Mike came to the Mission after he realized he couldn’t quit his addiction on his own.

He’s finally saying no to peer pressure

Mike’s rock bottom came in 2024. At 20 years old, he had recently gotten a DUI. “That devastated me,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it, it was idiocy. I’m just throwing my life down the drain at this point. And losing my job and the respect from people that I cared for hurt a lot. That’s when I gave my life to Christ and let Him take control.”

Mike had a “pretty good” childhood, growing up in what felt like a “normal” family-until an event shook his family and fractured the dynamic he had always known. “When I was 12, my parents divorced,” he said. “I saw divorces all the time as a kid, so I just accepted it as it is. I knew parents got divorced but having them say horrible things about each other to me made me resent them.”

The separation led Mike to become overly independent and increasingly distant from his family. Trusting his own understanding, particularly in the friends he chose, he eventually found himself surrounded by the wrong influences.

“My friends introduced me to marijuana. At first, I was just curious about it, I just wanted to try it, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do my whole life. But the more I hung out with my friends, the more I saw them smoking marijuana, and the more they smoked the more I did too.”

Mike was peer-pressured into drinking alcohol. “That was not something I wanted to do at all. I’ve heard so many stories about how it destroys peoples’ lives,” he said. “I’ve seen it in my own family too. My parents warned me against drinking and doing drugs, but you can only say no for so long.

“I should’ve left and found new friends, but I stayed because I wanted to be loyal. That was obviously not the smart choice.”

Mike began drinking and smoking marijuana regularly. Always eager to fit in, he followed his friends when they started hanging out with a rougher crowd, and his substance use quickly escalated. “I think I was looking for acceptance. I just wanted to belong with my friends. I was a people pleaser.”

Even as Mike attempted to stop drinking and smoking marijuana, he found himself unable to do so. “I wanted to be sober, but I couldn’t stop. It was just something I’ve done for so long.

“I was trying to do it all on my own. But every time I would keep falling, falling, falling. And every time I fell, I would beat myself up, which would only make me drink more.”

Finally, Mike came to the Mission. “Being here is a blessing in disguise. I’m still learning how to fully surrender but God is definitely changing my heart. I feel different.

“Using drugs and alcohol isn’t something I want to do in my life anymore. I know that’s stopped me. It’s hindered my potential and becoming who I want to be. I want to be my own man.”