Meet Jack. He is 21, from San Diego and just celebrated his sober birthday at New Roads.
Growing up Jack came from a really normal family and grew up in a well-rounded community. When Jack was 16, he was smoking marijuana, drinking and was prescribed adderall. He did that throughout his high school years and finally got to the point where everything really started to go downhill for him. He started isolating himself from people, had different friends and started using more types of drugs.
Jack graduated high school and a day after, he was awaken in the middle of the night by two people that told him to “get up, you’re going to a wilderness camp in southern Utah and you don’t have a choice”.
Jack was placed on an airplane, put into a wilderness camp for 60 days backpacking throughout Southern, Utah and it was rough. He hated it and was extremely scared. While at the wilderness camp he had a few mess-ups. Shortly after his non-successful backpacking treatment, he found New Roads and overall it was a really great experience for him, but he wasn’t successful and left. Jack wasn’t ready to become sober, nor thought that his addiction was big enough for a need to change.
During his time at rehab, all of Jack’s friends were in college, and all he could think about was being at college and experiencing life on his own. So he left new Roads and went to college in Colorado. The day Jack left New Roads, he was drinking and he could not wait for the day to be drunk and high again. (Jack’s father actually picked him up from New Roads drunk and took him to college.)
It was not long after that Jack was right where he was before, even worse. He had been suspended from school, and the school was putting him in a suspension dorm. He was not in a good place.
Jack knew that he was in a bad place… and quickly he gave up. He immediately called his mom and asked to go back to New Roads.
Jack checked back into New Roads and couldn’t believe just how bad he had become.
“What makes me truly an addict, is that I felt that I had done enough drugs to be comfortable in a treatment center. It’s a reminder that you never really need to go lower than what you actually are. If you have a problem, or if your family is worried about you, then take the help that they are willing to give you because it might not happen again.”
When Jack returned to New Roads, he immediately felt welcomed and loved. He finally started listening to suggestions, taking the steps, and was on the path to become sober. It felt so good for Jack to feel like his life was finally coming back together.
Jack just celebrated his 2 year sobriety birthday and wouldn’t be where he is without New Roads! Today he works for New Roads and is happy and healthy.
His story is amazing and we are lucky to have Jack now working on board with the New Roads Team.
Watch Jack’s story here.
New Roads Treatment Centers is a drug treatment program in Utah that focuses on a dual diagnosis approach to helping drug addicts recover from their problems.