\00:13:11.72 and just going in with love, love, love. 00:13:11.76\00:13:13.77 Because kids don't act that way unless they are hurting. 00:13:13.81\00:13:18.49 You know you can't give yourself to everyone and not lose 00:13:18.53\00:13:23.18 your self-respect and not be steeped in shame. 00:13:23.22\00:13:25.53 The more you feel ashamed, the more you drink, the more you 00:13:25.57\00:13:29.82 drink the more you sleep around, it is just cyclical? 00:13:29.86\00:13:33.30 Kids are even cutting, they are doing all that kind of 00:13:33.33\00:13:36.74 crazy behavior because they just feel worthless. 00:13:36.78\00:13:39.59 Right. - you stayed with drinking though? 00:13:39.63\00:13:42.21 Oh no. - yeah because very seldom is it one drug anymore. 00:13:42.24\00:13:47.40 No! I started with sniffing gas, then went 00:13:47.44\00:13:52.05 to smoking pot, then went drinking, and there are certain 00:13:52.08\00:13:56.08 people you can tell being around them have propensity 00:13:56.11\00:14:00.07 towards uppers and others you can tell? 00:14:00.11\00:14:02.91 Well I like anything that made me go faster. 00:14:02.95\00:14:05.59 I geared towards cocaine and was doing that whenever 00:14:05.63\00:14:09.47 I was still in high school and started doing hallucinogenics. 00:14:09.51\00:14:13.06 I actually broke into a car and stole the speakers out of 00:14:14.83\00:14:18.13 the backseat and left my purse in the People's car that 00:14:18.17\00:14:21.44 had my driver's license. 00:14:21.47\00:14:22.80 Criminals are not real smart. When we are high we are not 00:14:22.84\00:14:27.63 bright as fog. - well from that I ended up having to 00:14:27.67\00:14:31.56 join the military. - you either going to the military 00:14:31.60\00:14:34.72 or you go to jail. - yes, yes my dad worked out that 00:14:34.75\00:14:37.84 arrangement with the judge. 00:14:37.88\00:14:39.57 So I was in the delayed enlist- ment program in the military, so 00:14:39.61\00:14:42.30 I was leaving my father's house behind and by age 17 00:14:42.34\00:14:45.15 I was going into the military, which anyone knows who's 00:14:45.18\00:14:48.28 gone into the military knows there is no place to teach 00:14:48.31\00:14:51.37 you how to drink like being in the military. 00:14:51.41\00:14:53.83 Oh man - yet I joined the Air Force and really endeavored 00:14:53.87\00:14:58.59 oh my alcoholism than and still was to hallucinogenics and 00:14:58.62\00:15:03.31 everything else so I stayed in there for four years. 00:15:03.34\00:15:05.55 I ended up living in Florida after that. 00:15:05.58\00:15:10.43 So you just did one term - oh yeah, they were ready for 00:15:10.47\00:15:15.12 me to leave. They kept giving me drug tests, they knew 00:15:15.15\00:15:18.59 I was doing something but they never caught me at the 00:15:18.62\00:15:21.69 right time, yeah they were ready for me to leave. 00:15:21.72\00:15:24.66 It still amazes me that I got an honorable discharge. 00:15:24.69\00:15:27.60 It was like suckers. 00:15:27.63\00:15:28.98 I had a friend and we were so strung out and she said 00:15:29.01\00:15:32.47 we are just going to join the service, and somebody said, 00:15:32.50\00:15:35.33 it was like a buddy plan you can get into, you joined 00:15:35.36\00:15:38.12 together, and at the last minute I just said I don't know. 00:15:38.15\00:15:41.41 I've not been disciplined at all of my life. 00:15:41.45\00:15:43.44 So she joined and I didn't, I use to get the letters from her. 00:15:43.47\00:15:46.42 They want my hangers an inch apart from each 00:15:46.45\00:15:49.43 other and Na-na-na-na, and bouncing quarters on my bed. 00:15:49.47\00:15:52.50 She was smoking weed, and she didn't get an honorable 00:15:52.53\00:15:55.53 discharge, but you know what it is a crazy place 00:15:55.56\00:15:58.78 to go from addiction and crazy behavior to a very, 00:15:58.81\00:16:01.99 very structured discipline. 