Tommy

I started drinking at 15 and by 17 it was an every day thing. I took my first line of cocaine at 23 and never drank again without it. At 26 after losing my job on Wall Street I entered my first detox and spent 10 days after in a psych ward. I was drinking my first night out. About a week after I got out I took my first OxyContin 80. That 80 turned into 800 mgs a day and ended with me locked in the bedroom I grew up in after losing everyone and everything I held dear in life, with enough crack, heroin and alcohol to end my nightmare. At 29 years old I didn’t want to live anymore.

I asked for help on March 12, 2005 and was introduced to the rooms of AA through an outpatient program I was in. I became involved and stayed sober for 4 years. My life was great and I let all the things I got as a result of staying sober take me away from how I got there. One day I was injured on my job and was prescribed Vicodin. I took one and it woke something up inside of me. I struggled and didn’t tell anybody about it. That one pill took me 6 and a half years to put down. By the Grace of God I entered treatment on January 27, 2016 and have been clean and sober since.

The life I have today isn’t the one I dreamed of as a kid growing up in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, Ny where flashy cars and wads of money was looked up to and idolized. The life I have today is the one I prayed for when my life was at its worst. I have a good job working for the city I live in. I have a beautiful wife and family who have supported me through it all and for the first time in my life I’m truly happy. Through all the pain and struggles I found my greatest strength. I found my purpose in life and I make it a point to share my story to anyone who needs to hear it, to show them no matter how bad it is there is always hope. Life is a gift and I know that today. Thank you for letting me share. God Bless all who read this.