Matt remembers the first time he took a pill. It felt like pure bliss and happiness. He didn’t care what his friends thought of him as long as he had his pills. At 16 he was convincted of home invasion — specifically breaking into people’s houses and stealing their prescription pills. The progression of his disease had gone from two pain pills by mouth to shooting up. Once he entered treatment, Matt really wanted to do die. He didn’t want to be around anymore. People didn’t want to be around him.

Matt’s been in treatment three times and he’s learned a lot about himself while in recovery. He acknowledges that one of the biggest motivating things as to why he used drugs was because he was afraid of success, failure or rejection. Everything was fear-based. That's why he used because when he used, he didn’t have to deal with reality.  Now one of the biggest tools he’s acquired while in recovery is to stop talking/trying everything his way as his best thinking got him into felonies.

Now Matt has embraced recovery and how its provided him a spiritual/human connection with other people where if something happens in his life he can just talk about it. Today he wants to be an example of sobriety. He understands that once you get sober, you carry this responsibility.