March 21, 2006 I was in an alcohol-related car accident that initially fell on me leaving me with both a head injury and back injury. I fell into a coma, and was airlifted to the closest trauma unit. Because of the chronic back injury and complications of the head injury I no longer drink. I now speak each month at a victim impact panel about my situation urging others not to drive under the influence again. My life is very difficult now but I am very grateful to be alive.   read more »

I kept saying to myself...tomorrow I will drink less. My tomorrows rolled into years before I exhausted myself and sought help for my alcoholism. I was raised in a middle-class catholic home. At school, the nuns and priests seemed more angry than happy. I could not wait to graduate from high school and leave Ohio. I moved to Fort Worth/Dallas where there was a mall of topless clubs. I quickly progressed from waitress to dancer...from beer to whiskey and drinking 365 nights a year. By my mid-...   read more »

I am Lesa, 38, Wellness Coach & recovering compulsive gambler. My life has been full of sucessful athleticism. In all my years of competing, nothing compares to the 7 year battle I had for life from my gambling addiction and the sense of accomplishment I have today being in recovery. The flirting began in my teens with bingo and lottery tickets by spending hundreds of dollars a week. By my late twenties, problem gambling with internet poker hundreds of dollars a day at casinos. By age 31, I ...   read more »

My name is Jillian and I am an addict. I am 22 years old and currently have 2 years and 3 months clean. My addiction started when I was 17, after my parents went through a horrible divorce and I felt as though I needed to find someone to love me. I sought out a relationship and that's when my drinking and drug using started. I was at a point in my life where I would do anything to make someone love me, and that included doing drugs. I was introduced to Oxycontin and I fell in love. There was...   read more »

Growing up as an immigrant child in America, I always felt different and craved acceptance. This void was filled by the use of narcotics. Alcohol and cocaine, to be precise. Little did I know it would lead to an abyss of self. Functional as I was, rational thoughts and actions were slowly leaving me until I became completely dysfunctional and had little hope for a fulfilling life. I decided I had enough. I made a decision that I wanted to have a rewarding life. I checked myself into Daytop V...   read more »

My name is Bruce and I am an addict in recovery. The path I took was a path that I wouldn't want anyone to take, but it worked for me. I'm not going to go into my story on how I used drugs and abused my body and tryed to kill myself slowly in addition to hiding my feelings of insecurities. But I will say that when I was DONE, I was willing to listen to what someone had to say. I knew that there had to be a better way. I just had to learn to listen and listen to learn. When I started making meeti...   read more »

My story began very late I was returning home from the military U.S.NAVY (1991). I boxed my whole Military Career, so most of my time was spent in the gym upon being discharged. I returned to New york and I got involved with the nightlife working as a bouncer in stripclubs. Doing bodyguard work and not respecting the feelings of others soon led to my first use of cocaine. Once I took that sniff, I could not stop and that experience took me on a downward spiral that I thought that I would never r...   read more »