I'd never felt comfortable in my own skin - for one reason or another I could always make up reasons WHY I was an outsider. I'd perceive myself as different: a little overweight, new, too nerdy, or poor. This continued and echoed in my life throughout my teen years and adulthood. Eventually I found a home in Narcotics Anonymous.
Drugs were an escape AND a mechanism of acceptance for a time... Drugs went from connecting me to other users to being another isolating factor. I knew I wanted to stop but I could not - I also did not admire people leading a "normal, boring life."

At my first meeting I was embraced. I was accepted. It was the glimmer of hope - the foot in the door, to be loved until I could love myself. I am eternally grateful for the fellowship that saved me and brought me to work with a sponsor the 12 steps that changed my life from the inside out.