DR. LESHNER:

The problem is that over time after you’ve used drugs for a long time you actually get almost an opposite effect. That is that drugs no longer produce that same euphoria. They actually put you into a brain state that makes you feel terrible. It can cause depression, it can cause all kinds of emotional problems.

People literally become compelled to use drugs and they have trouble controlling that compulsion and then that compulsion to use drugs takes over their life and then it basically ruins all other aspects of their lives.

You have no way to know who you are, you have no way to know how susceptible or vulnerable you are to becoming addicted. So you might be one of those people who can experiment with drugs occasionally and be okay or you could be somebody who is very susceptible and there fore you experiment with drugs just a couple of times and you are in deep, deep trouble

Heroin is destabilizing to your brain so you can’t really focus while you’re working and you lose your job. You lose your job, and you come home, and your wife, and your family falls apart and eventually, you become and addict and your life is taken over by the drug, then you start to develop other problems.

What we see with addicts, is a literal deterioration in every aspect of their life, how they look, how they work, how they relate to their family, their appearance, their soical life, everything is taken over, consumed by the search for the drug.

NORA:

I had no control what was going on basically – like I feel, my thoughts were going a mile a minute. I’d have all these happy thoughts and I’d be laughing and then the next second I’d be crying, it was just very, very scary. I was just flipping out, you know, I had an internship and I showed up for work that day and they had given me something to fax with a couple of numbers. I couldn’t even fax. I couldn’t even think, my memory, I had no short-term memory at all and I just had no control. I was so scared. I just didn’t know what was happening to me. And what was happening was that I was very manic, as before I was depressed for like about two months- and then now I just became very manic.

DANIEL (ON BOOT CAMP):

You know, to a person who says that I still have my life I would tell them I’m living but I’m living in hell. Everyday is a living hell for me. It’s just a matter of trying to find something to be happy about, trying to find something about myself that I could be proud of. And I just, I can’t tell them that one day I’m going to be fine ‘cause I might not ever be fine. But to them until they can walk in my shoes and realize exactly how much pain that I actually feel I would tell them that they were wrong. We're soldiers, except there is no war for us to fight. We're just fighting for ourselves, fighting to find out who we are.

DONALD:

…I couldn't remember a lot of things, like a lot of stuff I did when I was in elementary school, like simple math I could not do, because I was burnt out almost. Like once in a while I’d be sitting down and out of no where I would start laughing for no reason; it would be going like a flashback. Or like one day I would be happy, and the next minute I’m all depressed for no reason. I noticed that a lot in myself. I noticed that right now I still have drug dreams. I’ll dream about using crack, or smoking weed, or drinking. And I’ll wake up sometimes sweating. Or I’ll wake up in my bed thinking this is crazy, I’m still having drug dreams.

JESUS (ON DAYTOP):

I learned a lot here, I learned, I learned to think twice before you do something, the consequence of thinking. You know. And before you speak, I learned a lot, I learned that you will always have responsibility in your life. Responsibility in your life... Its going to be hard in the future um, and I gotta start now, I learned that being disrespectful and having an image ain’t going to get you no where... I learned, just be yourself.

CHRIS:

If you’re doing drugs just stop doing them. Just stop what you’re doing and think about what you’re doing. Like, now that I am in treatment, now that I am away, if I act out or if I mess up, like, how I was they, like, can’t see my family. They'll take my family privileges away from me. I won’t be able to go out of the house for a weekend. I won’t get my writing privileges. I won’t be able to write a letter. They can take those certain things away from us just for acting out or from being bad, so just, just, just don't do 'em. If you’re doing drugs, if you’re acting up or if you see people getting mad or something ‘cause you’re doing something wrong. Just stop what you’re doing and think about it ‘cause it, it, it'll help you out in the end. Just stop. Try to stop.

"D":

You get drawn to people that are like you, and everybody that I know is basically just medicating themselves. And the only reason they’re doing it is not because they thought it was cool, but because it made them feel better. And all my friends I know, they don’t think it’s cool. They all hate it and the people that are my friends that are still using want to stop. But the thing is that they show you how to make yourself feel better when you have all these voices and crazy thoughts spinning through your head all the time. Well, it’s like, let me make it, just go away, because that’s what it is. It’s just, it’s a blasting of your head. That’s all it is. You don’t remember anything if you get screwed up enough.