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Full Surrender

Last Updated on November 21, 2019

Adam Tucker’s story of addiction starts in the quiet lake community of Frederick, Maryland, just an hour west of Baltimore. Born in Washington D.C. to two loving parents, Adam describes his upbringing as relatively peaceful and enjoyable. “I never experienced any trauma; there was never any abuse,” he says. “I was a pretty privileged kid growing up. In fact, I was almost a little too privileged.”

The first time Adam drank was the summer of his freshman or sophomore year. Everything he did started out being fun, but he always took it to the most extreme level. The remainder of his high school years were spent experimenting with ecstasy, cocaine, and mushrooms, and by his first year of college, things were out of control.

Full Surrender - Adam Tucker
Photo credit: Nora Cheney

Wandering Through Life

After that year of college, Adam spent several years wandering aimlessly through life. He spent a summer at the beach partying. He went back home and stayed there until things blew up. He spent some time in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina before moving on to Las Vegas, Nevada where he worked in the nightclub scene. After that, he moved back to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he continued to use and got his first DUI.

“It was just non-stop partying,” he says. “I always had this big, great plan for each place I went. But everywhere I went, I just got chewed up and spit out.”

Adam’s parents tried to shield and hide him at their house for a while because they just didn’t know what to do with him. They didn’t know how to help him, and they weren’t aware of the treatment options available, so they did what they could. All the while, Adam continued to sink deeper into a dark, endless pit of addiction.

“I just didn’t give a f@#$,” he says, thinking back to that time in his life. “I didn’t want or need treatment.”

Adam eventually returned to his hometown in Maryland because he didn’t know where else to go.

While there, he received two more DUIs, continued to drive on revoked charges without insurance and registration, and eventually found himself trapped in the legal system with endless court dates and legal issues. With no job, no license, and no plan, he was a mess. He spent the next four or five years reeling in an uncontrollable rampage of prescription drug abuse, molly, alcohol addiction, and deep depression.

“After a while I just kind of shut down,” he says. “I wasn’t working, I wasn’t driving, I was doing nothing [with my life] … it just stopped being fun.”

Finally Ready for Full Surrender

Adam knew something was wrong but he didn’t know how to get help. He was angry, defiant, and going nowhere fast. After a heated incident one night in which he broke his hand in six different places, he was finally ready to get help for his addiction. He went to the local health center in his town, but they wouldn’t admit him because of his hand injury. “I’m gonna die if you don’t take me,” he said to them. They still wouldn’t take him.

Adam’s parents paid for him to have surgery on his hand and after his operation, he was supposed to complete 7 to 8 weeks of physical rehabilitation for his hand, but he didn’t make it that far. He continued to abuse prescription drugs, alcohol, and anything else he could get his hands on.

Fully aware that he needed help and finally ready to receive it, Adam had a phone conversation with an old friend from college who also happened to be an employee at Nova Recovery Center. Before he knew it, he was on a plane to Texas where he enrolled in a 90-day addiction treatment program at Nova. His parents footed the bill for his treatment.

In rehab, Adam fully surrendered to the truth about who he had become and the toll his addiction had taken on his life. He spent a life-changing 90 days at Nova Recovery Center where he completely and thoroughly worked through the 12-step program for the first time. After rehab, he enrolled in a sober living program through Eudaimonia Recovery Homes and continued to maintain his lifestyle of sobriety.

“I still think about drugs every day,” he says. “But the thing is, I got honest. It took some time for me to accept the fact that I can’t get high anymore or drink. But going to Nova and sober living was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

Now the thoughts that used to control Adam are under his control. Rehab at Nova gave him the tools he needed to shut down those thoughts and cravings, and really think about who he was going to hurt and what would happen if he chose to use drugs again. “Being able to think differently and process things was just something I never had,” he says. “I never had the tools for life.”

Today, Adam works in the Admissions Department at JourneyPure, a drug addiction treatment center in Nashville, Tennessee, and is slowly paying his parents back for the cost of his treatment—something he never thought he’d be able to do. He likes to play hockey and golf, eat a variety of foods, work out, and he takes his job very personally. He understands what it’s like to not be ready for treatment.

“There’s nothing you can really say to someone who thinks they don’t need help,” he says. “I’m grateful that no one tried to force me into treatment when I wasn’t ready because it wouldn’t have worked. I’m not here to sell treatment. I’m not here to tell them what to do. But when they’re ready to surrender, I’m here to help.”

Adam entered addiction treatment for the first time at the age of 32 and hasn’t looked back since. If you or a loved one has completed or attempted several different rehab programs and has continued to struggle with relapse, there’s still hope for you. Call Nova Recovery Center today to learn more about our 90-day inpatient rehab program and experience the power of full surrender for yourself.

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