This is a letter I received exactly one year ago today, following a week of phone and text conversations. We had worked night and day o help this client, and a miracle happened. Here is his story, in his own words – we have not edited the letter at all, except to remove names and locations to protect anonymity:

“I am 20 years old and I currently live on the West Coast I started using drugs at age 15 I have been using heroin and meth since then I have been using every day for as long as I can rember and it isn’t good at all yes I have been doing it iv and smoking it and snorting it any way possible to feel that rush. Since my drug use I have lost a lot of things in my life I have lost my family my friends job and everything that I have had good in my life all my life consists of right now is getting high and if not getting high it is chasing that next sack so I know I will have the next fix for myself. Iam very scared to get clean because when I don’t use I get really sick. It has gotten that bad! At age 16 I dropped out of high school to work full time a year later I had my little girl.  As time went on me and my ex split up and went our separate ways and I keep on using drugs only it got worse I was robbing everyone stealing taking things from my family the whole nine yards I am right now at the lowest point in my life that I have ever been I honestly think I have hit rock bottom I have nothing and no body ive lost everything iam lost and alone in this world I have no one to turn to to ask for anything at all my family wants nothing to  do with me at all because of my drug habbit and I don’t blame them it is so sad what I have created of my life it hurts me so bad thinking and just writing this to you!  That’s why I keep on getting high so I can block out this pain that I have and so I don’t have to deal with it. I really need some help a few days ago I reached out for help …she is someone who helps people like me find somewhere  to get help and treatment when they are the way iam.  Since I have been using I haven’t had much contact with my daughter right now I don’t have any part of her life because of my disease and it is so hard on me knowing there isn’t anything I can do right now becauase of how messed iam right now physically and mentally and iam hurt my whole life I never thought I would turn out the way I have! And I have never reached out for help before  at all it was very scary hard and I was  very nervious when (they) answered the phone because I had no idea what to expect and didn’t really think she was  going to take any time out of her life to help someone like me! And iam very thankfull she has taken all this time out of her life to find me a treatment program so I can get clean and try and change my life for the better thank  you and for me to hear today that I have someone who has found me a place to go to makes me cry because I don’t know what to expect at all I don’t have anyone in my life to ask for advice and I really hope to get clean and sober so I can turn this fucked up life that I have been living around! So iam able to try and get coustody of my daughter and be apart of her life like a normall dad and get a normall job and live a normall life  and just turn my life around for the better I am honestly soo far done with this lifestyle I really am and iam reaching out today and iam writing this letter to you now because I need help I cant do it on my own I know that and I am very afraid of myself not getting help and keep living my life the way I have been I know I wont be here much longer at all I know it is very easy to over dose on these drugs that I have been using. I have overdosed once in my life and I was hospitalized for a while and iam very scared of this happening to me because you or anyone doesn’t know when they put that needle in there vein what is going to happen it happens to a lot of people everywhere and I need to be in a treatment center and I need to kill this disease inside of me and all that I ask you is that you please help me out help me get better.    I want  to change I need to find myself and try and get my life back iam very scared of this outcome and iam always thinking way to far ahead iam living life one day at a time and my life is discusting and it is no good no  one should ever grow up and live the life style I have been  so whom ever Is reading this letter I have written please get back to me if you are willing to give me a chance and you are  willing to help me get clean and put me in some treatment facility it would be much appreciated thank you.Sincerely – ”                  

Thank you to the generous partner facility that offered a scholarship to this young man (the miracle!).

We hope he will take this seriously, get and remain clean and sober, turn his life around and realize his dreams for himself and for his daughter.

This letter is shared with permission of the author.