00:16:02.03\00:16:04.28 I was in the Air Force and once we got past that six 00:16:04.32\00:16:06.25 weeks of basic training, it wasn't so disciplined. 00:16:06.28\00:16:09.10 I have never drank more than I did whenever I was doing 00:16:09.13\00:16:12.15 tech school, and they gave me a top secret security 00:16:12.19\00:16:15.53 clearance and let me go over seas and track aircraft. 00:16:15.57\00:16:18.87 Can you believe that? - and you are wasted. 00:16:18.91\00:16:20.85 - yes I know and we used to all laugh about it. 00:16:20.88\00:16:23.03 Excuse me is another plane, no it's a bird. 00:16:23.07\00:16:25.15 All right, all right. - so like I said they were glad 00:16:25.18\00:16:29.19 for me to leave, they didn't miss me after they let me go. 00:16:29.22\00:16:32.40 So you left and went to Florida? - right I ended up in 00:16:32.43\00:16:35.57 Florida doing the last hitch of my military service. 00:16:35.60\00:16:39.32 Well I went to bike week in Daytona and met this man and 00:16:39.36\00:16:44.47 fell in love and he drove tractor-trailers. 00:16:44.50\00:16:47.32 So he loaded me up and moved me to Minnesota. 00:16:47.36\00:16:50.14 It was like a nonstop adventure, and I ended up liking 00:16:51.90\00:16:55.59 Florida so much I went back there. 00:16:55.63\00:16:57.50 I was bartending and through bartending. 00:16:57.53\00:17:01.82 Still with this guy? - no. - okay because I was like 00:17:01.85\00:17:04.84 what happened to the tractor-trailer? 00:17:04.87\00:17:06.76 Well he would roll in and out of town just rip my heart 00:17:06.79\00:17:09.17 out every once in while but no I went back to Daytona and 00:17:09.21\00:17:11.55 I bartended and from the bartending that was just, 00:17:11.58\00:17:15.31 I was having a blast. 00:17:15.34\00:17:17.35 I had all the drugs I wanted and I was doing a lot of 00:17:17.39\00:17:21.08 cocaine at that point, all the alcohol I wanted, 00:17:21.11\00:17:23.94 men and everything. 00:17:23.98\00:17:26.07 Eventually the guy from Minnesota came back around and 00:17:26.11\00:17:32.45 introduced me to meth. 00:17:32.48\00:17:34.23 Oh, meth is such bad news, I mean all of it is bad news 00:17:34.27\00:17:37.80 but meth just grabs a hold of you. 00:17:37.83\00:17:39.79 That was, to me that was like the turning point. 00:17:39.83\00:17:44.44 I was doing anything I could get my hands on, but I hadn't 00:17:44.48\00:17:48.21 settled on one, if someone would ask you what my drug of 00:17:48.24\00:17:51.94 choice was earlier, you had asked me all of them. 00:17:51.97\00:17:54.61 I would just flit around, I was always high. 00:17:54.64\00:17:56.97 I remember going in to get my drivers license pictures 00:17:57.00\00:17:59.76 taken all hung over and messed up looking. 00:17:59.80\00:18:03.28 - I could just see that, go ahead, smile. 00:18:03.31\00:18:06.73 They will go well that's what she really looks like, 00:18:06.76\00:18:09.08 they would let me know. - she is high, look at her. 00:18:09.11\00:18:12.61 I lived like that, it was my life and when I found meth 00:18:12.65\00:18:16.62 it was like as soon as I did that first line it was like 00:18:16.65\00:18:20.07 everything I thought I had ever been looking for I have 00:18:20.10\00:18:22.88 just discovered it, everything else including the alcohol 00:18:22.91\00:18:25.65 I thought that meth cured my alcoholism. 00:18:25.69\00:18:28.92 That is because you lie to yourself - yeah as oww 00:18:28.95\00:18:31.50 I don't hardly drink anymore and I don't get drunk. 00:18:31.53\00:18:34.25 I have to say with people that don't know about meth or 00:18:34.29\00:18:36.97 some of those drugs, is that it just gives you an 00:18:37.01\00:18:39.59 endorphin rush, your dopamine levels skyrocket, serotonin, 00:18:39.62\00:18:44.84 neuro-chemistry just gets, everything is just skyrocketing. 