Our Voices Matter

OUR VOICES
MATTER




A COLLECTION OF YOUTH
STORIES ABOUT SUBTANCE
USE AND MENTAL HEALTH

ATLANTA, GA

table of contents
p.4
Victor's story

p.3 Learning from mistakes

"lost" p.5

by: Christian Leo's story

Burning hole

p.6

me and my mind

by: Alexis

p. 7-8

iliana's story

Better now, I guess?

p.10 p. 9

Peer pressured dawson's story
at school
Teammates
By: Alex
p.11

lost dog

By: Alejandro

p.12

samuel's story

Rising above p.13

tommy's
story

Drugs at my school

March 2022 p.3

"lost"

I always just brush off the problems, but never ever really fix them.
Seeing all my friends getting together and seeing them slowly move
apart. Most of them moved, consumed by drugs, even in prison. I was
always the youngest in the group, confused about what I should do or
say. We would always play games outside until the sky went dark. I
missed those days. Now it’s just me and 2 others. One day after
everyone I knew left I saw the news that my friend that took care of me
since day one, killed a person. I was in shock because I already had
one of my friends in prison. Now I have friends that I know wouldn’t
mess up their life. Looking back now, drugs can mess up everything.

-Christian

March 2022 p.4

Drinking and partying, these two things mixed together is already bad
enough but my family takes it to the whole next level. Sometimes it gets
really bad to the point fights break out and even the police get called.
My family has always had problems but this has somewhat felt normal
to me until one night. This night was the first time I saw my mom really
drunk but not just her, the entire family. This scared me as they didn’t
feel good for days. Then that’s when my mom said to me “I’m going to
stop, this is way too much.” After that, I heard news that my uncle is in
jail for possession of drugs, supposedly the people he was with got
pulled over by the police and he was so drunk he didn’t notice when his
friends threw the drugs on him while everyone else ran away. This
made my family stop doing alcohol which was a change for the better,
showing my family can learn from their mistakes.

-Victor

March 2022 p.5

In my life drugs have had an impact on me. I personally never tried
drugs but this doesn’t mean I haven’t felt the fear, the terror, the rage,
and despair they cause. My father was an alcoholic and I never
experienced that until a few years ago when he got back into beer. The
fear my family felt when he was angry was so grave that we fled home
and stayed at my cousins place. Luckily, he never harmed us. However,
he did punch a hole into my bedroom wall that is still there to this day.
That patched hole in the wall is just a burning memory.

-Leonardo

March 2022 p.6

Me and my mind

Throughout the pandemic, I was spending a lot of time in my room, all
alone on a daily basis, since the rest of my family was working. My
friends were doing their own thing and I didn’t have much to do besides
just watching something. Although I had technology in my hands I didn’t
find it to be satisfying enough. So I then began thinking about my life
choices & how I ended up getting here and what choices I was given.
This led me down an endless spiral in my own head which I couldn’t get
out of and this was a confusing time for me. Eventually, I realized that
this was incredibly unhealthy, but then I came up with a good idea to go
for a walk at my local park. This was a pretty solid idea because It
helped me release some stress. My friends then invited me to go hang
out which I really enjoyed since I hadn’t seen them in so long. This gave
me the craving to go hang out which then had me grow a small
addiction. This is okay for me though since I see them about every 2
months and I can wait till then.

-Alexis

March 2022 p.7

I.
“They’re gone. They’re finally gone.”
I fall on my knees and smile
But something’s off
Why doesn’t it feel as good as I thought it would?
The feelings are mostly gone but the thoughts are the same.
Silence settles in the atmosphere.
So quiet yet so loud.
Suddenly, I feel an unconscious tear rolling down my face.
I am crying but I don’t feel sad.

March 2022 p.8

II.

