Getting Sober at a Young Age - submitted by Luc S.

I have been in and out of treatment programs and AA since I was 14 years old.  My using escalated much quicker than any of my friends as a teenager, therefore I was exposed to rehab programs and AA before any of my friends ever were, this made it very difficult for me in my early years to have a willingness to be sober because I saw my same friends still “experimenting” and having fun.  The fun and the parties ended very quickly for me; by the time I was 18 years old I was homeless, living in a park, and using drugs each day. Right now I am 20 years old and in 3 months I will take 2 years sober, and I will be turning 21 years old shortly after that. There have been times when I have thought about what other people my age are doing, they are in college, they are partying, and they are having fun.  I use to become very envious and resentful that they can drink and party, then wake up and not have to keep drinking the next day. But I have to remember that I am an alcoholic, and that I am not like most people my age.  I react differently to alcohol, I drink and use much differently than they do, and I use and drink for different reasons.  And realistically, if I was still drinking, there would be no parties, I know for a fact that I would still be lost in a gutter somewhere, alone and miserable, because that’s where my using always takes me.  I will probably spend my 21st birthday in a meeting of AA, and to be honest, I am looking forward to taking my 2 years sober just before my 21st birthday, as a reminder to why I cannot pickup a drink or a drug.  There are young people meetings all over and there is such a large support group of sober young people that I surround myself with, that it is rare that I will even think about other people my age drinking.  Rather than dwell and be upset that I didn’t have more time out there to use, I look at it as now I have an advantage, I am young, sober, and I have my whole life ahead of me, anything is possible.
-Luc S.

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