So one day an ex-friend of mine walked into my house with a bag of blue pills. "What are those?", I asked. "Not a clue.", he said. "What do they do?", I asked. "Not sure.", he responded. Then I told him, "Well grab some chair bro. We'll figure this out together."
Just a little backstory on who I was.
I finally stopped when I OD'd on cocaine. I was very dizzy and was tingling all over. My friend had the sense to take me too the hospital. They took my blood pressure. 212/125. That's high enough to suffer organ damage and puts you at severe risk for a heart attack. Scared the living shit out of me. I was 19 years old.
Got out of the hospital after about 36 hours. Being in there gave me time to reflect upon my life. I had barely graduated high school as a C student, when I could have easily been valedictorian, and had pretty much just been a burnout since then. I was a miserable pile of shit, and that needed to change. So I got drug counseling, got clean, seperated myself from my old friends (I tried to help them but they wouldn't listen. The guy I told you about with the pills is dead now.), and signed up for a trade program. I'm a union carpenter now, with a beautiful wife and a child on the way. Life is going well for me now.
Other than my own willpower, I can attibute my succes to a close friend of mine that I made while I was getting clean. He was in the same boat. He introduced me to Odinism/Asatru/whatever you want to call it. They had a small but thriving community in the county where I lived at the time, and they welcomed me with open arms. They supported me through my struggle and gave me a new faith to help me through.
.
Don't do drugs, kids.