Angel’s story: Rebuilding his future one day at a time

Seventeen-year-old Angel grew up in a small town in Mexico where family, church and baseball shaped everyday life. He got straight A’s, served as an altar boy and came from a close, supportive family.

But none of that kept addiction from finding him.

“My parents always told me to stay away from drugs and alcohol. But I’ve always been a kid who preferred being out of the house and I started going down to the gas station for beer when I was just 11 years old,” says Angel.

Before long, Angel was regularly smoking cigarettes and marijuana.

A stressful move in his teen years

When Angel’s family moved to Dallas, Texas at age 13, his life got more complicated. Angel was adjusting to a new language, a new school and eventually a demanding restaurant job where he sometimes worked for up to 75 hours a week during the summer.

Marijuana became his way to relax. Then a co-worker introduced him to methamphetamine. At first, he threw it away. Eventually he tried it because it helped him stay awake through marathon work shifts.

Looking back, Angel realizes drugs weren't solving his stress – they were feeding it.

“Soon, I was fighting a lot with my parents. And I was doing enough meth that I developed a pretty bad tic on my upper lip,” says Angel.

Growing anxiety

Angel now realizes he'd struggled with anxiety for years – but growing up, nobody called it that.

"In my hometown in Mexico, people think anxiety is something people make up," he says.

Then one day while washing dishes at work, everything came crashing down.

"It felt like someone had wrapped their arms around me from behind and was squeezing me really really tight,” Angel says. “I went outside and just started crying."

Around the same time, Angel was grieving the drug-related death of his longtime best friend. As his substance use continued to escalate, he began skipping classes so often that he was eventually expelled from school.

An emergency trip to the hospital

Soon afterward, Angel's mom found him sleeping too late with a vape pen next to him in his bed. When she searched his room, she found more evidence of drug use.

“In that moment, I knew we needed help – immediately,” says Angel’s mom. “I suspected he was using drugs because he had a facial tic. I took him to Children’s Health, and they referred me to the Teen Recovery Program.”

Testing confirmed multiple substances in Angel's system, including nicotine, marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. While treating Angel's substance use, his care team recognized something else driving it: untreated anxiety and depression.

In the hospital, Angel chose the Children’s Health Teen Recovery Program – a program to help teens stop using substances and improve their mental health.

Getting on a road to recovery

The next week, Angel was meeting with David Atkinson, M.D., Pediatric Psychiatrist, Medical Director of the Teen Recovery program at Children’s Health and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern and bilingual clinical therapist, Angel Mendoza.

Angel and Mendoza hit it off immediately.

“Angel is a charismatic kid and I immediately liked him. He never lacked motivation or intelligence. He was just a teenager trying to manage a ton of stress,” says Mendoza.

The two quickly bonded over the fact that Mendoza is also from Mexico and could easily understand his family’s cultural background – and the challenges that come with speaking English as a second language.

Angel’s mom is very grateful for how they never felt blamed as parents, and how the program helped them figure out what led Angel to start using.

For Angel, it was important to realize how much addiction affects the whole family.

“I realized how much my addiction was hurting not just me but also my parents, who’ve always been there for me,” says Angel.

Learning more about addiction and anxiety

Mendoza also helped Angel and his family understand that today's high-potency marijuana products are far more addictive – and more likely to cause serious mental health effects – than many parents realize.

And Dr. Atkinson prescribed him an effective anxiety medication, which has helped “a ton.”

Mendoza has also helped guide Angel to focus more on the healthy things that make him feel good day-to-day: hanging out with friends who don’t use drugs, playing baseball, going to the gym, attending classes in his new online school and embracing the support of his family.

Taking it one day at a time

Ever since he was a kid in Mexico – and an acquaintance of his mom’s let him fly some simulator planes – Angel has dreamed of becoming a pilot. After enrolling in the Teen Recovery program a year and a half ago, he’s now on track to graduate from his new online school in December and has plans to pursue the Air Force.

Each week, he looks forward to his ongoing counseling sessions with Mendoza (“the time just flies by”), including getting some extra support after a relapse a few months ago.

Mendoza says relapse doesn't erase progress. Instead, it often becomes an opportunity to strengthen recovery.

Relapse really helped reinforce that recovery happens one day at a time.

"I tell myself, 'Today, I'm not going to smoke,'" he says. "Because I know if I go back, everything gets worse."

Learn more

The Children’s Health Teen Recovery Program offers expert, bilingual care for teens and their families who need help navigating the complexities of substance use and mental health issues. Our program accepts many insurance plans, including Medicaid. Learn more about our personalized treatment and long-term support.