Ryan’s Addiction

Tina was cleaning Ryan’s room one day when he was about 17. She found weed and a pipe and her mind instantly thought of his father, an addict who abused marijauna and spent years addicted to heroin. 

“They say that it’s not addictive, but I don’t agree with that,” Tina said. “When I found the pot and the pipe, I was really upset and I was worried.”

Ryan didn’t see a problem with marijuana, but Tina stood her ground—no drugs in her home. During this period of tension with his mom, Ryan dropped out of high school and moved in with his grandmother in Ramona, California for a short time

“That’s when things kind of spiraled down and got worse,” Tina said. 

With a trust fund left for him by his father, Ryan fell into a lifestyle of destructive extravagance. He didn’t have a steady home, but he had an expensive car that he crashed countless times. He would bounce in and out of rehabs and sober living homes, but whenever he left, heroin was always waiting. 

Despite his growing addiction, he always stayed in contact with his family.

He moved back in with his mother and promised he would stop using. But he didn’t. With younger sisters in the house, he still locked himself in the bathroom and shot up. She kicked him out. She wouldn’t put her family in danger.

“It was dangerous for everybody. So that was probably the hardest thing–to turn him away.”

In 2013, Ryan finally got sober at the age of 24. He worked with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to start a new life.

“We’re very fortunate we had those five years,” Tina said.