Years: 2013   2012   2011   2010   2009   2008

In 2010, 30 voices were posted for Recovery Month

Kevin - Submitted 12/17/2010
Life is full of simple beautiful things to be grateful for, no matter how far down the scale I have gone. I will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. I love recovery, it has given me a relationship with the Creator, who is there for all who want to live happy, joyous, free.... clean and sober.
Keywords: sobriety, drinking, depression, higher power, faith, alcoholism, alcoholic, support, family, alcohol, health, wellness, recovery, community

Kyczy - Submitted 12/13/2010
During the last two plus decades I have raised my family, returned to school and obtained a professional degree, foraged a career, seen my parents through their final illnesses and my brother through a life changing accident. I have made friends with my family, and family out of my friends.
Keywords: addiction, alcoholic, drug, drugs, drug problem, drug addiction, alcohol, family, support, sobriety, friends, health, wellness, jail, prison, spirituality, recovery

Danielle Gorden - Submitted 10/12/2010
I am so grateful to be in recovery today! I hope that someday anyone seeking recovery will have every opportunity to do so.
Keywords: recovery, support, sobriety

Cathy - Submitted 10/5/2010
I'm proud to say my grandkids have never seen me loaded and they live with me now.
Keywords: drink, drug, support, employment, treatment, family, recovery

Ellen Klein - Submitted 10/5/2010
This is a story about success and how finding meaning and purpose in life appears to be a factor in long term recovery for individuals regardless of diagnoses.
Keywords: recovery, co-occurring, substance abuse, mental illness, treatment, support, sobriety, mental health condition, mental disorder, depression, drug, drugs, trauma, legal, higher power, faith

Margaret Royer - Submitted 9/24/2010
In recovery I have choices to do and say how I feel. I've learned how to love my higher power and myself first.
Keywords: recovery, higher power, faith, sobriety

John Schwary - Submitted 9/13/2010
My story is like those of many others in recovery.
Keywords: recovery, alcoholic, family, drinking, trauma, legal, drug, drugs, jail, prison, sobriety, alcoholic, alcoholism, drug addiction, addiction, alcohol, substance abuse, detox, treatment, homeless, friends, higher power

David Helling - Submitted 9/2/2010
Once pessimistic, lonely, full of fear, shame and guilt, today, in long-term recovery, I enjoy serenity, love and an attitude of gratitude.
Keywords: recovery, addiction, health, wellness, family, friends, homeless, jail, prison, legal, treatment

Lucas Catton - Submitted 8/31/2010
It has been over 10 years now since I completed a long-term, drug-free treatment program for my addiction. I consider myself completely recovered.
Keywords: treatment, addiction, recovery, employment, support

Idania Diaz - Submitted 8/5/2010
I began my recovery six years ago. Now, I am a court liaison and I am working on getting my CAP. I am a licensed Certified Recovery Support Specialist to help others like myself, and this is my story—Idania, a woman in recovery.
Keywords: recovery, addiction, drug, drugs, drinking, alcohol, drug problem, substance abuse, family, trauma, jail, prison, legal, employment

Michael Parent - Submitted 6/21/2010
Even though living in a wheelchair is very difficult, I can honestly say that I very much prefer my life the way it is now – without drugs and knowing that I can do things to help others.
Keywords: family, friends, alcohol, drinking, drug, drugs, drug problem, alcohol problem, addiction, hospital, faith, higher power, depression, treatment, co-occurring

Donald Greengrass Sr - Submitted 6/15/2010
Because of my recovery, today I now enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, golfing, jogging, and working as a certified alcohol drug counselor.
Keywords: recovery, alcohol, drug, drugs, family, addiction, alcholism, alcoholic, treatment, employment, hospital, health, wellness

Pat Guerin - Submitted 6/15/2010
I have so much to be grateful for, beginning with the late great Gert Behanna, a woman who published her own recovery story under a pseudonym “Liz Burns.” Her story made it possible for me to admit that I was hopelessly addicted to alcohol, and that a sober life could be a beautiful and rewarding adventure.
Keywords: recovery, alcohol, community, family, higher power, faith, support, legal, court

Ronnie Katz - Submitted 6/15/2010
Twelve years later, my life is amazingly full and happy, with a loving relationship, a successful career, and an acoustic duo called Broadband. I continue to stay involved in a recovery program, and believe that we need to make recovery visible, so that it is accessible to all who need and desire it. And I feel like I am finally becoming the person that I originally set out to be.
Keywords: friends, drug, drugs, addiction, drug addiction, employment, health, wellness, recovery

Neil Kaltenecker - Submitted 6/15/2010
Opportunities for recovery should exist for each and every person.
Keywords: employment, addiction, legal, court, alcohol, alcohlism, jal, prison, drinking, drug, drugs, community, recovery, health, wellness, family

