Josh's Recovery Story

My name is Joshua Dupee and I am from Weston, Massachusetts. I had a great childhood with wonderful and loving parents but still managed to fall victim to the disease of addiction. I am a prime example that environment is not the sole cause of addiction as I had all the opportunities in the world.

When I first drank alcohol I was about 16 years old and I drank strictly to get drunk. I saw no other reason to drink and could never understand people who thought otherwise. I won’t get into a drunk log because we all came into recovery for the same reason and I see no point in detailing the horror show I created. The bottom line is that I always knew in the back of my mind that I had a problem that got more serious as the years went on. By the age of 26 I was a college dropout with no driver’s license and living with my mom.

Looking back I now know this was my rock bottom. I started my journey of recovery in 2005 but never really gave it my all until February of 2013. I have been clean and sober since February of 2013 and have done a complete 360 within that relatively short period of time. I believe that this is due to the full on assault against addiction that I went on. I started seeing a counselor once a week; I began SMART Recovery, and found a medication manager. Today I have a great relationship with my wife, my daughter who is almost a year and a half old and will never have to see her dad as an active user, and my family. I graduated college and am pursuing a PhD, and found a job that I love working with the autistic community as an ABA. I live in Sudbury, Massachusetts not far from where I grew up and work for the same school system that I attended growing up in Weston, Massachusetts. My wife owns an Alpaca farm which is on the same land that our house sits and I have even had a group of special needs kids come out to the farm to enjoy the Alpaca. I attend Smart Recovery every Friday night and this particular program has been the difference maker with me. Today I have a life that I didn’t think was possible and I look forward to tomorrow and all the new opportunities that it presents. I treat every single day as a gift.