Silence is a nice thing compared to words. I’d rather have that than their words.
Most would argue that silence is deafening. But it’s what I long for. Because
everything that comes out of their mouths these days, seem to be nothing but
blame, judgement, and mean comments. The very people who were supposed
to protect me from the harsh ways of the world, introduced me to them. They
said the meanest things to me. I used to lay in bed at night and wonder what I
could do to satisfy them. I worked myself to the point where I felt like the goal
had become my life. I didn’t want to be myself anymore. I used to blame them
for using depressants to make themselves feel better while not realizing they
were hurting me. But I’m learning. Their choices were theirs and I couldn’t do
anything to change that. I’m slowly learning to love myself and that their
validation isn’t worth it if they never really cared in the first place. But the stench
of their escape will forever more haunt me.

- Iliana

March 2022 p.9

My teammate/friend Brandon, whom I met in middle school, who is
a very innocent kid, focused on football and nothing else. Going
into high school, during summer conditioning he started coming in
smoking a cartridge, going in and out of practice which is very bad
and I have been questionable of why he has been doing it. He is
still smoking.

-Dawson

March 2022 p.10

Peer Pressure at School

One day at school, a friend of mine pulled out a vape pen. It was 5th period,
Spanish class. I was just chilling minding my own business then he told me,
“Yo, Alex put your mouth in this sh**.” I was like “uhhhh….no thanks.” Then,
his friends made the situation worse by saying how it’s okay and that no
one will know and won’t snitch.
I tried to resist by saying “no” over and over again but no matter how hard I
tried to resist they keep on budging. I still said “no” and this time I said I said
no but more seriously to let them know that I don’t want to be associated
with that kind of stuff. So, after they finally stopped budging me, I continued
on with my day and honestly, peer pressure is an extremely common
occurrence in high school and I try not to be for it because it affects kids in
very negative ways.
I wanted to share this story because believe it or now it was not the first
time I was peer pressured, and I wanted to show how people have the
ability to say “no” and resist when someone pressures you to do something.

-Alex

March 2022 p.11

lost dog

My favorite animal in the world wasn’t in my life for a bit and it was the
scariest thing to have ever happen. My family and I had left to go to
church and by the time we returned he was missing. After an hour of
not being able to find him, we finally found him out chasing a cat. During
the time I couldn’t find him I felt really anxious and nervous that we
might never find him. The relief I felt after seeing him again made me
care and love him more and I can’t imagine having to go through that
again.

-Alejandro

March 2022 p.12

I grew up in a Spanish-speaking home. My mom was never able to help
me due to this. This lead me to ask for help from my older brother, but
he was never able to help me. I learned from this that you and only you

are able to help yourself. Down the line, my older brother started
abusing substances such as weed. He would ask me for help but I

wouldn’t know how. I only grew up being able to help myself.
I watched as he fell into it deeper and deeper. I watched as he argued
with my mom about how weed helps him and how it isn’t a problem. I

stood there unable to help him. He asked me for advice but I didn’t
know how as the years went by with these problems, I learned to work
with people in a team setting that weren’t always able to contribute. This
helped me find a way to talk to him about his ongoing issue and help

him with his problem.



- Samuel

March 2022 p.13

One day, I went to use the locker-room bathroom. My friend, we’ll call
him A.H, is a very drug-heavy person. I hear, “I’m going to smoke,
haha”. I didn’t know how to feel, to be honest. We’re trying to get better
for next year and he’s smoking. It’s just disappointing. There’s actually
multiple people on the team who do drugs and it just doesn’t make
sense. They complain about our team not having the effort but yet they
smoke often. Drugs are a big problem, especially at my school.

-Tommy

Our team lives in Atlanta, Ga.,
near Buford Highway, an area

celebrated for its multicultural
diversity. We want to spread

awareness that youth may often
carry scars that are often
invisible from an outside

perspective. Through our stories,
we hope to inspire readers to

share their own stories and have
compassion for others who might

be struggling in their lives.







We hope that our experiences
and unique stories will serve as

torches to light the way for
progress regarding the wide
range of mental health issues and
substance use disorders that are
currently affecting many people

in this country.



Our voices matter!

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