Eric Zimmer

It was a long time ago, so it's hard to fully bring it into view.

But I would say it's a pretty miserable existence because it is essentially a few moments a day where you get high and feel good for five minutes at that point.

And the rest of it is fear and craving and despair and shame.

You know, having to hustle to figure out how to get the money that I needed.

So there's crime involved.

It's really a lousy, lousy way of life.

But that somehow didn't happen with you.

It's ironic that I became a heroin addict as afraid of needles as I was and am.

I mean, it started like probably most everybody starts with you start experimenting with alcohol and drugs as a teenager.

And I reacted oddly from the very beginning.

I remember drinking one of my first times drinking and waking up the next morning and there was the vodka was still there.

And I went to the fridge and I pulled out orange juice.

I poured the vodka in and I started drinking.

That is just an unusual behavior.

I learned that you could get drunk drinking scope mouthwash.

Oh, man.

Then I learned that in order to offset the problems with that, you could drink half a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

And I was on a church youth trip where I unleashed this secret upon all my fellow people.

But none of them wanted to do the Pepto-Bismol trick, so everybody was vomiting.

This is a church trip.