Matt Smith
When you’re filling your body with heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol on a daily basis, you live your life in a haze of nothingness. That was Matt Smith’s world for more than a decade. At the age of 11, Matt was experiencing crippling anxiety and severe depression, and he began drinking and using drugs. As he became a teenager, his substance abuse progressed in frequency and to dangerous levels of harder drugs. He was failing school, was involved in gang activity and at one point, was so depressed at his situation that he tried to kill himself by overdosing on the drugs he was using.
“I had been in and out of treatment programs, but nothing really stuck with me,” Matt said. “I hated my life and would get high to escape from thinking about my life. Then, after I would get sober and realize the things I did when I was high, I’d get high again to forget what I did when I was under the influence. It was a horrible cycle.”
Fortunately for Matt, he found the support and recovery services he needed through the Valley Hope alcohol and drug treatment association in Chandler and has been clean for more than two years. During that time, he also found fulfilling work as a peer support specialist for Community Bridges’ Journey Outpatient Behavioral Health Center where he not only helps others through their substance abuse issues, but also helps himself in his own recovery by sharing his story.
“To see the lights go on for another individual in treatment makes it all worth it,” he said. “I think about all of the people I hurt when I was getting loaded and all of the friends I’ve lost along the way, and I feel it’s my responsibility—no, it’s an honor—to help other people in their recovery.”
Matt wants to remind anyone who may be struggling with addiction and mental illness that as dark as everything may seem in their life, there is always hope to turn things around.
“As long as you’re open and honest about your addiction, there is hope.”
