BALTIMORE — Suffering from substance use disorder, Donald Young Jr. didn't think he would live past 25.
Now at 51, he shares his unique perspective on the successes and the challenges of fighting substance use disorder in Baltimore.
He said he started using heroin in West Baltimore when he was 16.
"I didn't know about same gender loving or LGBTQ,I just felt weird. And I wanted anything to make me feel different than how I felt. And I found that solace in heroin and in drugs," Young said.
WMAR-2 News' Raven Payne sits down with Young as he tells his story
He told WMAR-2 News that he thought the lifestyle was appealing, seeing his mom and dad using too.
But tragically, his mother died of an overdose in 2016.
"My dad always told me, 'You're gonna be the death of your mother.' When I decided to come out of the navy, 'You're gonna be the death of your mother.' When I got an 80 on a math test, 'You're gonna be the death of your mother.' So, she took my $40 and then bought drugs and died. And all I heard was, you're gonna be the death of your mother."
A year later, he had his own close brush with death.
"The day of her funeral, after the repast, and everybody left, I relapsed. I used. I couldn't think of living my life without my mother and I embarked upon a journey to join her."
He described it as a spiritual experience.
"I felt my mother just as close as you and I are talking. I didn't see her, but I certainly felt her presence. But I also had a conversation with God and he said, 'Nope your work is not done.'
He hasn't used since, something he says he couldn't have done without access to resources.
"I had a partner when I decided to get clean who had information about recovery programs, treatment frameworks that were other than the traditional 12 step."
With International Overdose Awareness Day in mind, Mayor Brandon Scott announced the city as a recovery friendly workplace and launched a new Naloxone Neighbors Campaign.
An In Focus look at overdose numbers locally and nationally
"I think the city and Mayor Brandon Scott is doing a fantastic job of following the science. Using the best methodology, the best frameworks, the best strategies."
But he wants there to be more focus on the youth.
"It's those kids down there that I am most concerned with because in this current climate, if we don't educate them, them being the youth, on the perils and what the consequences, not could be, what they are. It's jails, institution, and death and it doesn't have to be in that order."
Now, he helps others suffering with drug use either through his work as a community health worker or through offering people a place to stay in his own home.
"If you take an individual from no matter where you take them, any community. You train them on some core competencies in any field, that person's lived experience will allow them to navigate and to excel and to become something. If I could say anything, become."
Head here for information on treatment and recovery services.
