- Alcohol
I was 41 years old, when I started recovering. I’m 45 now. I hit a bottom in 2010, and that bottom led me to support group meetings.
I had been using and trying not to feel my emotions while running from reality and from the issues and problems I was creating. I had been using pretty much all my life. I picked up a drink when I was 14 years old, and it changed the way I felt about everything. I found a way to cope, but that coping led to other troubles. Whenever I had a problem in my life, I wasn’t able to handle it on my own, but I knew there was something that would make me feel better. However using created more issues and problems and led me to using even harder to escape. Then I hit my bottom.
I first went to support group meetings in 2006. I spent three days at a treatment center, but I thought I didn’t fit in. I didn’t think I had a problem, which is a thought pretty much everybody else has. I attended another treatment program in 2008 and did pretty well, but I wasn’t able to stay clean. I still didn’t think I had a problem, but in 2010 I had an incident with the law and was just sick and tired of being sick and tired. I made the decision to go back to support group meetings. When it comes to recovery, you have to do it all for it to work. I had never done it all, so I decided to try, and since then my life has improved. I’m about to graduate magna cum laude. My goals are to go to grad school, become a counselor and give back. The psychology courses that I’ve taken in school have helped me a lot, as have having a sponsor, having a support group and having individuals that I can speak to on a daily basis whenever I have problems.
What words would you share with someone who is looking for recovery or struggling with recovery?
Recovery works. It just works, and it’s a beautiful thing. You just have to give yourself a chance, and, when your mind tells you that you don’t belong or that this is the wrong thing to do, don’t follow that instinct. Go with your gut feeling. Recovery has given me an awareness of myself, the way I behave and the way I think. This awareness is enlightening. It gives me an opportunity to live a different life.