Hello. My Name Is Alex and I'm.......?

Hello. My name is Alex. And maybe I'm an alcoholic. Maybe I'm not. I haven't quite decided yet. Could this be a problem? Yes. Is this a phase, or do I truly have a problem? I honestly have no idea. But I do need help. I do know I can't do this on my own. I've tried to do this on my own without success. I hit rock bottom and continued to keep falling deeper. This is my story...

In August 2013, I left home to start my own life in Utah and attend college for the first time. I was living in luxury off-campus student living, I had awesome roommates, I knew what I wanted and where I was going in life. I was in a new place, with an entirely new crowd. I knew a couple people from home, but everything else was so new and exciting. It was perfect.

Then school started and I started meeting new people and making new friends. Some of these new friends were good influences, but for the most part, I started lingering around the wrong crowd. At the time, I didn’t see the influence they had on me and my life. I started going to parties. I had never partied before. These parties had alcohol. All sorts of alcoholic drinks I didn’t know even existed. Besides the occasional taste back home, I had never drank before.

Drinking at the first party started a chain reaction of crazy partying. One party led to the next, and before I knew it, it would be 4am the next morning. For the first half of the semester, I would go to my early morning classes hungover, with little to no sleep. I kept my partying to the weekends at first. But halfway through the semester, I decided I could party during the week as well. BIG mistake. I was partying too much and not sleeping enough…thus leading me to sleep through or skip my classes. Therefore, causing me to completely fail my first semester of college. I went from a 3.6 GPA transferred from high school, to below a 1.0 GPA in 4 months.

As if things weren’t falling apart already, I received a MIP (Minor in Possession) for underage drinking. I had never gotten in trouble with the law before. That should have been my wakeup call. I stopped partying and drinking for a couple weeks, but not much longer than that. The stress got to me and I began a battle with an eating disorder which led to minor depression. The only way I could think to make these bad feelings go away was to drink. I remembered how confident I was at parties, and how extremely happy I was when I was drinking. And thus my drinking habits began again…

In June 2014, I received my second MIP. I was on probation for my first MIP, so not only was in trouble for underage drinking, but I was also in violation of probation. At this point, I still hadn’t quite grasped the fact I might have a problem. I put aside my family’s pleas for me to stop and get help. I didn’t see what the problem was. By now, I was unemployed and about to be homeless. I had crazy amounts of debt because I used my money for alcohol and partying instead of bills. My outside support had been cut off. I was in the deepest hole possible, and my ladder wasn’t quite tall enough to escape.

A couple weeks ago, I received a call from my aunt in Nevada. She offered me a new start. A chance to escape the hole I had dug myself into. A new beginning. I got approved by my judge to leave the state and move to live with my aunt and family. It was my chance to clean the messes I had made. I enrolled in Solutions Recovery in Las Vegas and got signed up for Level 2 IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program), an 8 week program consisting of three 3-hour meetings a week. As well as the group meetings, I have the option to participate in family meetings, individual meetings, and sober recreational activities.

And that brings us to now, 08/13/2014…I’ve told you my story. I now invite you to join me on my recovery journey as I find myself and learn to accept the help necessary to be in control of my life once again...