Story NickE 20260624

Story NickE 20260624

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Here, Nick shares his very first full-length share, and it’s a wild mix of dark honesty, sharp humour and hard-earned experience. From a restless childhood in northern California and Texas, Nick talks about always feeling like contentment was "a carrot and stick situation" just out of reach.

That restlessness feeds into early experiments with weed and pills, but the real switch flips when he has those first shots of tequila and thinks, completely seriously, "man, I should do this before everything." He traces how that moment of ease snowballs into heavy oxy use, then heroin, meth and years of chaos.

You’ll hear about multiple trips to treatment, starting at 18, and his introduction to AA through the phrase "restless, irritable and discontent" – finally giving words to the waiting feeling he’d had his whole life. Nick walks through a long stretch of sobriety, career success, buying a house and then the slow slide back, starting with "I think I’m ready to smoke weed" and ending up back on speed, heroin and fentanyl. The story doesn’t shy away from loss either.

He talks about the shock of his dad’s sudden death and the guilt of hearing "maybe you should get sober again" in their last conversation. Yet there’s plenty of humour, like his deadpan description of Four Loko habits, and the absurdity of collecting random rubbish on meth until dumpsters were "10 tons over".

In the later part of his share, Nick focuses on what’s helping now: genuine fellowship, playing music in treatment, questioning his own thinking, and using gratitude as an anchor. His warning that "this disease is very patient" and that "the way that it speaks to you sounds a lot like your own voice" will hit home for anyone juggling recovery and ego.

If you’ve ever wondered how many chances one person can take and still come back, this story gives plenty to think about – and maybe a nudge to check your own mindset today.