‘The Addict's Diary' Showcases Before & After Transformations Of People Who Quit Drugs (30 Stories)

‘The Addict’s Diary’ project was founded by Kevin Alter who struggled with substance abuse for over a decade, from the time that he was 17 till the age of 27. “When I got clean, I noticed that there was a general misconception of the addict. I wanted to change that, so I did my best to humanize addiction,” Kevin explains on his website.

“I wanted people to see us for who we really are. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I wanted to break the stigma, inspire people, educate students, and save lives all with the stroke of a keyboard.”

So Kevin decided that he had no other choice—he just had to bring the reader along with him on his journey. “I put my all into it and it worked. Yes, I have been a client at over 29 inpatient treatment centers in my life.”

Kevin has had some major breakthroughs in his life while on the road to recovery, and it’s frankly inspiring how much of a Good Samaritan he is. “I also have had the privilege of living a clean and sober life for the last few years. The privilege of speaking in front of twenty-five thousand students. The privilege of sharing my words with millions of followers. And most importantly the privilege of sticking my hand out to the still sick and suffering addict or alcoholic,” he said, sharing his passion for helping others in need.

In a couple of earlier interviews with the Bored Panda team, Kevin explained to us that it depends on each individual whether or not they want to share their extremely personal stories on ‘The Addict’s Diary’ for the entire world to see.

“I think it's difficult for some, but a lot of people can't wait to get their story out there. Most of society has seen them at their lowest and this an opportunity to show the world that they've changed their life,” the founder of the page told Bored Panda.

He shared that he started the project to show people the truth about drug addiction and to let those who are suffering know that a helping hand is always out there. “I saw too many people losing hope,” he said.

Once his parents realized that he was doing drugs, they sent him to the first of 29 inpatient rehab facilities. After finishing the program, he graduated from high school. However, things didn’t take a positive turn for Kevin, as his friends pushed him toward relapsing.

“All [of them] were doing drugs, and I got back into it and began the game of hiding it from my family the best I could. You get better with that as you grow in your addiction," he explained. “I wasn’t willing to let go of people that I needed to, that’s a difficult thing to do when you’re a kid.”

Even though Kevin ended up getting a college scholarship, after his first year there, he went back home for a while and his friends introduced him to heroin, one of the hardest drugs there is.

“I’m not your typical heroin addict that got a prescription and started abusing pills. I started pretty much straight with heroin, and so from there—heroin would take over my life for the next 11 years,” he revealed to Bored Panda. “It sucked," he added that this period in his life was full of anguish and heartbreak.

“Every bridge had been burned, but someone presented me with an opportunity to go to rehabilitation treatment and they offered to come [and] get me. I didn’t even want to get clean—you have to put yourself in the frame of mind of going in and out of treatment for 12 years, coming from this good family of law enforcement and firefighters, and you’re just this lost person out there, I really didn’t think I could get clean. I just assumed I was going to be a heroin addict forever.”

However, things took a dramatic shift for the better when Kevin went to his 29th treatment facility. There, he was given the task of writing down his life story. He was shocked when one of his peers could only write down a handful of bullet points.

The day after that, Kevin read 46 pages of his story to his group. This got him thinking about the reasons why he used drugs and, with the help of his therapist, he came to the conclusion that he got high because he hated himself. 

Kevin made it his mission to learn to love himself while sober and has been putting all of his efforts into ‘The Addict’s Diary’ which now has over 806k followers on Facebook alone.