00:18:44.87\00:18:50.05 So you do have this euphoria that is unbelievable. 00:18:50.09\00:18:53.53 For hours and hours and hours, yet that is what I used 00:18:53.57\00:18:56.98 to tell everybody, I was cost-effective addict 00:18:57.02\00:19:01.81 I started doing meth and stayed on meth daily for 00:19:01.84\00:19:06.59 11 years. - wow, your teeth look great. 00:19:06.63\00:19:10.08 That is what everybody says to me, you still have your 00:19:10.11\00:19:12.46 teeth. - yet because most of my sisters done meth for 00:19:12.49\00:19:15.14 about 35 years, she doesn't have her teeth, her hair is 00:19:15.17\00:19:17.79 falling out, got Aplastic anemia, she's 70 pounds. 00:19:17.82\00:19:21.13 So I mean it is one of those drugs that really robs you 00:19:21.16\00:19:24.79 physically of everything including your mind in the end. 00:19:24.83\00:19:27.99 Right, and that is funny because towards the end I was 00:19:28.02\00:19:31.23 getting what I call light gray patches in my brain where 00:19:31.26\00:19:34.57 I would try to talk and words were coming out backwards 00:19:34.60\00:19:37.87 and scrambled, I knew,- you can hear yourself. 00:19:37.91\00:19:40.44 - I knew I was hurting my brain and I had a tendency to 00:19:40.48\00:19:43.40 forget to unlock my motorcycle. 00:19:43.43\00:19:45.27 I would get on my bike and go to take off in the neck 00:19:45.31\00:19:48.30 would be locked and I know it's getting some brain damage 00:19:48.33\00:19:51.29 from it but I just kept going. 00:19:51.33\00:19:53.43 It was getting really sad, I remember sitting one day 00:19:53.47\00:19:56.64 thinking it was going to be so sad when I would be in 00:19:56.68\00:20:00.08 my 50s, 60s maybe if I live that long, still having to 00:20:00.12\00:20:03.49 score drugs all the time just to maintain. 00:20:03.52\00:20:05.83 Right, so what is amazing to me is you had you that 00:20:05.86\00:20:09.63 underlying awareness, that I am aware that this could be 00:20:09.67\00:20:14.72 my future. - oh yeah I couldn't see anything else. 00:20:14.76\00:20:17.76 I didn't see any way out of it. 00:20:17.80\00:20:20.32 I tried a few times to stop, as well like you know the 00:20:20.36\00:20:24.04 main reason I tried to stop actually was because my dealer 00:20:24.07\00:20:27.04 would run out temporarily and I would be like well it's 00:20:27.08\00:20:30.02 a great time to become sober. 00:20:30.05\00:20:31.47 It would consume me, I mean it would consume me. 00:20:31.50\00:20:35.02 What is it like for somebody that doesn't know at all, 00:20:35.06\00:20:37.78 what is it like when you don't have the drug? 00:20:37.81\00:20:39.98 I describe it like a fingernail that would scratch on the back 00:20:40.02\00:20:43.69 of my brain, I mean just coo, and I would have the phone in 00:20:43.72\00:20:47.36 my hand and just dial, dial, dial. 00:20:47.39\00:20:48.99 - Just trying to find anyone - then you sleep and you 00:20:49.02\00:20:52.99 wake up eat and obsess, obsess, and obsess. 00:20:53.03\00:20:56.25 It is like the only thing you can think about, so it is 00:20:56.28\00:21:00.17 pretty miserable when you are without it. 00:21:00.21\00:21:02.82 And willing to do just about anything for it? 00:21:02.85\00:21:05.40 Yeah, well that is what ended me up, getting me in 00:21:05.43\00:21:09.37 trouble is that I like to think that I was a pretty highly 00:21:09.40\00:21:12.45 functioning addict, because through all this I held down 00:21:12.48\00:21:16.23 jobs, bartending, being a drug addict and alcoholic I got 00:21:16.27\00:21:19.99 fired a lot, not surprisingly. 00:21:20.02\00:21:22.37 I would get jacked up behind the bar and they would be 00:21:22.41\00:21:25.89 that was enough of that. 00:21:25.92\00:21:27.14 I still always had a job. - right. 