Sober Hepler Helps Others Through Addiction

If second chances came only once in a lifetime, Marietta’s Chad Hepler would say he’s had four or five lives as he’s battled to overcome a seriously debilitating condition—addiction.

Hepler, 25, never had ambitions to write as a kid but has penned two books Intervention: Anything But My Own Skin and Beyond Intervention, offering insight into the self inflicted hardships and battle scars often associated with the disease.

Hepler says he was your typical suburban kid: parents made good money, he had a nice stable upbringing, he never wanted for anything and he made decent grades.

Even as a privileged kid, however, he always felt less among his circle of friends, Hepler says. No matter what he did, he felt as though he was in the shadows or background while others played the front.

Like many addicts, Hepler tried drugs at an early age, 14, when he did both alcohol and marijuana for the first time within a day or two of each other. He says the experience gave him a sense of security and belonging amongst a new subset of friends.

“It was a comforting feeling knowing I could bond with these people and wouldn’t be judged like by others,” Hepler says of his initial drug use.

Hepler tells the story of being so "wasted" one night that he did some "off roading": translation—he drove his Jeep SUV through his old neighbors’ yard resulting in a ban from the neighborhood.

“Once the gates opened for new drugs, I started trying prescription drugs like Adderall, cocaine, meth but never anything you’d shoot up,” Hepler admits.

His life went on a rapid decline from there until one night his father sat him down offering him a choice: a) admit he had been using and deal with the consequences, including the loss of his truck; or b) he would be forced to give a hair sample for a drug test kit with the consequences being much more severe. Hepler chose the former.

But his behavior didn’t straighten out. In fact, it got worse.

“It (drugs) gives you a new ego," Hepler explains. "You’re kinda like the bad druggie kid with a new sorta respect.”

After a barrage of incidents from run-ins with the police to skipping school to failing grades, Hepler’s parents were left with few alternatives.

Suddenly, his life would change. At 4 a.m. one morning he was awakened by two strongmen from a rehab center his parents enlisted him in. Their methods were cold blooded; they struck in the night while new inductees where asleep and disoriented, providing the least likely path to resistance.

Hepler says he remembers his parents giving him a scripted statement and leaving the room as he tried to wrestle his way from the two, one of whom eventually tackled and pinned him to the ground bounding him with handcuffs. Within moments Hepler was whisked off to Hartsfield-Jackson where he was boarded on a flight to Montana. He spent the next two months at the Wilderness Treatment Center, appropriately named for their abrasive rehabbing techniques.

At some point in the program, patients are instructed to go on the "16-day trip," a trip involving 16 days in zero and subzero degree weather, three of which were spent with no tent or covering as they had to build their own igloo in order to survive.

“It was a very effective program," Hepler reflects. "You really appreciate all the little things when you’re 16 days without heat, water or electricity; it just helps to reset your mind.”

Upon returning home, Hepler found stints of relief from his addiction where life was better, but he somehow ended up revisiting his destructive habits.

He acknowledges now that it was typically only when he was around the party scene, like that of college towns Valdosta and Athens, that he found himself back in trouble.

After receiving his second DUI, Hepler did jail time. It was there he found the inspiration to write about his experiences, which resulted in the birth of his first book, Intervention: Anything But My Own Skin.

Hepler has been sober for nearly four years with the support of his parents, family and fiancé. After recently graduating from Kennesaw State University, he’s now studying to become an addiction counselor while working at an addiction treatment center.

Hepler says he's dedicated to helping others escape the demons haunting them that once plagued him in his youth. His second book is in edit and due out later this year.

You can learn more about Chad Hepler, book him for anti-drug speaking engagements or purchase his book at: 404-547-8713; chadjhepler@gmail.com; or www.interventionbooks.com.

A correction has been made to this article: Chad Hepler's last name was misspelled as Helper.