I have been in and out of mental hospitals all of my life.
I grew up in a home with domestic violence, sexual abuse, and battery.
I was removed from my parents home when I was 9 years old, after witnessing my father beat my mother almost to death. That’s a lot of trauma for a little kid to go through in a short amount of time and it caused a lot of problems for me. I did drugs, drank, smoked, and had sex before I was 16 years old. I overdosed on drugs and I ended up in the mental hospital. That’s when a specialist intervened on my behalf. The specialist took me to a marijuana treatment clinic. I spent 6 months at the marijuana treatment clinic. I learned some better coping skills and I learned how to medicate using medical marijuana products. When I left the treatment center, I felt like I had the tools to succeed in life. One of the first things that I decided to do was devote my life to helping others. I went to college and decided to become a social worker. I graduated college at the age of 32. I feel like medical marijuana gave me back a life that I never had in the past. Medical marijuana helped me get control of my problems without having a bunch of other pills in my system. I gave up all of the antipsychotics and switched them for medical marijuana. I’ve never felt better. It’s been 15 years since I started using medical marijuana and my life has drastically changed. I don’t know where I would be if that one doctor had not stepped in and intervened.