My name is Al, and I am grateful to be in recovery. My story started in a war zone--my home in East Harlem. I was a scared little boy looking for a safe place to hide. At the age of nine, I found such a place, Alcohol. My father was called to school to pick me up because I was drunk in the fourth grade. I was beaten because he had to be called away from work, not because I was drinking alcohol. This was the beginning of a long period in which I drank, abused several substances and committed ...   read more »

Substance abuse started for me very young, at the age of 11. I was in 6th grade, fresh off to middle school. I was naïve, curious, and lonely. Some kids in my grade used alcohol, and I realized that by drinking, I would be automatically accepted by the people around me. My father passed away when I was very young, and this really affected me. I began feeling very different, and I would always try to fit in and morph into something that I wasn’t so other people would like me. I was a chamel...   read more »

The last 19 months have been on the most challenging road that I have ever taken. For many years, I fought with alcoholism. That was an admission that I relentlessly rebuked. Over the years, I have engaged everyone, thinking, "what do they know?" or "who were they to tell me what to do?" For me, just admitting that I was an alcoholic was hard, but worse yet, was admitting that I was powerless over it. The humiliation of admitting defeat was devastating. Early years of molestation, incest, and...   read more »

I started using drugs and alcohol when I was 11. The first time I drank, I blacked out and suffered from alcohol poisoning. This was just the start of a rapid progression of drug and alcohol abuse. I used only weed and alcohol until I was 13. I had moved from Geneseo to Pittsford, New York, a suburb of Rochester, and found pills to be "interesting." From then on I was trying cocaine, crack, LSD, mushrooms, ecstasy, DMT, DXM, opium, and any other drug I could get my hands on. I started to skip sc...   read more »

My name is Michael S., and I fully and finally accept the reality that I will forever have to live in recovery as an addict. As far back as I can remember, from my earliest childhood days, I always wanted and felt the need to be seen and accepted by others for more then I was. I wanted to have respect and acceptance by what seemed to be the “in crowd.” I hung out past my curfew, drank alcohol and smoked marijuana. Hanging out late in local house parties, ultimately led to my flunking out of high...   read more »

My story begins the day I arrived by Jeep to my infantry company in Vietnam. I was asked if I could donate blood for a fellow soldier who had been shot that day. I said, “yes,” and was told to wait in the Jeep while a telephone call was made. A few minutes later the soldier returned and thanked me for volunteering, but sadly commented that the wounded soldier had just died. All I knew about him was his nickname "Short Round." The soldier then pointed out the hooch (barrack) where I was assigned....   read more »

Jim’s history, his experience with substance dependence, the life his substance dependence led him to, and his ability to overcome these obstacles, makes him a role model for others in recovery. He grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y., raised by a single mother who supported her children as a waitress. He left school in the eighth grade, a child with little support from adults, with only himself on which to rely. He used rebellion to deal with his anger, not realizing that he needed the structure and e...   read more »

Addiction started for me at a very early age. I can remember as far back as 5th grade—the first time I had even heard about drugs—and telling myself I wanted to try them all. My childhood was near perfect, no troubles at home, no abuse of any kind, but I never felt comfortable in my own skin and didn't like who I was. Drugs and self-mutilation became my ways of escaping the feelings of self-hatred. I started using marijuana, and self-mutilating by burning and cutting at age 13 and progressed...   read more »

My name is Gregory, and I am an addict grateful to be in recovery since May 23, 1995. I grew up in the South Bronx, Harlem, Coney Island, and East LA, and became a gang member, drug dealer and thief in all these neighborhoods where crime, drugs and poverty had a grip on many of my family and I. During the '60s and through the '90s, my Dad and Uncle sold drugs, and my mom eventually became addicted to heroin, crack and alcohol; she eventually died of AIDS-related complications. Since 11 y...   read more »

The moment of clarity came when my brother came to see me and I couldn't hide the fact that there were random people sleeping in my house. Somehow my son made it to school, and my baby was running around in a diaper. I said, "I am on drugs and I need help." From there, my life turned around. I voluntarily put my kids into foster care and went into a long-term drug treatment program. There I found out I was HIV positve and had Hepatis C. I also realized that I wanted my life back, and nothing...   read more »