Editor’s Note: September is the National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. This year’s theme is “Join the Voices for Recovery; Saving Lives, Saving Dollars.” As part of a three-part series, The Spanish Fort Sun will focus on recovery centers, recovering addicts and their story, and what it takes to kick addiction. This is part one of three.

It could be a face you know — a mother, a son or daughter, a neighbor or a friend. It could be you staring back from the mirror. It could have started with prescribed pain medication for your back injury, a cocktail after work, or maybe a snort of cocaine. It is the face of addiction.

Many individuals and families have been plagued by addiction to drugs or alcohol. People who are addicted to drugs come from all walks of life, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In addition to having an addiction, many substance abusers may also have mental health or social problems.

Often these consumers will lose everything and end up on the streets. Sometimes they will lose custody of their children or be jailed.

In this three-part series, you will be introduced to drug or alcohol consumers who share with us a heartbreaking, but honest, history of what led to their addiction. Follow with them on their journey through the maze of addiction when they finally bottom out and find out how they are doing in either treatment centers or recovery today. Names have been changed based to protect their anonymity.

The Beginning

Low self-esteem and the constant search for love in all the wrong places led Chimere to began using drugs at 15.

She admitted recently that underlying depression probably helped lead to her drug use.

“I became depressed because I thought I wasn’t doing something right,” she said.

John also began his drug use at 15. His drug of choice was marijuana, but he quickly progressed to drinking alcohol and using inhalants, such as household paint, butane, gas and freon to get high.

Once he was introduced to something new to get high his attitude was “bring it on,” he said.

Smoking pot and drinking alcohol was a gateway to harder drugs for “someone with a mentality like me,” he said.

This, he said, always lead him to want more.

Chimere went along with what other people she knew were doing — getting high. Her drug use was limited to smoking marijuana on the weekends — but then her drug use progressed to cocaine.

Getting Hooked

Chimere began to isolate herself. She dropped out of school when she was a freshman in high school. By then, her drug usage progressed from two to three times a week to every day.

What led John to want to experience the next high was the feeling that he didn’t quite measure up to his peers in high school.

“We want to be liked,” he said.

Drugs were available everywhere, he said, and he realized he would gain acceptance by other people who were willing to do drugs.

At that time, John did not feel like he was accepted by his parents and the groups at school, the jocks and the “popular” crowd.

He said once he dabbled in drugs it was all over — he was hooked.

John was on a “drug fest,” until almost two years ago. He began using cocaine and taking any kind of pill that he could buy from people who have prescriptions, and then he would sell the drugs for money. When he couldn’t buy the drugs, he would steal them.

“Once you’re hooked, you steal,” John said. “Every day staying high is the point and the only state of mind you know.”

Deep into Addiction

John was deep into addiction and lived in the world of darkness with no way out, and he said couldn’t break free of the grip of addiction.

As a result of his drug use and radical behavior, he went to four different boarding schools and wilderness camps between the ages of 16 and 20. At 22 he was walking the streets, carrying needles and carrying dope in his pockets.

He had now accelerated his drug use and was a heroin junkie. He had overdosed three times and was revived by either friends or medics. His marriage eventually failed.

Hitting Rock Bottom

Three years ago, John and a friend tried to rob a pharmacy. He said he had a feeling that he was going to get caught, but he knew he would either die from the drugs or go to jail.

“Maybe getting caught was the only way I could get help,” he said.

Chimere started to become very anxious, depressed and very stressed.

“At some point, I wanted to commit suicide,” she said.

She had trouble sleeping. She said she was sick — spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally.

After the birth of her two children, Chimere realized she needed to take action, so she called the Department of Human Resources on herself.

She knew she could be eventually charged with child endangerment and could even lose her custody of her children.

Chimere was taken to jail by the police and was released on bond the next day. Chimere then entered a 90-day addiction program in Birmingham called Olivia House.

She admitted the only reason she went there was to avoid going to jail. Two months later, she relapsed.

Her drug usage got progressively worse, and she started walking the streets and selling her body to get money for drugs. She felt worse because she knew she had let so many people down, including herself and her children.

She eventually called her caseworker and asked for a chance to start over. She felt this time would be different for her and that if she didn’t get help, she would probably die. For Chimere, she had finally hit rock bottom.

Drug addiction made John lose everything — even his support system — and he eventually had to live in a car. He had been in jail eight times by then — six times related to drug use, and two related to burglary charges.

“When you steal from everybody, then eventually they get fed up with you,” John said.