My story is about misery, shame, loneliness, and anger. It is about prisons, gangs, demons, pain, and finally, redemption. My name is John Henry Donohue. I was born on June 12, 1958 and grew up in Armonk, NY. My mother was of German and Norwegian descent. My father was born to Irish immigrants. I have two sisters and a brother. My father was an abusive alcoholic who beat us. I was petrified of him. I didn’t realize until many years later that my father loved us; he just didn’t know how to s...   read more »

Lucky 4 Times Looking back, I consider myself very lucky. First I entered treatment when methadone expanded from about 3,000 patients to 25,000 in 18 months. There was a long waiting list-–4 years--some never made it off that list. I did not see treatment as positive because after years of being treated like a criminal and low life, I was sure that I was a screw up. Like so many that use drugs I had low self esteem. I did not set high goals for myself because I didn’t think I could do ...   read more »

My namne is Nora, and I've been an addict and alcoholic since I was a teenager, but it is only fairly recent that I began to understand it. I began drinking at 13 years old while struggling to come to terms with my sexuality and problems with depression. Within two years, I began to smoke pot and cigarettes. I drank to get drunk which quickly escalated into drinking with a deathwish. At 17, I had already been to two drug programs and psych wards. I no longer drank to die, so I figured my problem...   read more »

My name is Howard and I'm a crystal meth addict. I'm grateful to be in recovery since May 29, 2011. I am 48 years old and grew up in Jamaica, W.I. I moved to New York City in 1985. I was introduced to crystal meth during a sexual encounter in 2004 and in the next seven years it destroyed my life. I lost my home, my job and career, my family and friends, and I also lost my health. I was arrested twice due to my crystal meth use, was evicted from my apartment, and I became homeless and living on t...   read more »

I was an Adjunct Professor at a Community College, with a Master’s Degree in Education and two Bachelor’s Degrees from a prestigious private university. For years I built my resume teaching students with special needs, teaching a foreign language and writing grants for new books. Yet here I sit in handcuffs in the back of a police car. The same police officer had arrested me just four hours earlier for drinking while driving and other various motor vehicle infractions. Now, here I sit listening ...   read more »

I was born and raised in a family that liked to keep secrets and didn't trust one another. There weren't much communication or understanding, but there were frequent arguments and fights. Even though I had a twin brother whom I considered my only friend, I felt as if I didn't exist or was not able to relate to others. Food and television eventually became my first addiction. They helped me cope with the pain and stress of living at home and of feeling that I didn't belong anywhere. I "came o...   read more »

I am 33 years old and identify as a lesbian. At age 5 or 6, I felt that I was different from other children. I sat quietly at the back of the classroom and was content to daydream. Like many other LGBT youths, I was beaten up every day at school, yet nobody, not even the school principal, held the bully accountable. Eating junk food and drinking cough medicines were my means of escape. By the time I was 18, I was already addicted to alcohol and drugs. First, it was pain killers and muscle relaxe...   read more »

Dear Jane, I am not sure if this letter will get to you, but I am willing to try anything at this point to help find someone who can help me from losing my twenty-two year old daughter. You might be my miracle. My daughter is an alcoholic. She has attempted suicide twice in one year, lived from one home to another, and it's come to the point where I can no longer enable her to keep self destructing her world. At this point, she hates me the most. And I don't understand why. The hardest thing to...   read more »

The turning point in my life was when my youngest son, at the age of four, asked if he could go with me. I told him that I be right back. My son looked at me and said daddy you know if you leave you are not coming back. Every time I stopped using, it was because I got arrested and went to jail. Each time would become greater than the last time. I learned that whether I sold drugs or used drugs I ended up in jail. On July 12, 1995, while on parole, I decided to ask for help. I told my parole offi...   read more »

Since my situation, things have been really hard for me. Also, I can’t understand how a lot of people could be so ignorant to all of this and to all that goes on. Forgetting that at any time they could become HIV positive. Because if you are not a strong person you could spin yourself right into suicide. I know because I tried it twice but God just won’t let me go. So I have to continue living and dealing with this virus. I know one thing it is defiantly making me a stronger person. A more aware...   read more »

The youngest of seventeen kids my mother was a school teacher and drank. My father was a park worker so I grew up in a dysfunctional family. I started using weed at nine years old, and then I proceeded to coke at the age of eleven. I never thought that at the age of twenty one I would have become an addict. I worked on Wall Street from the age of seventeen and my job lead me to believe that I was a functional addict. By working with stocks and bonds and going to the Bar with co-workers after wor...   read more »

The youngest of seventeen kids my mother was a school teacher and drank. My father was a park worker so I grew up in a dysfunctional family. I started using weed at nine years old, and then I proceeded to coke at the age of eleven. I never thought that at the age of twenty one I would have become an addict. I worked on Wall Street from the age of seventeen and my job lead me to believe that I was a functional addict. BY working with stocks and bonds and going to the Bar with co-workers after wor...   read more »