Personal Narrative: My Journey To Become A Substance Abuse Counselor

At twenty-two years old my younger-self had previously pictured me in an entirely different place. I never imagined living in Texas, I’m originally from Chicago, and that’s where I thought I would reside. I thought I’d be graduated from college already, but fate had a different plan. And never in a million years did I think I would become a drug addict; but I am, and you know what? It’s been the best thing that has ever happened to me, it’s something I’m truly thankful for now. See, all the things listed above may seem like negative things if you look at them from an outside perspective; however to me, they’ve changed me in ways I never thought possible just six months ago. Multiple circumstances have led me to this point, but a few stick

It was my senior year in high school when my mom told me that my cousin, Mayra, had given birth to a baby girl. However, child protective services decided that Mayra wasn’t adequate to take care of the child; due to her drug abuse. Child protective services from Mexico were trying to place the baby with close relatives. Sadly, there was only three choices, her grandma, my aunt Gloria, and myself. The choices were few and the family small.

With my ambition and perseverance, I overcame obstacles including severe migraines and self-doubt. I learned to focus on what I felt was best for myself and pushed through every hardship. Knowing that a large amount of my peers often do not think of a future after high school and endure obstacles of their own inspired me to take action and become a College Summit Peer Leader. Being a peer leader gives me the opportunity to take the experiences that I have learned so then I can encourage my fellow peers to face their obstacles head on and ultimately instill hope and guidance into their lives. I enjoy helping others with their life struggles which leads me to the decision that in the later future, I would love to study psychology. This will enable me to further understand other’s emotions and how to go by helping them through their

My relationship with drugs first began during my senior year of high school. While most of my peers attended their first parties years earlier, my first was not until I was already 17 years old. I still remember feeling so cool for attending my first party and having my first sip of alcohol. The feeling of being drunk was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I felt liberated, like I could break out of my quiet shell and be that fun, goofy person that everyone wanted to hang out with. Prior to this night I had never used any type of substance, legal or illegal. Since then I have continued using alcohol while also trying various different types of drugs including caffeine, marijuana, tobacco, and adderall.

Although, I am now reaching the age of where most people are starting to think of retirement and looking back at what they had accomplish compared to what they did not. I am looking forward to having two master’s degrees this year, and starting my own substance abuse clinic in my community. At this time, I am a social worker for Child Protective Service of West Virginia, and a youth service worker also. At this time West Virginia is rated the ninth highest rate of prescription drug abuse in the nation among 18 to 25 year olds (Raby & Mattise, 2015). As of now the West Virginia legislation has passed a bill that will allow for Narcan to be purchased over the counter in pharmacies (Raby & Mattise, 2015). The rates of overdose deaths continue

After I got there, the meeting was called to order by the person in charge of the meeting. The man read some things that were in a book, I do not know what it really know what the book was called. Then three of the people that were there for the meeting also reads something to the group. The person in charge of the meeting then asked if there were any newcomers or people attending that particular meeting for the first time who care to introduce themselves only by their first name. Next the person in charge of the meeting made some announcements about AA and the days and times that they have meeting at their location. Then finally, the person in charge of the meeting began to talk on the topic. After everyone who wanted to share, they allowed the

When people ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you answer? Most people would say they want to be a professional athlete, working in the sports industry, police officers, doctor, lawyer, working in the business industry, president, and a movie star. However, that’s not what Blake Landry wanted to do. Landry, who was a promising soccer player decided she was going to be a heroin addict for the rest of her life and that’s they it is. That is just one case out of hundreds of case where drugs and especially heroin can ruin someone life. Currently there is an epidemic of a heroin addiction going on in the world today.

Overcoming an addiction is hard and something that i struggle with. I was 13 when I had my first drink of alcohol. From the first moment i had a drink i never stopped. At first i only drank sometimes and as time went on and as i got older the drinking become a more common thing in my life. I joined the church two days before i turned 18 and i had stopped drinking for my baptism, but shortly after i had started drinking again. It wasn't until i met to sister missionaries met with me and took me to the Addiction recovery program that the church offers. I haven't had a drink since then and that was three and a half years ago! It hasn't always been easy, but i will never drink again. My father has been an alcoholic for 35 years and after seeing

Throughout the past two years of high school, I have been involved with the Health Careers Academy, where we take health and science-related courses that prepare us to go into the medical field. We also learn a large amount of medical terminology and perform many labs such as those involving forensic science and being a detective at a murder scene using all the clues needed, finding out which antibiotic is necessary to fight a specific bacteria, and even learn about electrophoresis. I chose this academy because I thought it was interesting to learn how the body works. At first, I was not fully dedicated to the sciences, but finding the murderer of a crime scene and other labs made me realize how science can be fun and that I wanted to pursue

This personal story project was very difficult for me. Every time I wrote a new sentence I would question whether I should keep the topic or not. I would question if this story even told anything significant at all about me. But I realized it really does tell a big portion of my life. This piece is very personal to me in describing who I am and why I am like this as a person. It is mainly about how my fathers and my brothers’ addiction has shaped my life. It is about how their addictions impact my life and my previous (and present) experiences. But in the end, it made me a stronger person. It made me more independent. If I told any other story, my fellow classmates, the audience, would not take anything away from it. To them, I feel as though I would still be the same, quirky Bella. This truly shows another side of me.

America has been battling drug and alcohol addiction for over a century. I personally have battled drug addiction for more than 7 years. I was considered a young and bright girl, with the world at her fingertips, only to wake up one day homeless and broken in an abandoned building wondering “how did I end up here?”. I had brief periods of self-controlled abstinence, but I always seemed to end up exactly where I was before, if not in a worse predicament. My addiction was insidious and perpetually lurking. Every day the behavior I engaged in increased my chance of overdose or contracting a deadly disease. Looking back, I almost welcomed death. My perspective was so bleak, I was so filled with shame, and my family had ceased all contact while

Life seemed normal at first, I was a normal 14 year old boy in High School, but when I had my first sip of what seemed like the best thing in the world it was soon to be found out that i had an alcohol addiction that would then last for the rest of my schooling life. When me and my mates went to my brother's 18th birthday party everything went downhill we were slowly pushed into a circle and told to chug a fool 325mL of full strength beer from then on i was unstoppable i would then have another 5, 6 and lastly an eighth. When i leave the party someone shouts “have another one” but my mates held me back they knew something was wrong, my forehead was throbbing and an excruciating noise of a million drums rang in my head.Subsequently I hit the

Even though my mind is strong, my body is weak. If you asked me to write a list of what is wrong with my body I could, but one example should be enough.

In view of my honest admiration of the staff and the overall experience at the Reading Hospital Drug and Alcohol Center (DAC), I found it hard to find an example for this assignment. However, upon entering my internship, I was apprehensive about working with a certain staff member, who I know from when I was thirteen years old. It is safe to say that seeing this person does not evoke warm memories for me, and I fear that something unprofessional may occur on my part, such as an off-color remark. In fact, my strong feelings of repulsion of this person almost kept me from accepting the challenge of interning at this site despite the knowledge of it being an enormous opportunity for experience and learning.

Do you believe that your role as a therapist will end at the end of the day or will it be present in your personal life also?