So I figure I'll start from the beginning. Sorry about the essay, but it's nice to be able to talk about this somewhere. Some bad stuff happened when I was a kid that I didn't really confront until I was a teenager. It started with some drinking and pot in seventh grade and by freshman year I was using coke. I hurt myself a lot and just didn't care about life. I was truant so much I got expelled and almost went to juvie. I ran away from home the summer before sophomore year and stayed with a dealer, who was in his mid twenties, I met through a guy at my alternative school. That's when shit hit the fan. One day he offered me some H. It started with smoking, then progressed to snorting. Two weeks later I was shooting up. To put it lightly, he was abusive and I was strung out for about three months until I turned myself in to escape him. I got sent to rehab for a month and a half. When I got out, I thought I was better. I went back to school and was making the usual As and a couple Bs. Then the depression came back. I started to hurt myself again and a week later I relapsed. I decided I didn't want to live anymore so I got lit and sat in the garage with the car running. Next thing I know I'm waking up in the hospital. After that I was sent to a behavioral hospital (basically a mental hospital) that focused on behavioral issues and substance abuse for 5 months. I had been in a few acute (5-10 days) stays, but nothing like that. It was very difficult. I had to face my demons and I finally decided that I had to make a change. I have now been clean since August 22, 2014. I got out of the hospital late December of what should have been my junior year but couldn't bear to go back to high school. I studied over the next few months and earned my GED in late May. In what should have been my senior year of high school, I started classes at my local community college. Two years later I received my associates degree. I am now a junior attending a four year college majoring in Psychology and Legal Issues with a minor in Criminal Studies. I hope to one day work to put people who abuse children in prison, and hopefully to make a small difference in this perverse world. If you are actually still reading this, thank you. But the point of all that was to say: [b][u]NEVER GIVE UP[/u][/b]! When life seems its darkest, keep pushing forward. It does get better, I promise. Never let anyone, especially yourself, hold you back. Always keep moving. While it would have been easier not to have gone through what I did, I feel it has made me a stronger person. I know it is cliché, but what doesn't kill you does in fact make you stronger, and I wouldn't be the person I am today if I had not experienced that. Stay strong :) <3 Edit: Wow thanks for the support you all. I knew offtopic had good people around. Feel free to PM anytime if you are feeling down or just need to blow off some steam.