People think of heroin addicts and they imagine the worst, the most degenerate, of all possible worlds: needles and back alleys and the sort of godawful degradation that makes for the stuff of Hollywood movies and PBS documentaries. But that’s not always how it is. That’s not how it was for me, anyway.

I was a heroin addict for six years, and not once during that time did I end up face down in a pile of my own excrement. In fact, I was a heroin addict for six years and I managed to keep my job, and most of my friends, and to convince just about everyone who knew him that I was still a nice, normal guy.

Of course, I was slowly getting hollowed out from the inside. And heroin addiction treatment is the only thing that saved me.

The point here is that the fact you’re not at rock bottom doesn’t mean you don’t need help. There is no such thing as safe heroin use. More importantly, there is no such thing as edifying heroin use. If you’re a heroin abuser, your life can be better than it is. Period. Don’t wait another day to find that out for yourself.

The worst thing about depression? Nothing. Nothing at all. And that’s what’s so utterly awful about the thing.

Depression is a subtle disease. You never really know it’s there; there’s nothing to indicate that there’s actually anything wrong with you…except for the fact that you can hardly stand to get out of bed in the morning, or leave the house during the day, or do much of anything at all that might distinguish you as a Normal and Functional human being.

And over it all: Nothing. It’s got to be You, you figure: The problem has got be You, because it can’t just be Nothing. Depression is so hard to live with, and so hard to overcome, precisely because it doesn’t exist as a palpable or identifiable thing. Depression exists in, takes its shape from the Nothing. When you’re depressed, that Nothing becomes you: in every moment, in every way.

And believe me, nothing…Nothing…could ever be worse than that.

Drug rehab in Los Angeles is like drug rehab anywhere: It’s hard. Drug rehab isn’t for the faint of heart, or the soft of will; no drug rehab patient ever got better without going through one mother of a personal struggle. That’s what drug rehab is. That’s how drug rehab works. Pretending otherwise is the surest way to torpedo your own drug rehab Los Angeles experience.

If you’re going to make the most of drug rehab in Los Angeles, you’ve got to be ready for a fight: You’ve got to commit yourself to your purpose, and engage with your own healing. Again, drug treatment in Los Angeles or anywhere else is never easy. It’s not enough to talk about recovery, or to hope for sobriety; the successful drug rehab patient is the gone who goes out and makes recovery a real thing, through the sweat of his own brow and the courage of his own convictions. Anything less than your best effort, in the end, just isn’t going to cut it.

So yes, drug rehab in Los Angeles really is like drug rehab everywhere. It’s hard. More importantly, it works…so long as you’re willing to make it work. Don’t wait another day to start finding that out for yourself.

 The best thing about cocaine? That first high. You know what I’m talking about, if you’ve ever been there: that first rush after the first snort, when you have no idea what’s coming and man it just hits you, and leaves you sitting there blown out of your mind and feeling so good that it’s like oh my GOD I never want to feel any other for the rest of my whole entire life.

Too bad it don’t last.

The problem with that first cocaine high is that it wears off…and once it’s gone you can’t ever get it back: not like it was, not like that first time. The problem with cocaine is that every high after the first one is a letdown…and yeah you use more and more but still you feel less and less…until it’s all using and no feeling and then it’s just you getting eaten from the inside, by a need that is so far out of your control you can’t ever be anything but hopeless.

So, yeah: There’s an upside to cocaine. And there’s a downside too. Which is the one that haunts you down the road? Figure it out for yourself.