FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Nate Moellering, like many others, never looked like someone who was a drug addict, but he dealt with the same struggles many others have faced.
He was introduced to prescription opioids in high school when he had three separate shoulder surgeries from playing football. He quickly learned the pills didn’t impact his physical pain, but helped his mental and emotional pain a great deal.
He began to experiment. It started with marijuana and other pills and quickly snowballed. Everything helped his inner demons that worried about what other people thought of him, and what he didn’t like about himself.
“I remember in the same year, I went from a scholarship college athlete to living in a homeless shelter in Indianapolis and doing heroin on the train tracks with someone right above tent city,” Moellering said.
He’d ultimately overdose a handful of times. His final two overdoses occurred in the same 24 hour period. Both times, first responders had to bust down doors just to get to him.
To put it frankly, Nate got so low that he had lost the will to live.
“I felt so bad about myself and I felt so hopeless that it was worth risking death in order to just not feel this pain anymore,” Moellering said.