A Substance Abuse History with a Mental Illness.
During the late 1990’s I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Before this I was working full-time and attending college full-time but I was abusing marijuana and alcohol by using it to cope with the stress of doing too much. My reality would become a distorted one for me because I started hearing voices, seeing images, and I believed I could communicate with people on television. These were the symptoms i remember experiencing before my first breakdown.
I was then arrested and felt lost in a world I had never been, on, a psychiatric unit at a local hospital. This would become a place where I felt lost, disoriented, and unhappy. By the time I was hospitalized the third time I had become aware that I had been diagnosed with a mental illness. I had stopped using alcohol but I started using marijuana again.
I started using drugs and alcohol at 19 but I quit and relapsed several times until I quit six years ago using because I had too for my mental health and well being.
Even though it seems like drugs and got in my way of healing and recovery I was able to return to college and obtain an associate degree in human services and went on to enter a social work program but I didn’t complete it because of blood clots in both my legs.
It has been five years since i attended college but about a year ago I published a book of poems titled Inspiring Thoughts. It was based on overcoming the adversities I had experienced from life itself, substance use and abuse, a mental illness,and finding out what care and concern meant especially from friends, family members, and professionals
