FULTON COUNTY DRUG COURT: The Story Of Chad Mann

Addiction is more than just the statistics we read about in the news. This series of articles about participants from the Fulton County Drug Court is meant to illuminate the human faces behind the numbers.

They are all part of our Fulton County family, and they are moms, dads, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons. This is the next article in the series that features the story of Chad Mann, as told to by Carol Tiffany, Program Coordinator.

My name is Chad Mann, a twenty-seven year old striving to be the best I can be in life. My childhood was an amazing experience, and I was happy having my brothers as my best friends. My family consisted of my parents and two other brothers, and we lived in Paulding, Ohio when I was young.

At that time, Paulding was run-down and drugs were a problem in the schools. I came from a loving family and was taught to be giving and nice to others.

But, unfortunately at school, I was involved in physical fights in order to defend myself from bullies. Academically, I was a solid C student due to my ADHD and didn’t really care for school.

My parents worked a lot, so my brothers and I were left alone after school and in the summers. We had a blast riding go carts and swimming in our pond.
We built huge igloos in the winter and were always creating something.

The photographer from the Paulding paper would drive by our house and take pictures of our crazy antics. You could call us free spirits.

After my grandpa died, we moved to Delta out in the country. Delta was a better place to grow up, in my opinion, and our family was happy there. I started playing football in high school but kept getting injured, so I quit.

My grades slipped eventually due to my lack of motivation. I thought school was boring and had no incentive to try. My parents didn’t push me to do better, and I was happy staying home playing video games with my friends.

I made a lot of good friends in Delta where we enjoyed going to football games and hanging out.

As a freshman and sophomore in high school in Delta, I started hanging out with older people, and my brother exposed me to the “party scene” and harder drugs.

I started drinking, then smoking weed and cigarettes like everyone else because I was lonely and wanted to be accepted as part of the group.

I think peer pressure was a factor when I first started, then I grew to depend on substances every day.

My parents knew I drank and allowed it when I was at my house. They also knew I was smoking weed, but didn’t stop me.

They didn’t see it as a problem so didn’t see the need to help or discuss their concerns with me.

During my junior year at Four County Career Center, I had a girlfriend and a whole new circle of friends. I continued to use substances and even when a friend died of a heroin overdose, I didn’t stop. I was devastated and promised myself never to use heroin, but I continued alcohol and weed.

My circle of friends continued to grow at this time, and we were like family. We looked out for each other, and I blossomed due to the close personal connections. My girlfriend allowed me to be myself.

She was confident, philosophical, and I enjoyed our conversations. It was a great relationship until it wasn’t. My senior year, she broke up with me and my circle collapsed.

It was no longer the same social dynamic, and I was traumatized emotionally.

After graduating from Four County, I had a new group of friends along with some from my old circle. I continued using substances and added psychedelics so my addiction was growing.

My best friend at this time was Chris who had Lupus, which is an autoimmune disease. I also became really close with Chris’s family, and Chris became like my brother.

Chris was sick often and in and out of hospitals for surgery and dialysis. He would always bounce back after these times, but it was progressively getting worse.

I didn’t know he was dying even though he had a seizure at my house.

I would have spent more time with him if I had known how serious his illness was becoming. Instead of being with him the day he died, I changed my plans to be with a girl.

When Chris died, I felt I died, too. I spiraled out of control using hard drugs like cocaine then drinking and smoking weed to relax, numb, or to block the pain.

I didn’t know what I was doing at this time because his death hit me so hard.

I used cocaine and drank beer all the time, even at work. This continued for about 6 months because I wasn’t able to deal with it in a healthy way. I ended up taking time off work to try to get myself under control.

I didn’t realize the depth of my addiction and tried to “fix” myself. I knew I wanted to live a better, healthier life but didn’t know how to make it happen.

I started by slowing down on the drugs and tried to have normal social interactions and friends in order to fill the void. I was starting to feel better and continued to regulate my emotions.

It took about a month to reflect and calm down. However, I was still using drugs.

One night on the way home from a friend’s house, I was caught with cocaine and weed and arrested. I was given 6 months probation, but couldn’t pass a urine test because I kept using drugs. I was sentenced to Drug Court, but first had to attend The Renewal Center, a rehab facility.

I didn’t think I had an addiction until I went to rehab and saw how bad addiction was for some people there. I didn’t think it was a problem for me yet but was certainly on the path to an addiction.

I was young and did have some self control but still used chemicals to cope with life. In looking back, I made a lot of poor choices while on drugs and lost friendships so it was definitely a problem.

To this day, I regret not spending precious time with my family and true friends, like Chris. Instead, I chose to spend time with drug users who really were not my friends at all.

Today, I am happy with my sober life. It’s stable and balanced instead of a roller coaster ride. I have set different priorities, and my state of mind has totally changed.

I will continue my sobriety because I see the difference it has made in my life.

I feel better physically, I am saving money, spending time with my family and true friends, and have pride in myself and my job at Haas Door. Finally, I am graduating Drug Court on September 9, 2021.

In the future, I have many goals. First, I am going to pay off my credit card debt. Next, I will continue to remodel my house while working on myself in order to grow.

Finally, my ultimate goal is to start my own business. In order to do that, I want to go to school and prepare by taking business/management classes.

I will continue to work my full-time job in addition to school because I know it will take time for a business to grow.

I have been and will always be a hard worker. Now, I am sober, and I have confidence in my ability to be successful.