Voices for Recovery

My Mom deserted me when I was ten years old; my Dad said I belonged to the mail man, so he spent his time physically and mentally abuses me; my Grandpa sexually molested me when I was eleven and continued until after I was fourteen and we were very poor! I had all the excuses I needed to live the life of an addict.  During this time I sneaked alcohol out of the cabinets and then began smoking marijuana. I was an alcoholic by the age of fifteen; a drug addict by the age of eighteen and by the age of twenty one I was dealing pot, cocaine and LSD. I tried meth the first time in 1972 and that demon flowed rampantly in my body. Meth circulated in me for over ten horrible years. I describe myself as "walking vomit!"  On August 6, 1987, after another failed attempt at suicide, I staggered into a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center on the Pacific Coast. Thirty-three days later I walked out the same door a new person, free. Up until that point in my life I did not know I could live without drugs and alcohol.  I began my Recovery that day and today I am still on that journey. It hasn't been a perfect journey, but it has been a whole lot better than the first twenty-one years!! Today I am clean, sober and sane.  Some of us are destined to just get better. Some of us are destined to get worse, and still some are here to help others. The latter reason explains me.  Over four years ago I began a drug and Alcohol Awareness Program on line. I designed a Say NO to Meth web site and to date I have helped change and save the lives of thousands of people, mostly kids.  I began writing my first manuscript over three years ago and it was released six-weeks ago. The title is "Understanding Meth: The Epidemic." It is a clean, self-help book for the entire family. It explains addiction, relapse and Recovery. My book is selling as fast as it can be printed and it is changing lives everywhere.  And, to think I was told, "Donny, you will never amount to anything." I have to admit I am happy the way things turned out. I wasn't trying to prove anyone wrong, it just worked out that way!! I am sure glad they were ALL wrong.  Today it is not about the past or the future, it is all about today. Today is the first day of the rest of my Recovery. Thank you to my Higher Power for all the help and guidance. I am glad I turned it over to you.