Say Yes To Drugs?

WHAT !!!! you say....yes??
A long time ago, I began hearing 'Say No To Drugs', 'D.A.R.E. To Say No', etc... Growing up, most of us hear it again and again. No drinking, no drugs, no sex, blah, blah, blah. To be perfectly honest, when I was a kid, I believed every word, as well as in my ability to say "NO". I was raised to believe in certain things, and when it came to these 'worldly issues', it was ALWAYS a hands-down answer. Me, my brother, my sister, we all knew. So then, why was I so quick to say YES !!!! Part of it was because I felt so held back by the unwavering ideals of my parents, and part of it was because I wondered 'what if?'. A year before I graduated I stated smoking cigarettes. I was drinking long before I graduated. Then, on my own, depressed and in college, I decided that running downhill was as good a way to crash as any. Marijuana, Ecstasy, Cocaine, Mushrooms, lots of alcohol, pills I didn't recognize or ask about. This went on for about 6 months until one day my sister showed up, and reminded me of some things, and so it ended. Looking back on those days, and remembering the feelings I had on or off the different drugs, and what was going through my head, I'm constantly asking myself, "Why?". MY ANSWER: 1. I needed to learn that adding things to your life when your are depressed, doesn't help anyone. 2. What it is like to be a using addict, and what they feel, and why they act the way they do. 3. I now have an incredible understading of how to approach someone who is struggling with this, and reach out with compassion and empathy, to do what I can to help them along. 4. I answered a lot of questions about myself during that 6 months. END RESULT: I wouldn't go back. I don't believe that I would be as complete as I am today without those experiences. I don't regret that time of my life. I do, however, regret the long-term consequences, but I have finally come to accept that they come along with the good I've brought out of it. I wouldn't advise anyone to become an addict or start using drugs, but if there are areas in your past that seem so very dark, you have the ability to say that you lived it, and lived through it; what an amazing gift it is to relate to someone else that has been through the same, and needs your help to pencil in some color to their dark silhouette.