Article December 28, 1992 Issue

"My whole life was irrevocably changed"

We can be freed from a life filled with drugs, alcohol, and despair by turning to God and accepting His love for us.

Paul G. Perea

Ask someone to paint a picture of the drug and alcohol problem in the United States, and the images likely to be described are pictures of gang violence, drug-addicted children, and fugitive drug cartel leaders. This stereotypical portrait, while shedding light on a serious problem, presents only one facet of a complex issue. The problem of drugs and alcohol is much deeper and much more subtle than one might imagine.

There are millions of alcohol and drug users who have never been arrested, never lived in an inner city, and never even thought of using violence in their daily lives. To these people, drugs and alcohol do not take them across the boundaries of society into an underworld of despair. To them, a normal part of succeeding at life is the belief that escaping reality for a time is not only desirable but needed, and their only means of escape is seeking life and sensation in materiality.

I was one of those people. To me, happiness involved finding a new high or a new thrill and spending mindless hours hanging out with friends. Indeed, this was what the teachings of society and the perceptions of my life's experience had educated me to believe.

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