Chris’ story

Chris told himself for years that he didn’t have a problem.

Substances were a regular presence in his life from a young age. He began experimenting with drugs as a child. His first experience with substance recovery was as a teenager, but he mostly found himself quitting one substance and picking up another.

Those habits continued into his 20s, but he successfully hid them from his loved ones. “I was able to hold down a job. I was able to pretend that I wasn’t using around my family,” Chris says. “Nobody really knew that I had a problem for a long time.”

As Chris’s substance use became more intense, his life began falling apart around him.

“I lost everything — friends, family, my possessions,” Chris says. “I became homeless for a while. I wasn’t able to come to Christmas dinner. I wasn’t allowed at birthday parties. I lost my kids.”

He told himself that if he wanted to turn his life around, he had to stop using. Chris says that admitting he had a problem and reaching out for help was a difficult thing to do. But working with MultiCare turned out to be the first step in his road to recovery.

Chris now lives in a residential recovery facility, has started talking to his family again and is in the process of regaining custody of his children. He works out regularly, he goes to discussion meetings and he participates in mental health counseling.

“I always felt alone,” Chris says. “I felt like I was nothing, that nobody loved me. Knowing that there are others out there that have been through the same thing has opened up my mind and my heart to other things, to just really focusing on who I am and what I want to be.”

Now he encourages other people to reach out for help, even if it seems like an impossibility.

“It’s easy to say and hard to do, but never give up,” Chris says. “MultiCare has done a lot for me, and I thank them for that.”