| From This Week In Texas LifeStyle
Friends encouraging him to plunge the needle into his arm and feel the ultimate high surrounded Daniel, but all of the people in the world couldn’t take away his loneliness. Crying, strung out, depressed and reaching his absolute breaking point, Daniel realized he had to get help or his life would end here, on this night, with out meaning... without actually having really lived. “I looked down at the needle and realized that, honey, I had hit rock bottom, and there was only one way to go... away,” Daniel explained in his lighthearted tone. He was 39 years-old and had done more living then people twice his age, but the party had ended, and Daniel was finally about to make the best move of his life. Daniel Rivera grew up in the majestic Virgin Islands with his parents, and although the scenery was beautiful and the surroundings seemed ideal, he was never quite happy. His parents divorced at an early age, which lead to discomfort at home, but for Daniel, it was more than just teenage angst or coming to terms with his sexuality. “I knew there was something wrong with me even when I was very young," he explains. "While other kids seemed to be enjoying the life around them, nothing seemed to make me happy which frustrated me even more.” Thinking that a change of scenery would help melt away his troubles, Daniel moved to New York, and like so many others, felt that the big city would be his saving grace. “I came out in New York and began to live my life as a gay man. It felt good to be who I was sexually, but that freedom can also become overwhelming." Daniel began to drift apart from his family, who were not accepting of his homosexuality. Bars in Greenwich Village became his new home, and the friends he was making became a new family. He began running with the gay elite in the city and even landed a role in the off Broadway musical
Naked Boys Singing! “I should have been happy, all of these wonderful things were drifting into my life, but constant sadness was always hanging over me.” That sadness turned the young, attractive man in his prime to drug use to help ease the pain. Slow at first, just experimenting, but eventually, the drugs took over and became part of his life, something he felt like he needed to have in order to get through the day. He bounced back and forth between New York and Miami, living the high life with designers and artists and developing a reputation and notoriety in the gay community. He was the life of the party to those who were around him, and eventually met a wealthy man that moved him into a big mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Drugs, parties, money,and sex became his world, but on this night, as he looked down at the needle in his hand, all of that was about to drastically change. “I had made rules for myself about what I would do. You know, how far I would push the boundaries, and I realized that never using a needle was the last rule I had made, and I was about to break it. That’s when I left.” Daniel left his privileged life for good, and eventually lived on the streets. Broke and desperate, he found some solace at the Gateway Homeless Shelter in Hollywood. “Here I was homeless, strung-out, depressed, wearing thousand dollar shoes and expensive clothes, but had no where to live and these people took me in and gave me something to live for.” Daniel stayed at the shelter for the next few months and went through a drug rehabilitation program. It was there that he was diagnosed with severe clinical depression, and his years of suffering finally seemed to make sence. “I knew there was something wrong, and when I was diagnosed it instantly made me feel better," he says. "I wasn’t crazy, I was sick... and sick people can get help. “ Getting back on his feet would prove to be a struggle as he began to take medication to help combat his depression. He knew that his old life was over, and the future seemed to hold so many opportunities for doing things he had never imagined. “I knew that I wanted to help people like those who had helped me,” he said, “I knew that I could make a difference." Daniel soon found himself at
Step Up on Second, a homeless shelter that caters to individuals with severe and persistent mental illness and helps reintegrate them back into the community. Step Up is dedicated to long-term support of people in recovery and their families, offering quality housing, educational, social and work experience. The organization is committed to increasing the public's understanding and acceptance of mental illness, and Daniel realized that here, he could make a difference in people’s lives. Two years clean and sober, Daniel has opened a new chapter in his extremely accomplished life and is using his story to help others going through the same ordeals. He acts as a counselor and mentor at the shelter and has organized groups, which are designed specifically to target LGBT members suffering with mental illness. He lives a more modest life now, with his own apartment in Koreatown with his Chihuahua/terrier mix puppy, but he is finally happy. “Sometimes the dreams you make for yourself don’t always work out the way you plan them too, but if you are true to yourself and find the things that you love, you realize that happiness is the only dream that really matters.” - For more on Step Up on Second, visit
www.StepUpOnSecond.org. Be sure to read other installments of our Unsung Heroes series. >
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