Overview

""My final mugshot is on the book cover. Now, no one can use it to shame me. I own it."" - Arnel Castro Leyva What happens when a tech executive trades corporate meetings for meth-fueled street survival? Arnel Castro Leyva built a globe-trotting career working for Microsoft, T-Mobile, Adobe, Yahoo, and a handful of startups. But his life was perpetually on the verge of ruin because his real job was a professional drug addict. In the shadows of the Pacific Northwest, Arnel loses everything, and his double life collapses into a midlife crisis of pandemic proportions. He descends into the lawless streets of the COVID lockdown and enters The Life: drug dealing, financial scams, grand theft auto, living with prostitutes, and organized retail theft. Along the way, he meets a cast of kindred spirits - narcissistic, codependent people-pleasers hell bent on exploiting the system, each other, and themselves. With prison looming, Arnel is given a chance at redemption through a strict yet therapeutic criminal justice program. He finds the startup idea of his life-helping other formerly incarcerated people with substance use disorders to create a life worth living-and realizes he was on the path to answer his calling all along. A brutally honest memoir - equal parts Leaving Las Vegas, Trainspotting, Breakfast at Sally's, and Breaking Bad - ultimately redeemed by a Brené Brown / Gabor Maté / 12-Step moral to the story.

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9781952685989

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Reviews

""I'm thankful for reading Professional Drug Addict. This story takes readers through the ride of a person who performed and achieved social and financial success, yet ultimately found humanity and his greatest gifts through his fall. The beauty in Arnel's story is that his journey lies in each of us. When we choose to express and face our shame, we grow and have the capability to give."" -Melanie O'Cain, Deputy Mayor, City of Monroe ""In Leyva's autobiographical debut, he embarks on an unintentional journey into self-discovery that is all at once painful, truthful, and raw. Leyva shows us how he scratched and clawed his way out of that life and recreated himself. This is a book about hope."" -Samantha Lyons, Kitsap County Superior Court Treatment Court Manager

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