Interview with recovering meth addict

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6222741

An interview with a recovering meth addict. He is part of a drug recovery alternative to incarceration program called Drug Court. I'm glad he spoke up in this article; some insights about how the cycle of drug abuse begins, and how it is possible to break through and help these people heal.

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"It took jail to put me on the knees on the concrete next to the hard steel bed, praying to Jesus Christ," Alvey says. His pencil drawing of a heart attached to a ball and chain, and an accompanying poem called "Concrete Dreams" embody his feelings about being humbled in jail, he says, and how "good intentions and hopes and dreams . . . can flutter away."

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Alvey - whose father was a Vietnam veteran who would get drunk and have flashbacks - says he started using marijuana at age 12 or 13. "Most of my [family] memories are bad ones," he says. "After he and Mom split up, I blamed myself. I was looking for something to ease the pain." During high school, Alvey says, he smoked grass daily, got drunk on the weekends and experimented with methamphetamines.

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He says he stays away from dangerous places and people. "If there's something going on that's going to get me in trouble, I just walk away." And when he feels a craving for drugs, Alvey says, he will "think things through" before acting. "A craving takes from 10 to 30 minutes to go through. That's where the thinking comes in. The first thing I think is, 'It'll pass.' ''

Concrete Dreams Concrete walls they hear it all, Today and tomorrow Things are said, hopes and dreams are made Good intentions somehow stay Even now they seem to fade away Day in, day out Someday we all get out It seems like all good intentions Are soon forgotten about While inside concrete rooms We all humble ourselves It's when we leave, the pride comes out Somehow it's the pride That puts us all back inside Concrete walls, they seem so stout How do the dreams so easily get out? Cracks in those walls Must be how dreams so easily go When we leave the concrete rooms we know The concrete we need is in our souls Concrete souls hold hopes, dreams, and good intentions the best It does not matter, all the rest It's a humble soul that holds the best A concrete soul is the strongest yet. - By Andy Alvey

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I wish him and all others who are undergoing treatment for addiction all the best and prayers for their complete rehabilitation and a future clean and sober life full of joy and possibilities.