I was shooting heroin for the last ten years and had developed a heroin addiction it is hard to describe. I went to sleep thinking of heroin woke up thinking about heroin and spent the hours in between, shooting heroin. When I learned I was having trouble with my heart due to my heroin addiction, I had no idea how I was going to stop using. I had so many connections in Baltimore, Maryland. Everywhere I turned I knew someone in Maryland either selling or using heroin, so I knew I was going to have to leave my “friends” in Baltimore and even leave Maryland for a while if I was going to recover.

Florida Drug Treatment Center

A therapist my mother found told her about a drug treatment center in Florida. He said he had sent quite a few people from Maryland there with good results. The drug treatment center was called Stepping Stone Center for Recovery in Jacksonville, Florida. This drug treatment center had a heroin detox program which made me feel better. The detox program for heroin addiction had a complete medical staff to deal with my withdrawal. The detox program had 24 hour nursing and it was located right in the drug treatment center. Heroin detox was not fun, but it was a small price to pay. Right after heroin detox I went into the rest of the drug treatment center. After another few weeeks in the treatment center I was feeling really good. I guess they didn’t agree because when they heard I was planning to return to Baltimore, Maryland they wanted me to take some additional time and assess my decision.

Thank god for the drug treatment center staff because after speaking with everyone I realized how crazy my plan was and I decided to stay in Florida for a while. I checked into a halfway house for 6 months and have decided to live in Florida. Maybe one day I will move back to Maryland, but not until I have built a stable foundation of recovery. If you would like to find out more about Stepping Stone in Jacksonville, Florida you can call 1-800-511-9225. They are great!