Hello and thank you for joining me!

 

Allow me to briefly share my story of addiction and recovery.

 

My first experience with alcohol occurred when I was 12 years old. A friend and I got our hands on a six pack of Schlitz Malt Liquor, the big, tall cans. It was a hot, summer day and we pounded three cans each in rapid succession. I clearly remember how amazing and powerful I felt as soon as the buzz hit my young brain.

 

This was the magic potion that would solve all my fears and insecurities. Alcohol was the bravery juice I need to face life.

 

When my mom came home from work, she found her little boy passed out drunk with a layer of vomit down the front of his shirt. The hangover and shame I experienced was awful and humiliating. I promised myself that I would never, ever drink again. Never! Ever! That promise lasted about two weeks.

 

For the next 30 years I continued to chase after that feeling of power and strength. Over the coming decades I drank and took copious amounts of drugs, always making futile promises to myself that I was going to stop. Some day.

 

The last year of my drinking was a living hell. There’s no other way to describe it. I was 43 years old, flat broke and living alone in crappy one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. I drank every day, consumed large quantities of cocaine, and had few friends.

 

I was living a life of quiet desperation. I was sick physically, mentally, and spiritually. I had been arrested once and had visited the hospital on multiple occasions because of alcohol poisoning and panic attacks. I had burned down every meaningful relationship in my life.  

 

Worst of all I had lost all faith in myself, in others, and in life. 

 

I was drowning in an ocean of addiction and despair. It wasn’t until I found the courage to cry out for help that I was rescued from the alcoholic death that was waiting for me, a form of slow suicide that has killed many others.

 

On December 9th, 2007, I was extremely hungover and sick and tired of being sick and tired!

 

I made the decision to finally ask for help. I called a friend who was working on his own sobriety in a twelve step program. He took me to the first of many meetings that I have attended over the last 15 years. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since, and I pray that I never have another one. 

 

Today, I run a small business in Reno, Nevada. I’m married to my beautiful wife, Dany. Together we are blessed to own a home. I am healthy. I am a certified sobriety coach. And I write books about my experience in recovery. My books are intended to help anyone who is in the process of either getting sober or trying to stay sober.

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I wish you well on your sober journey!

 

Dirk