00:21:27.18\00:21:29.86 The last place I was working I had lost my job and 00:21:29.90\00:21:34.09 I think I had said something inappropriate 00:21:34.13\00:21:36.66 to someone, imagine that! 00:21:36.69\00:21:38.19 I know now, I think back because through all this my mom 00:21:38.23\00:21:43.65 and my stepdad never stopped praying for me. 00:21:43.69\00:21:47.25 - that's amazing.- they lived in Illinois and I think 00:21:47.28\00:21:50.07 had mom known what I was up to it would have killed her. 00:21:50.11\00:21:52.85 She had no idea, but she knew I wasn't living right. 00:21:52.89\00:21:55.56 She knew I wasn't living for Christ. - she probably saw you 00:21:55.60\00:21:58.24 now and again but couldn't tell it you were so out of control. 00:21:58.28\00:22:00.89 Right, well I avoided. - and you lie like a dog. 00:22:00.93\00:22:03.23 - oh yeah, - no, no I'm fine. 00:22:03.26\00:22:05.44 You don't want to be around Christians when you are living 00:22:05.48\00:22:08.16 so unholy, and every time I would get around them I would 00:22:08.20\00:22:10.84 get really angry inside and I know now it was the 00:22:10.88\00:22:14.04 conviction of the Holy Spirit. 00:22:14.08\00:22:15.53 So I would avoid them, and when I did see her I felt so 00:22:15.56\00:22:19.81 dirty, I admired her so much, and always wanted to be like 00:22:19.84\00:22:24.05 my mom because she was such a godly woman. 00:22:24.09\00:22:26.45 Her spiritual giftness was just sweetness and servant 00:22:26.49\00:22:30.27 hood and all these things that I wasn't. 00:22:30.31\00:22:31.81 Instead I used to tell people that I got my dad's desire to 00:22:31.84\00:22:36.35 party and my mom's guilt, so it was like a bad combination. 00:22:36.38\00:22:41.68 But I admired her so much and she never stopped praying 00:22:41.72\00:22:46.30 for me, so she came to a point at one time where she told 00:22:46.33\00:22:50.29 me that she got on her knees and told the Lord whatever 00:22:50.33\00:22:54.25 it takes to save my daughter. 00:22:54.28\00:22:56.18 About that point I had lost my last job, was out of money 00:22:56.21\00:23:01.54 to buy dope and I was getting ready to go to school. 00:23:01.57\00:23:05.62 I had completed one degree and was getting ready to start 00:23:05.66\00:23:09.88 another and I called up my dealer and offered him $2000 00:23:09.91\00:23:14.12 that I had coming in from student money to hold for me. 00:23:14.16\00:23:17.81 You know quote unquote hold for me, of course we know what 00:23:17.85\00:23:20.78 that means that I wanted him to front me some dope and he 00:23:20.82\00:23:23.72 could invest that and do whatever with it. 00:23:23.75\00:23:25.81 I wasn't even thinking of the investment part I just needed 00:23:25.84\00:23:28.18 some dope, so anyway he agreed to do that. 00:23:28.22\00:23:31.88 un-be-known to me they had my dealer's phone tapped. 00:23:31.92\00:23:34.57 - wow - and they were just getting ready, the federal 00:23:34.61\00:23:37.75 government, this was DEA was getting ready to throw the 00:23:37.78\00:23:40.89 net over the local kingpins. 00:23:40.93\00:23:44.14 So right after that they showed up at my front door and 00:23:44.17\00:23:47.34 knocked on the door and I opened it and they pulled me 00:23:47.38\00:23:51.03 out the door arresting me with charges of conspiracy to 00:23:51.07\00:23:55.28 traffic of over 500g of methamphetamine. Federal charges 00:23:55.32\00:23:59.02 We are going to break right there, I want to break and 00:23:59.06\00:24:03.00 come back because I know right now everything looks 00:24:03.04\00:24:06.68 hopeless and God does His best work when it looks 00:24:06.71\00:24:09.57 hopeless. So if it is looking hopeless in your life 00:24:09.60\00:24:11.94 you've got to stay with us because it is absolutely 00:24:11.98\00:24:14.28 amazing what God can do. 00:24:14.31\00:24:17.08