GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It's fair to say 29-year-old Alex Smith is a mentor. The UNC-Greensboro student helps other students who are dealing with addiction.
He just might be the perfect person to relate. "I think the first time I started using any kind of prescription pills I was about 16 years old and from then it just progresses," said Alex.
Within three years, Alex was on a fast track to destruction. "By the time I was 19, I was sick, I was physically hooked,” admitted Alex. “I would wake up in the morning, the first thing I would think of is 'I need to get something in my body so that I'm no longer in any kind of withdrawal.'"
Four years later, at the age of 23, Alex started using heroin when his pill addiction became too expensive and hard to maintain.
Heroin helped him simply maintain. "When I used the drug, I didn't really get high from it, I just stopped shaking, stopped sweating, stopped throwing up."
Over the course of two years, Alex's heroin use escalated shooting up $100 a day worth of the drug. "I would wake up, halfway through the day, 12pm, 5pm, before I go to bed."
Alex's dad, Dennis, first realized something wasn't right when Alex was in high school. "Even though we had suspicions and we'd sometimes confront him, we never got a direct answer that there was something wrong," said Dennis.
The years of drug abuse came to a head when Alex was 25 and got caught stealing.
"We had no idea and it was totally devastating for us," said Dennis.
"At the time, it was the worst day of my life and today I look back on it and I think that's the turning point that changed everything," added Alex.
He was faced with two options: jail or rehab. He chose rehab.
"The truth was I was going to die if I would've continued doing what I was doing,” said Alex. And with that, he made a decision to turn it all around. After weeks of rehab at Fellowship Hall, Alex started to improve.
Now, 4 years later, he's using his low points to his advantage. "Instead of ignoring my past or instead of being ashamed for it, I use the events that have happened in my life and the mistakes I've made and what I've learned from them to help other people," said Alex.
He's accomplishing it through the Spartan Recovery Program. The UNC-Greensboro service is designed to help students seeking recovery or in recovery through peer-to-peer support and counseling.
MORE: Spartan Recovery Program
Alex is one of the founding members. “The idea was just to help a population that's on campus that we know exists."
The program has seen a 267% increase in membership from last year.
From time to time, Alex says he thinks about those dark years in the past confident that's where they'll stay. "But today since I'm able to live a life based on principles and morals and have some kind of self-worth, I don't need to change the way I feel."
A new way of thinking his father is thankful for, too. "We feel like we have our son back again and it's wonderful to know he's still alive," said Alex.
Alex's hope is that more resources will be available for people suffering from addiction. He said there's just a lack of services and resources. He said “we're worth more than a 5-day detox.”