Prodigal Magazine

A Story of Addiction

As Scott Summers sat on the cold wooden floor of his parents’ kitchen, with his back leaning against the cabinets, he wondered if he had enough courage. He gripped the dark, wooden handle of the butcher’s knife and tapped the blade softly against the threads of his sweatshirt. He pulled the knife away, then pushed it forward, again and again, but never piercing the skin. “There’s gotta be another way to kill myself,” he thought. This past fall, reflecting on this day four and a half years ago, Summers said he was at one of the lowest points of his life from his drug and alcohol use. “Every day was the worst day of my life,” he said. “I was barely surviving.” Sitting just feet away from where he had pondered taking his life, Summers casually slurped down a bowl of Ramen noodles and talked about his rehabilitation in between spoonfuls. Wearing ripped jeans and a black T-shirt from Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker’s clothing line, he propped up his long legs on the chair next to him. “I feel pretty good about myself” now, he said, later adding, “If I didn’t have my faith, I wouldn’t have my sobriety.”

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