@camuel congratulations on your sobriety! That is a serious accomplishment! I totally understand what you mean, I too struggled with drugs and alcohol. I was using alcohol to cope with trauma and was relying on it to get through my day by the time I was 14. Drugs crept in just as easily and before I knew it - that's all I had. I've now been drug free for 12 years this April, my first son saved my life at 18 - god knows where I'd be if I hadn't made that change for him.
It's hard outside that circle of like-minded addicts for many reasons, but for me it's like looking through glass at someone, you see them and they see you but it's distorted. You feel like they can't connect or fully appreciate your struggle because yours is different, stronger, harder to cope with. If someone has never struggled with addiction they cannot relate... BUT they can - if you let them. Empathy is everything - they don't have to KNOW the struggle to feel for you. Just as you don't have to lose a child to cancer to feel sorrow for that parent.. it's a process but I let my walls down little by little and try to let go of that jealous,envious, cynic inside me that says my struggles are worse than anyone else's.

Thank you so much for sharing! You made me remember how far I've come - you are truly an inspiration :)