REAL STORIES

Age: 28
Gender: Female
Location: Salt Lake

I met my husband when I was 19 years old. We used to have so much fun. He was older than me so he could get me into bars and we would eat, drink and have fun. I still remember the first time I tried meth. One of my husband's friends came into the bar we were at and sat with us for a while, next thing I knew, we were leaving in his friends van. We parked on a side street and they started smoking. They asked me if I wanted to try. I was curious so I did. After that I just wanted more. I started hanging out with my husband's friends girlfriends. we used to go to stores and shoplift so that we could trade it for meth. After about a month I ended up quitting my job cause I just wanted to smoke all the time. About a month after that my husband lost his job because he had been stealing to trade for the drug.

We stopped smoking for a while, almost two years. When we got married in 2002,we had a small wedding party at our house. After everyone left one friend stayed back and "turned us on" as our wedding gift. Over the next 7 years my husband and I have fought constantly, lied, stolen, lost/quit 4 jobs between the two of us. I have been physically, verbally, and mentally abused over and over again. It has been one hell of a roller coaster ride. The fights we've had were outrageous. It would start about something small and end up with him pouring bleach all over me and our clothes. I told him enough is enough. I have been clean since April 2009. It took him a little longer. He hid it from me, but I knew. He would still fight with me over small things. I finally had enough and I had him arrested for abuse and I moved out. He had hit rock bottom. He cleaned himself up, and we're working on our marriage. We're taking it slow and I still live with my family after four months.

I have to be honest, I still think about smoking meth everyday, I'll probably think about it till the day I die. That's what it means to be an addict. Once an addict, always an addict. I even dream about smoking sometimes. I owe it to our son to stay off of meth.I am staying strong for him, if no one else. He shouldn't have to grow up around that stuff, and he'll never be around that again.

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