I’m 21 years old. I am a secret drug addict. I am crippled by shame & I need to talk about it.

This is some tough shit man, I feel for you. Thankfully I've never expereinced drug addiction personally, despite experimentation, but I've seen a lot of it in my family; most notably my older brother. He's in his mid twenties and struggled with almost identicle issues. I could give a whole biography but that doesn't really matter, he got hooked on pain killers in high school, at uni developed a massive coke addiction, ended up lying to our entire family about graduating college (he somehow managed to convince the school to let him walk with his class so we didn't find out until much later), ended up blowing thousands of dollars, wasting 4 years of college, and at his worst was IVing heroin and meth on regular basis.

I want to say that recovery is possible and beautiful. My brother (let's call him T) has now been sober for over a year and completely turned his life around, I mean there's obviously still issues but he manages them.

There is no shame in being an addict at all. It is a disease and is not your, your family, or friends fault. You'd be amazed how willing people are to forgive you when you honestly apologize and try to get better. As people have said before in this thread Narcotics and Alcohol Anonymous are the first thoughts for help. Again, there's no shame in attending these meetings; people who care about you will appreciate that you're trying to turn your life around and you'll meet people who understand what your going through more than you could ever imagine.

One of the greatest issues for my brother was realizing that to really get better he had to change everything. He admitted he was an addict long before he was sober and tried various self conceived plans, "I'll only smoke weed, drink, do molly, hallucinogens, and maybe coke on special occasions," and various alterations that all failed. He hasn't had a drop to drink or anything to smoke in over a year, and understands he can't. Some of the people he's closest with from his program and circles still smoke weed, and basically its different for everyone but you have to try it for yourself.

I really hope you can figure this out, its terrifying and painful, but necessary. As I said I haven't been through it personally but me and my brother were very close. We used together before shit got so bad (I only ever rolled, smoked, drank, or tripped with him) and he was always very honest with me. When we first found out the extent of his addiction my family had to do something similar yours did and cut him off. He spent two nights sleeping under a bridge in late fall, and was motivated to shape up.

Please get yourself to a meeting man and try to find some people who've got your back. There's no shame in what you're going through and I guarantee your parents will do there best if your honest with them.

Much Love, and good luck.

/r/Drugs Thread