How It Was, What Happened, What It's Like Now.
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“I was in active addiction since I was 13. I started doing heroin and continued using until I was 33.”Gina is an outgoing person, hence, her soul that shines through her eyes. Without hearing her story, you would never understand the trials and tribulations she endured to make it to where she is today. “In 2005, I was out getting high and fell 20 feet and broke my back and my wrist, but I stayed out. I was only 70 pounds at that point. My family had to prepare my funeral. I told my mom I was going to die

How a helpful neighbor set this alcoholic on the road to recovery I’m an Alcoholic. My first drink led to my first blackout. Alcohol took away the shyness, paralyzing self-consciousness. It gave me a warm and happy new feeling that freed me up to do anything. I danced at parties, yelled in the street, sang on buses, hitch-hiked across London, talked to strangers, no fear of anything. I loved it. I thought it helped me to be the real me. I didn’t want to do anything that didn’t involve drinking: cinema – boring, walks – you must be joking! I

Was I born an alcoholic? I don’t know. All I know is that I am one. My story originates in England in 1939, where I was born into a world at war. My father was overseas serving King and Country, so my mother had the responsibility of caring for three children, plus coping with the stress of the unknown. After dad returned home, he vowed he would lead his little family to “a better life in Australia”. In 1952 we all set sail for this strange new land on the other side of the world where we settled down very

By the end of my drinking at age 32 I didn’t look too bad – at least on the outside. I had a lovely wife and two kids, we owned a nice house and I drove a nice car. But on the inside I was a complete mess. I was unable to hold down a job and even getting casual work was increasingly difficult. The house and car was provided by a mountain of debt and by my wife working two jobs. My biggest problems were inside my head: self hatred, acute self consciousness, fear, shame and continuous dread of

Chaos? Drama? Yes! No! Wait…ugh! Chaos and drama have been a part of my life since before I can remember. If I wasn’t the one causing it (which I usually was or at least had a part in), it seemed to always be around me. When I first got into the program and tried to get sober, it seemed that as soon as things were calm in my life I would self-sabotage and all hell would break loose again. It was as if I wanted the peace and serenity, but didn’t quite know how to function once I had it.

By the grace of God and the Fellowship, I have 3 years sober this month. June 29,2016. The last few months of my drinking/drugging were the most despairing, chaotic, lonely, and hopeless months of my life. I couldn’t drink or take any amount of substance to numb the pain. I was using to feel normal and still chasing oblivion, but the relief never came. I was absent of all morality and I had one goal in mind – my next fix. It was self-induced hell. I would love to say that getting arrested and spending 2 days/3 nights detoxing from

It was late summer, on a hot evening. All the windows are open and I’m watching a film in the living room with my fiancee. When the film finishes, I go through to the bedroom. Nothing looks quite right. Books that had been lined up on the windowsill are piled on the floor and on a chair. Drawers are open. My laptop is gone. We have been burgled. As we sat on the sofa, someone had been one door away, rooting through our possessions. The shock is so intense that minutes pass before we realize we should call the police.