My name is Jeremy Cross, born in Langley (May 1993). A local boy from a good family and this disease took me, it doesn't discriminate and can happen to anyone. I battled addiction for 7 years on the streets of Vancouver, my DOC (drug of choice) was fentanyl and crystal. I was in and out of the legal system, I became something and someone I didn't know. When unimaginable things happened to me, I would always think, I'm going to write about this some day if I ever get out of this rabbit hole. It was incredibly hard to open "old wounds" so that I could describe each event in such delicate detail. Reliving the trauma was difficult and emotional but I felt it was key so that my readers could deeply relate and understand my thoughts and feelings. I tapped into making it therapeutic rather then destructive. I never thought the things that I went through happened here in Vancouver, Canada... it truly shocked me. I felt hopeless, lost and afraid... You couldn't get much lower then I was. I never thought I was getting out alive and here I am now, sober and thriving. I want my story to inspire others, bring awareness and understanding to the addiction community and help educate the "normies" really get what we go through and how we sometimes get there and why it's so difficult to just "get out". It's so much more then that. Yes, technically and physically it's a choice, but take a ride with me and see for yourself why it's much more complicated then that. My goal is to help educate families in the community that are dealing with addiction and don't know what to do or what they can do to help. Never judge, many homeless addicts and how they got there can have a story that will break your heart, and you may find that they were once not much different then you. I am now a certified peer support worker, I want to prevent others from going through what I went through, because many don't make it out alive. For anyone going through a tough time that needs someone to just listen and understand them, I'm your man. Open my book, that's where you'll find me.