Eric Zimmer

And that began several years of misery.

Yeah, I had been sober about a week at this point, and I was convinced that I was done.

I was able to see, like, I'm dying, I'm going to jail.

I was done and was sort of excited about the next chapter of my life.

And it was around Christmas, and I went to the Zimmer family Christmas party, and my grandpa handed me my gift, which was an envelope.

I opened the envelope, and in it was $25, which just happened to be the exact amount that one thing of heroin was, a baggie.

I don't know what the hell we called it then.

And immediately, that voice that I wished wasn't there in my head just started up, you know, yelling to go get high.

And I resisted it for a little bit, but not for very long.

And I called my dealer.

who said, meet me at AutoZone, which was the shitty place in Columbus we'd meet behind to buy drugs.

And I remember the drive there.

It was winter.

It was snowing.

Aerosmith's Dream On was playing on the radio, and I was sobbing because I so desperately didn't want to do it.

And yet I had no ability not to do it at the same time.

which is a really awful feeling.

Yeah, it's got to be up there.

Luckily, I didn't take him with me to AutoZone, so I spared him that indignity.

All of us know that feeling of watching ourselves make exactly the wrong choice.