Tyler’s Story

When I came into Atlanta Mission, I was detoxing. I had tried multiple times before to get clean, and it just always seemed impossible to get help. 

A few months before I came here to Atlanta Mission, I was in Pensacola, Florida—I had gone there to see my daughter. I remember It was Halloween, and I just wanted to take my daughter out trick-or-treating. But instead, once I got there, I ended up getting high and then got into my car. I drove the car into a tree and hit it head-on, and after I woke up, I was met by the police and I was arrested. 

After getting out of jail, I had once again started to detox. I had gone to places other times before and I just didn’t keep clean. Then they told me there was a place for me at The Potter’s House, and so I came to Atlanta.

Addiction got the best of me

I grew up in Chickamauga, Georgia. It was mostly just me, my dad and my sister. My mom wasn’t really around much—she was in and out of my life. But, my dad, everything he did was for me and my sister. 

I think I had a good upbringing. I would say I first started using drugs when I was a teenager. I just started out smoking weed, but then around 18 or 19 I started using harder drugs. It first started right after I found out that I had a kid. I had missed about a year of my daughter’s life—I didn’t know anything about her, and didn’t know she was mine. But once I found out about her, I had her all the time and worked to provide for her.

I started working long hours and putting in overtime to pay child support. And then I started messing around with harder drugs. At first, I was just using them to stay awake and get by, and I kind of just got caught up in that loop.

I started getting into meth, and my addiction just got the best of me. I was on meth for about four or five years, and then I started mixing in Fentanyl. 

And that’s the reason I’m here now. I knew that I had to come here to get my life back—for me, and for my daughter. 

She’s the main reason I did come here. 

Everybody’s surprised that I made it

When I got here to The Potter’s House, I was sick. I was really sick. At first, I was just bucking the system—I was rebelling and I had a hard time. It really took about three months before I started to just completely give in and trust the system. You can ask anybody here, I think they were all surprised to see me come around and to see me make it. Everybody’s surprised that I made it. 

But this place has done so much for me. They helped me get dental insurance, ya know, they put shoes on my feet and helped me get CPR certified. I got my forklift certification and my OSHA 10 certification. This place really went above and beyond for me. 

I think the best part about being here has just been being able to get my life back. It’s been rough out here, and I still miss my daughter every day, but I needed this. 

I got involved in Leadership here at The Potter’s House, and while that’s been a whole new challenge for me, it’s been an opportunity for me to grow. I got a lot to work on, but it’s best that I work on it here.

If I hadn’t ended up here, then it could’ve ended up a bunch of different ways. The stuff that I was messing with, I could be dead, locked up or back in that addiction—addiction ain’t no joke. 

“This place really is doing a lot for a lot of people—you can’t go anywhere else and get this right here.”

I thought I knew God before I came here. And then I came here and found out I didn’t know anything. It took me a long time, but when I see some of these people around here they just got something I want: a real good relationship with God. And it was probably about three months in before I really started to even feel that again. And I had that moment where I just realized that I can’t do it without God. 

I got to have Him. It’s something I still struggle with, but I know I got to have Him in my life.