Dr. Nicole LePera

I was very shy.

I knew the answer in class.

I would never raise my hand.

And again, I only had a real handful of friends that I connected with through sports.

I, however, had a very good friend who happened to be three years older than me that lived in my neighborhood who I connected with through sports.

We would go outside and play wiffle ball together and

That then translated into a more social type relationship.

And because she was three years older than me, she started understandably experimenting with alcohol, smoking pot.

And then very quickly, I got introduced to that.

And what I discovered was when I started drinking or smoking,

I felt more comfortable.

That anxiety that I lived with that translated into my shyness and inability to connect, I suddenly felt freer, more at ease, more able to relate, you know, around partying with my friends.

So I did just that and I happened to have a lot of freedom.

I didn't have

curfews that were early.

I was always out late to the same time she was out aloud.

When I would come home, even my parents were already in bed.

So I would literally stumble through the living room on.

I mean, it blows my mind to think about what I was putting into my body at that time from drinking and smoking to pills that I would buy off the street.

And I lived in a city.