by Megan Valandingham
About 46.8 million Americans have battled substance addiction within 2023-2024. In Claiborne County, Tennessee, the drug overdose rate was 54.2 deaths per 100 thousand residents. In the podcast, Climbing Mountains: A Life of Addiction and Overcoming, my brother Matthew Valandingham, shares his story of addiction and the steps he took to overcome the struggle.
Matthew's TCAT Welding Program Graduation.
Picture provided by Matthew Valandingham
Matthew, 33, has lived the life of a sixty-year-old man. From a battle with drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and crime he has turned his life around to a decade of soberness and becoming a loving brother and an excellent husband and father. Now he is an AWS-certified welder and sheet metal worker, he works at the National Nuclear Security Administration, building just about anything with metal, but his biggest accomplishment, he believes, is his daughter and wife.
"I have been my own worst enemy. Drug addiction and ignorance led to stupid choices," says Valandingham. "Even with everything I have been through, I see it all as a lesson learned I try not to hold onto the past and regrets so that I can move on and try to not make the same mistakes."
Valandingham listed a few of the substances that he was addicted to. Marijuana, cocaine, acid, and alcohol. He also had his experience distributing them among his peers.
"Drug addiction was a coping mechanism to deal with issues I had growing up, depression, and anxiety."
Matthew as an infant with his parents, 1990.
Picture provided by Matthew Valandingham
His wife, Flora Valandingham, was there to experience the last few of his addictions.
"I don't think I intentionally did anything to help. I didn't like that he sold things, I think voiced how unsafe it was, and he just stopped on his own," she said. "Maybe me not wanting to do those things helped him avoid those situations."
Matthew and his family are at a relative's house.
Picture provided by Matthew Valandingham
So, what can be done to help aid addiction in oneself or their loved ones? Calling the Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988. Several treatment facilities and plans are there to offer assistance to patients seeking it. Interventions through people who love the addict, trying to talk them out of it and helping them avoid negative effects. It is never too late to help.
Comments