{"id":13748,"date":"2019-02-13T16:40:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T21:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/5badbfa87a.nxcli.io\/pease\/?p=13748"},"modified":"2019-02-13T16:40:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T21:40:25","slug":"sobering-stories-sam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtcs.org\/pease\/sobering-stories-sam\/","title":{"rendered":"Sobering Stories: Sam"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p><strong>Sam &#8211; P.E.A.S.E. Academy, Class of 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sam was in 6th grade when a bus ride to school changed his life. Drawn in by the attention and snap chats of that an older girl, he accepted her invitation to smoke weed. Hidden from his parents\u2019 view, under the seats of the boat in his backyard, he went in and out of consciousness, with a goal to build a tolerance and reach the kind of relaxation, that he had found in the drug.<\/p>\n<p>After a brief hiatus in 7th grade, he wanted more. On a quest, he stole money from his parents to pay for weed, smoked it alone, and hid it from them and his friends.<\/p>\n<p>In 9th grade, Sam accepted an invitation to a cocktail party at a friend\u2019s house, with alcohol from the liquor cabinet that led to four months of drinking to the point of blacking out. Sam says, \u201cIt felt amazing and gave me confidence to say what was on my mind, until I threw up and blacked out.\u201d At this point, Sam was now addicted to marijuana and alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>Drinking and weed gave Sam the confidence to try other drugs, including Adderall, offered to him by a classmate. Teachers had pointed out Attention Deficit Disorder to Sam\u2019s parents in the past, so getting a prescription for Adderall was easy, and Sam loved it because he could feel the effects of being drunk, without being physically impaired. \u201cThe problem was my tolerance kept going up,\u201d says Sam. \u201cI went from 50mg a day to 200mg, at a cost of $70-$80 a day. I could feel when it was leaving my system, and it felt awful. It made me depressed and suicidal, and my mom asked me why my hands were shaking.\u201d When money got tight for buying drugs, Sam found a box of money in his Dad\u2019s closet that supported his habit for several months.<\/p>\n<p>Adderall led to Oxycodone, Xanax, Acid and psychedelics and at the start of Sam\u2019s junior year, his parents took him to Hazelden for an assessment because he was failing school. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I belonged there with the meth heads,\u201d says Sam. \u201cBut then, I realized that everyone was my age and looked like me.\u201d Encouraged by his peers, Sam completed the Hazelden program one month later and returned to his high school, where he remained sober for 10-months before relapsing. Asking for help from the school counselor, he enrolled in P.E.A.S.E. Academy and started classes two days later. \u201cP.E.A.S.E. gave me friends I could relate to and an automatic support system,\u201d says Sam. \u201cPeople\u2019s personalities come through when they\u2019re not messed up, and we have fun together in sobriety.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sobering-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sobering Stories: Sam &#060; P.E.A.S.E. Academy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mtcs.org\/pease\/sobering-stories-sam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sobering Stories: Sam &#060; P.E.A.S.E. Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mtcs.org\/pease\/sobering-stories-sam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"P.E.A.S.E. 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