Page 12 - Faces of Addiction

TIMOTHY (TJ)

AGE: 20

ADDICTION: H heroin

STATUS: Active user

TJ is a young man with a track record of accomplishment and
disaster.

Until the age of ten he was mentally and physically abused. His
mother divorced and remarried; TJ and his stepfather were close.
Starting at age 12, he began rebuilding a 12-bedroom Victorian
owned by his stepfather. At 14 he dropped out of high school to
work full time as a carpenter. Starting with stripping walls and
finishing by doing most of the carpentry, cabinetry, and finish
work himself, he learned to be a contractor, and by age 18 he was
supervising crews for “Extreme Makeover,” a reality-TV show. In
addition, he’s good with electronics and coding. He is generally
self-educated.

TJ was born with inoperable deformed legs. Percocet stopped

working, and at 17 his
Prescriptions were cut o . A friend introduced him to heroin, and
after 7 months he quit cold turkey, in November 2015. He stayed
clean for two years. In 2016 his step father, who had been drink-
ing 2 liters of vodka a day, stopped cold turkey on his own, and
died within a week. When this happened, TJ and his mother lost a
$3 million estate to “greedy step-siblings” who contested the will
and won. When the estate was stolen from him, TJ wound up

homeless. He got carpentry work to support his mom and
returned to pain pills.

When Percocet started costing $30 to $50 a pill, he moved to
heroin. The drugs made him mean, so he lost his girlfriend in
October 2017.

TJ’s goals are to get clean and make enough money – without
causing additional decay of his legs and the pain that goes with it
– to make his mother secure and comfortable. He has a film
industry connection that may make that possible – if he gets
clean and stays that way.