Lived To Tell Old Style Tattoo

I was 13 years old and went to visit a cousin out of town. First time without any parental supervision and she, along with her much older friends, introduced me to crank. I did it every day for a week straight. And coming down from it made me sicker than a dog.

After, when I returned home, I searched for people at school who also used it. I got a job to support my habit at 15 years old. From that point on I was hooked. After using for about 4 years, at the age of 19 I met a boy, and fell head over heals in love. He also was a heavy user. Our love quickly became consumed with nothing but drug use. He later left me, and I felt like my world was over. I was left broken-hearted and with the worst drug habit.

I was living in my car, had been kicked out of my parents home, and felt like I had nobody. My parents moved out of state and I got a job and attempted to clean up my act. I was clean for three weeks, which seemed like forever, and found a job. My parents agreed to pay my rent for a few months, as long as I held down a job. My first check, I blew $700 on Meth. And I began to spiral down hill once again. I never slept, I practically never ate. All I did was smoke Meth. I went from 180lbs to 106lbs in about 7 months. I looked terrible, my family was ashamed of me, and I lost all my “real” friends.

I was tired of life, I felt so miserable, unloved, and I saw absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel. I even tried to kill myself. I was renting a room out in the house. I went through the bathroom cabinets and grabbed 7 different medications. I drank a whole bottle of Nyquil and swallowed over 30 pills. I felt dizzy, light headed, and felt like that was it. As I started to drift into a sleep, I suddenly regretted taking the pills. But, I thought it was too late. I slept for about 2 and a half days. I called my mom later that week and convinced her to let me move up to Washington with her and my father. I got on a plane September 15, 2004. And I have been clean ever since.

It took me a good 4 months for the drugs to completely leave my system. But everything has changed for me. I am now 22 years old. I love my new life. I have wonderful friends. A steady job for well over a year and I am looking forward to a happy, healthy, successful future. I got this tattoo as a gift to myself. I am so proud of me. The anchor represents me settling down, and the banner represents exactly what it says. “Lived To Tell”

I now volunteer my services, as well as my story, to high schoolers. I would love to help kids who are headed down the same path that I chose. I hope to establish myself as a drug counselor. I hope I can make a difference in somebody’s life. I know what it’s like to have no help, and I want to be there to help them when nobody else will =)

-Lindsay

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 7:37 am and is filed under Legs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.