Albert Bryan - Submitted 6/15/2010
I have experienced many “highs” in my recovery, including graduation, my children getting married, purchasing a home, and witnessing the birth of grandchildren. I also had the honor of being a delegate from Louisiana at the 2009 Recovery Rally. There isn’t much that surprises me, because I have learned that recovery is an ongoing process and, while challenging, is an opportunity waiting to happen.
Keywords: addiction, alcohol, drug, drugs, drug problem, drug addiction, treatment, recovery, community, employment, substance abuse, medication family,

Brenda Mayer - Submitted 6/15/2010
The tired old adage “Once an addict, always an addict” is simply not true, and I am proof of that. I believe that an addict, any addict, can lose the desire to use and find a new way to live.
Keywords: addiction, drug, drugs, family, alcohol, alcoholic, trauma, recovery, employment, drug addiction

Nancy Schenck - Submitted 6/15/2010
The life I live today is only because of my commitment to recovery and my belief in the power of the 12 steps.
Keywords: employment, treatment, addiction, recovery, alcohol, drug, drugs, family

Irene Garza - Submitted 6/15/2010
I am involved in the community and take the responsibility to relay the message of recovery to individuals suffering from substance use disorders very seriously. I am a homeowner, have traveled, and have done many other things that I couldn’t have done if I wasn’t in recovery. However, the most important gifts to me are the internal ones: my self esteem, self worth, integrity, self respect, and acceptance of self. This was unimaginable in my “other life.”
Keywords: addiction, trauma, family, treatment, drug, drugs, sobreity, support, family, substance abuse, health, wellness, community

Dave Seward - Submitted 6/15/2010
Since I found recovery in 1986, I have been motivated by a strong desire to give back what I had received.
Keywords: recovery, health, wellness, support, employment, treatment, event, addiction, family

Dan Cain - Submitted 6/15/2010
After my wife and children, preserving the gift of recovery for those who continue to struggle is the number one priority in my life. I am lucky that I’ve been able to give back since I first found a path to recovery after being paroled from prison in 1972.
Keywords: family, recovery, prison, jail, legal, alcohol, substance abuse, alcohol, drug, drugs, treatment, addiction, community

Carol McDaid - Submitted 6/15/2010
Recovery has given my life great purpose and value – something I sought but never found with drugs. I’m so proud of where I am today. Five years ago, my husband and I founded a recovery community organization in our hometown: the McShin Foundation in Richmond, VA. This helps us share the gift of recovery with others, while sustaining our own. This is how recovery works – you have to give it away to keep it.
Keywords: recovery, drug, drugs, family, drinking, alcohol, addiction, employment, treatment, support, employment, health, wellness

Rick Bingham - Submitted 6/10/2010
"It is the last thing I see when I am leaving for work in the mornings and first thing I see when I come home. It reminds me every day that I am a special person, that I am going to get hurt, and I am going to heal."
Keywords: drug, drugs, recovery, support, higher power, faith

Brian Hart - Submitted 5/22/2010
I only hope I can give someone else hope in the fact that if they don't want to live the way they have been living, they don't have to.
Keywords: drinking, drug, drugs, legal, prison, jail, sobriety, support, detox, recovery

Lois - Submitted 5/6/2010
Recovery is contagious! Catch it.
Keywords: recovery, co-occurring, community, spirituality, higher power

Allen - Submitted 4/8/2010
I’m happy to say that I am clean and sober for more than eleven years. I have a wonderful, understanding wife and a job that had to have come from the Man up stairs with my name on it, helping others just like me that took the wrong road.
Keywords: homeless, mental illness, susbtance abuse, alcohlism, alcoholic, drinking, depression, family, friends, employment, sobriety, higher power, faith, support, recovery

Peter M. Bruno - Submitted 3/12/2010
I made a promise to myself to NEVER ever pick up a bottle again, and I have stuck to my promise. The life I now have is remarkable and my married life is the same.  I only wish that I would have done it years ago.  But, I was not ready on my own to surrender.  You have to want it so bad that you will do anything to have your Sobriety back into your life.  So glad I did.
Keywords: sobriety, recovery, alcohol, drinking, alcohol problem, alcohlism, legal, court, addiction, family, alcohol, drinking problem

Raymond Featherstone Jr - Submitted 1/25/2010
I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic that is a walking testimony that if you put everything into staying sober as you did into getting drunk--you will regain your life back.
Keywords: alcoholic, alcohlism, alcohol, family, legal, court, jail, prison, higher power, faith, sobriety, drinking, support

Reginald Washington - Submitted 1/7/2010
I cannot allow my past to control my life, but only be a part of who I am today. I counsel for the prevention of AIDS and substance abuse and advocate. I was told my life would get better and it has. My choices today are based on good consciousness. I have been in recovery for several years and have just begun to live my life.
Keywords: drug, drugs, trauma, family, prison, jail, homeless, susbtance abuse, recovery

Felicia Jimenez - Submitted 11/19/2009
Here's my story, to give God glory, for what He has done!
Keywords: higher power, faith, addiction, family, alcohol, drug, drugs, recovery, support, wellness