Wrestler and former addict Richard Jensen shares his story to students
A recovering addict, and champion wrestler, Richard Jensen recently shared his story with students at Warsaw Middle/High School in upstate New York.
As reported in the DailyNewsOnline.com, after high school, instead of accepting a wrestling scholarship, continuing his education and pursuing his dreams of being a teacher and coach, Jensen got hooked on methamphetamine and other drugs. It was a decision that led him down a 15-year journey of drug addiction, jail time, and eventually recovery.
After graduating high school, Jensen began working on a fishing boat in Alaska. With low self-esteem and looking for a way to fit in with his crew members, he began experimenting with drugs and became hooked on meth the first time he used it.
It was later in his addiction that he learned to make the drug.
“I took the drug one time,” Jensen told students. “It took using one time to get stuck. I would do anything to get high, even if it meant being a criminal.”
During his addiction struggles, Jensen’s parents tried to get him into counseling. Each time he got into trouble and was sent to prison, Jensen promised himself that he would get clean — that was until he got out and had the opportunity to get high again. On October 10, 2003, Jensen was sentenced to prison for the final time. It was during this period that he received a phone call from his mother saying that she was dying from cancer.
Jensen felt immense guilt and shame for the lifestyle he had chosen and promised his mother that he would turn his life around. She died while he was still in prison.
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To learn more about how Richard Jensen was finally able to beat his addiction, please visit the Daily News Online.
