Recovery Month – Day 17 – A New Beginning

September is National Recovery Month.

The focus of my blogs throughout the month of September will be on addiction and its life destroying tendencies. The writings derive from my own personal experiences of battling addiction and living a life of recovery.

These specific writings are focused on the ACT acronym.

ACT leads to sobriety…

A – Acknowledge you have a problem and you are powerless over it and you need help.

C – Connect with a power greater than you and people who have solutions that will help you conquer your problem.

T – Take positive, recovery-oriented action every day.

From September 1 through the 7th, I wrote about the importance of Acknowledging there is a problem. For the past several days I’ve focused on Connection and the role it plays in whipping addiction.

Today’s post is a continuation of yesterday’s (September 16).

As I mentioned yesterday, I said the most powerful prayer known to mankind-GOD HELP ME!-late in the evening on August 8, 1987.

The next day was a Sunday. I got up and had totally forgotten what took place the night before.

I quickly got my first fix of the day in and headed off to work. Yes, I was still working at this point in time. I was a classic functional addict. I prided myself in my work as it was one way I could show the world that I wasn’t that bad. 

Once again, you probably have a problem if you are doing something to prove that you don’t…just my opinion.

I arrived home from work at 6PM.

I walked into our living room and there sat my wife, my brother, my boss and Rusty, the recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I didn’t see any food or drinks so I quickly deduced that we weren’t having a party or a late summer picnic.

The looks on all of their faces told me what was about to go down.

I had walked into an intervention.

God definitely heard my prayer the night before and delivered help in the form of an intervention…be careful what you pray for.

So what did I do when the intervention participants began intervening?

I fought them like there was no tomorrow.

I told them they had the problem.

I told them they were making me worse.

I told them they owed it to me to let me fix my problem on my own.

I told them all I needed was one more chance.

They never let up and I got so frustrated I punched a hole in our bathroom door.

Somehow they kept their composure and every time I would throw a zinger at them, Rusty would throw it right back at me.

Today, I know you can’t con a con. Having Rusty in the room was a game changer…actually it was a life changer.

We reached a point in the intervention where my boss made it very clear to me if I didn’t get help he would have law enforcement and the State Pharmacy Board throw the book at me.

My brother made it very clear to me that he would no longer be my brother if I didn’t get help.

My wife never said it, but I knew our relationship wouldn’t last if I didn’t get help.

Finally, after three hours of painfully trying to convince me I had a problem, I finally gave in and asked them what I had to do to make them happy and get them off of my back.

They had a place reserved for me at Green Hall Treatment Center in Xenia, Ohio.

I didn’t know it then, but I definitely know it now–this moment in my life was the start of a new beginning and an amazing journey.

More tomorrow…