This story is about my daughter who passed away from the disease of alcoholism. I need help trying to figure out why did she have to die. She attempted suicide on December 24, 2010, and then spent some time in a mental health facility and was released. She died a day later. Nobody diagnosed her true probblem. . . alcoholism. Her children where in the home when she took an overdose of her anti-seizure medications & alcohol. She died after having a seizure and falling into the bathtub while f...   read more »

My life came to an expected crash in 2009. I spent my life fighting everyone and everything. I had alot, but I lost it all. I had to let go of it all, and I did. For everything I had, I had twice as much stress. I was the functional drunk. The only path I had left in the end was to let go. I had to put my pride aside, because that was what kept me drinking. I went from earning $55,000 a year to homelessness, living in a group home with no job, and nobody to share my life. They call it white knuc...   read more »

Greetings, my name is Javier E. Perez and the turning point that lead to my recovery was when I was arrested for Public Bribery in the 3rd degree while I was working as a public servant. After 11 years of sobriety, I relapsed on cocaine in May 2009! I needed money to sustain my insidious and uncontrollable desire for cocaine. I used my position as a public servant to solicit funds for my cocaine habit! My arrest lead me to a 18 month Mentally Ill Chemically Addicted (MICA) outpatient program wh...   read more »

My turning point was when I lost my kids to the child welfare system. I have four kids; two live with me and the other two went into the system. I was pregnant with my third child and after she was born, she didn’t come home with me; she went with her dad. I was told that every child I had would go to the system and I was determine to prove them wrong. Compared to when I was on drugs, my life now is much better. I’m raising two beautiful kids, a seventeen year old girl and a seven year old b...   read more »

My story as an addict started way before my drug use ever did. As a child I did not have a loving, caring two-parent house holdhold to grow up in. I had to deal with physical and mental abuse from my mother. I learned early that getting out of myself was easier than being me and having to deal with the hurt, pain, fear, and self hatred. As I got older and reached my teens, trying to fit in with the "norm" got easier due to the introduction of Newport’s and weed. I was the teen that looked older...   read more »

Hello, my name is Jeremy C. and I have been in recovery for nearly 3 years. It has been a long hard road. Let me first tell you that when I was six my farther died from alcoholism. When I was ten, I was raped and abused by a family member. This was my excuse to abuse drugs. I started using drugs at the age of 13, smoking weed and drinking. I was big into sports, mainly golf. Around 16 years old, I started doing cocaine and xtc, and I loved it. It made me forget all about my problems. As I mentio...   read more »

Hello, my name is Richard and it's hard to believe I am going on five years in recovery, and to think it all stated when I was 14 years old. That is when I touched my first drink. Before too long, I would bring alcohol to work and I was drinking it from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed. When I met my wife I was really drinking heavily. When she got pregnant with my son, people thought I would at least slow down on my drinking, but it got worse. After my wife was pregant with my da...   read more »

I am a recoverying herion addict from the mid to late 1960's, who made "crack" part of my story at the end. Over the years I have been in several treatment programs and I have an extensive criminal history as well. However, in 2005 I was finally tired of suffering and living like I was less than a human being, so I entered program number 5, and through GOD's good grace and alot of work, I haven't had a reason to use since. I now have 7 years and 5 months clean. I went back to school and firs...   read more »

My name is Renee Daniels. I have used drugs on and off for more than 35 years. I never knew my family. I was raised in foster care where i was physically, mentally, verbally and sexually abused. I tried to commit sucide at the age of 10, but was unsucessful. I found alcohol and drugs to help me deal with my life of pain and suffering. I the drugs used to escape from the real world, I didn't want to feel anymore. At the age of 12 I left foster care and been on my own ever since. I have done alot ...   read more »

My name is Michael, I dodn't have any excuses for my addictive behavior. I was raised with a strong family support system, but I was hard-headed and rebellious. My addictive behavior started at age 14 when I was experimenting with weed, that experiment became a project. I was 14 years old with no job, I didn't go to school, I ran away from home, and had an addiction to support. I started selling drugs to support my habit. At age 17 I was curious about the drugs that was making pretty wom...   read more »

I am tired from always sabotaging my dreams and goals by chasing money and not chasing my education. I am now learning how to prioritize. I've learned that recovery is 24-hour a day maintenance and you have to "Be In It To Win It." I am about to graduate from Basic (inpatient program), ARRIVE CASAC training, Peer Educator at Harlem United and I want to open my own substance abuse facility to give back to my community. I am also enrolled in college for a Business Associates Degree. I have BI...   read more »

I started using heroin at the age of 14 after being introduced to it by my peers. After that first time, my life revolved around its use. I was totally preoccupied with how I would get my next fix. Nothing else mattered. Even though I had friends who were overdosing and dying, I could not let it go. I did whatever I needed to just to get high. This included stealing money from my own daughters piggy bank. I can tell you that I suffered a lot of loss when I was seven and my father died, and then ...   read more »

I am not a person with any sort of will power. But, four years ago my life was unmanageable. The only thing I cared about was the next high. There came a point where my money was running out. I became more irritable than usual and my family began to notice. I was presented with an ultimatum: go into treatment or lose all contact with my family. This was too much for me to bear. The decision was made for me after leaving my job at the family business early for the millionth time. At the request o...   read more »

I started sniffing solvents at 7 years old; then I used cannabis, alcohol and mushrooms at 8,9 and 10 years old. I went into secure care, excluded from school, fear and violence from the home with one parent an alcoholic (in my opinion) and the other a well-balanced individual. At 12 years old, I started using needles with my older brother, shooting amphetamine sulphate. I started a criminal justice career which took me to spending around 15 years all total in the system down to crime and substa...   read more »