Daryl used drugs to try to cope with a hostile environment in his Army unit. When he returned from overseas, his drug use became worse. He faced legal problems and spent time in jail. Daryl went to VA and began treatment. Professional and peer support helped him overcome his challenges.
View Video TranscriptDaryl:
While in the service, I dealt with my issues with my Staff Sergeant with my things to drugs and alcohol to escape. That was my only escape. When I got back here, I came back with an overseas habit. I brought back an extremely large habit that the drugs here couldn't do so I done more and more and more to do it because I had a heroine habit and I ended up having to shoot pills and just do this and that. Through that, crime came in. Now I'm trying to get more drugs and more drugs, and the crime came in. That was just the life of a drug addict, you know. That's what I was. I was a drug addict and what goes along with drugs is jails and death. By God's crazy mercy, I didn't die. But I went through that living hell and my family went through it. My kid's mom, she stuck with me for 20 years, and she just couldn't take it no more, you know, and I don't blame her. I don't know if I could have stuck with somebody 20 years of that madness that I sent them through.
Through the addiction treatment program down at Jesse Brown VA, first we had the diagnosis and once he found that I went to meetings, to treatment meetings. Not any AA meetings. I went to treatment meetings, had one-on-one therapy with my psychiatrist. One-on-one talks with my team lead and stuff. Then we had group meetings for everybody that, you know, that fitted in that criteria. Because everybody, we all don’t fit the same criteria. So, the one’s that fit in our criteria we had our own little circle and our own little meetings, and we had meetings and it’s, like you said, was our meeting. It was just facilitated by one of the staff, but we actually ran our meetings and we talked about the things that bothered us and things like that. Still today, I go to them Friday, that’s called Alumni Group, that’s for everybody with three years or over. But these are the things that I had to go through and they step-by-step and they guide you through this and it’s not a quick process. It’s a couple year process and things. And they make sure that you have the things that you need to make it out here.
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