Eric Zimmer

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.

The pastor must have loved you for sharing this with the group.

Oh, exactly.

I was invited back promptly.

And then strangely enough, I stopped using drugs and alcohol in high school because I had started this tutoring program for disadvantaged kids.

And I just saw what alcohol and drug use was doing to their lives.

But when I was 18, my best friend started dating my girlfriend.

That hurts a lot.