It was a beautiful sunny day in the hills of Pennsylvania and I hit rock bottom. The appointed time had come for me to give up the right to myself and commit entirely to the care and counsel from others. I had driven my wife into the psychiatric unit of a hospital. She was in danger of being committed to a mental ward for the rest of her life. There was a sheriff's sale sign on the front door of my house. The State had taken the two girls away. The bank was going to take away the car and truc...   read more »

After my relapse, failed relationship and loss of my apartment, I went to treatment where I overcame my need for using. Treatment, along with mutual aid groups gave me the reinforcing tools I needed to assure myself that I can stay clean without the use of drugs. Now I have a good apartment with positive peers around me and a strong foundation with support. I have also started furthering my education as well as my vocational training. With the help of my treatment program, I am able to give...   read more »

Hi, my name is Joanne D. and I started my life caught up in the grid of drinking cheap liquor at the age of 15. I graduated to marijuana at the age of 16. During this time it was a fun thing to do, I never thought that I would become addicted to these substances. At the age of twenty-one I was introduced to cocaine and began snorting it. However, it did not appeal to me until I started using crack-cocaine. After the initiation of crack-cocaine my life really became unmanageable, to the point of...   read more »

My journey started 4 years ago when my Cardiologist told me, "IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT YOU WON'T LIVE TO SEE YOUR 50TH BIRTHDAY." I had just had by third invasive cardiac procedure at this time my weight was 387lbs. I started crying and I felt like I hit rock bottom. I said to my doctor, "I want to live, I am a mother, a grandmother, a daughter and a sister. I am engaged to be married." This is when I said to myself, "I WANT TO LIVE." I decided to have a Gastric By-Pass. T...   read more »

Consider this my essay on "Finding Strength in Recovery." Generally, I keep a journal to chronologize what I am going through while taking my Hep-C medication and my fight to keep my life organized and healthy. Of course, I am also fighting an addiction to crack-cocaine; therefore, I define "recovery" broadly to include defending my life and health against all threats, including Hep-C, HIV and addiction. I have tried to replace bad habits including hygiene, nutrition, adequate rest, taking ...   read more »

I identify as a trans-masculine Filipino and work as a substance abuse counselor at Center Recovery at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in NYC. I have been working in the field for nearly 10 years, and I decided in the last four years to focus my energies and abilities to helping LGBT individuals in recovery, because LGBT people have a higher rate of alcohol, drug use, and other addictions than their heterosexual counterparts. This is due to the disconnection, discrim...   read more »

During my second semester of college, I ended up in the hospital from alcohol poisoning. The custodian had found me passed out in the boys' bathroom under one of the stalls around noon and the EMT had to cart me off on a stretcher. I had to wait all day and night for my BAC to return to normal. Everyone reaches their own level of hell before they decide to throw in the towel. Even after this incident I still was not satisfied with the amount of danger I put myself in and my rationalization led ...   read more »

Growing up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, without a father or a positive role model, it was almost inevitable that deep down I would become the person that I really did not like. I learned about life from my peers, who really did not know that much more than I knew. But I listened anyway. And what I got was lesson in crime. Oh yeah, I had role models, but they were not positive - loan sharks, hustlers, gamblers, stickup kids, drug pushers, junkies, liars, cheats, winos, and other I dare not mention...   read more »

I began using drugs at the age of 15, it started with marijuana, then lead to acid, drinking and by the time I was 19 I snorted cocaine every day, 7 days a week, for about two years mixed with alcohol. At the time I was drinking and drugging, I did not deal with my history of sexual and physical abuse, which lead me to do drugs. I stopped on my own, I had no treatment, no facility, it was a deep spiritual awakening I had within myself. My life before recovery was chaotic, numbing out, detached, ...   read more »

I started smoking weed at the age of 13yrs old. As I got older, I added on alcohol till I got sick. I got sick at the age of 27 years old at which time I put myself into a rehab for drinking. I came home from rehab in 1982. Within the same year, I got with my brother in law. One day he and I took a ride and he said, "I got something for you to try." I had never seen this before. He said "You want to try this?" An I said, "Why not." So I did! I should have never done that crack! Crack messed my ...   read more »