Nearly four years ago, Mark decided to leave behind his addiction to pain killers. Today, Mark spoke at a news conference to release to the 2015 Prescription Drug Abuse Report Card. In his own words, Mark tells how Vicodin led him to a life of addiction and how he fought the disease… and won.
Hi, my name is Mark G., and I am a person in long-term recovery. It is true that addiction can happen to anyone. It happened to me.
I grew up in a healthy environment. I played sports throughout my life, and I have had every opportunity to have a successful life. A sports injury at the age of 15 was the beginning for me. I was prescribed Vicodin. I became deeply involved in the OxyContin lifestyle. This took me into Mexico and also to doctors in Los Angeles to feed my addiction. I did whatever it took to continue using.
I had a chance to visit Aaron Rubin, who overdosed on OxyContin and can’t speak or walk and is confined to a wheelchair, at the hospital when he was fighting for his life. Seeing Aaron go through this overdose would make most people consider changing their lives. But I had lost the power to choose, and this disease had me in its grips. I have lost many friends to addiction. Addiction is cunning and powerful enough so that I still thought that this would never happen to me.
Something happened to me on March 1, 2012. It’s hard to explain. What I can say is that I wasn’t planning on stopping but I woke up that morning and was able to see for the first time that I was going to die and I must get help. I was lifted out of the life that I was living into something that was better than I had ever experienced. I was given just enough strength to enter a treatment program and start the road to recovery. Thank God! Change is possible!
There are many different avenues to getting help. One must be willing and open to a new way of life. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I did, and it is the best thing that has happened to me. You can live a life of freedom on the other side of addiction.
I will be celebrating four years of sobriety in March. I had the chance to go back to school and was asked to be the class speaker for my graduation. I met an amazing woman and we are getting married in November. I have had many opportunities to share a message of hope in our community. Although Aaron’s story and mine are a little different, we both are able to share our experience and hopefully help someone living with untreated addiction and bring awareness around prescription pills and their effects on our lives.