I am like a lot of people who have gone before me in the program. I started drinking at an early age. I quit for a while, but then life got hard and I turned to alcohol. At first, all I wanted was for my mind to shut off so that I could get some sleep. What started out as a drink every 3 or 4 nights, became a drink every night, and then became a couple of drinks every night. Alcoholism sneaks up on you. It is subtle. We often do not realize what is happening to us until we are too far down the road. That is exactly what happened to me!

Before long, I was stopping at the bar every night on my way home from work. Then I would go home and drink some more after everyone had gone to bed for the night. I carried a flask, or two, with me everywhere I went. It made me nervous to not have alcohol close by. The spiral I was experiencing only grew tighter. I knew I was in trouble in 2014. My family was giving me a hard time about my drinking and I was waking up in the morning with the shakes. The only way I could get the shakes to go away was with a drink or two. And I was drinking throughout the day to keep the shakes at bay.

By the time I went to rehab, I was drinking more than a fifth a day of vodka, bourbon, or scotch. I went to an assessment center to prove to my family that the only problem I had with alcohol was them. The joke was on me. I knew the people at this assessment center and they were the only ones I trusted with my secret. They told me that I needed to stay in order to safely detox. They told me, and it was later substantiated by my primary care doctor, that had I waited another week to check in, I would have likely died. In fact, my primary care doctor told me that I was the fourth alcoholic he had treated in the previous eighteen months. I was far worse than the others and they were all dead. Talk about an EYE OPENER!!!

I was fortunate. Between my family and the assessment center, they saved my life. Maybe you are as bad as I was, maybe not. Only you know. What I know is that if you are on this road it does not end well. What started out as fun, stress relief, and a way to get some sleep at night, turned into a living nightmare. I was drinking 20+ hours per day. I was at the absolute lowest part of my life and I had no hope that it would ever get better. The end of the alcoholic road is the darkest, loneliest place I have ever been. You can only understand the complete darkness and loneliness if you have been there. There is not a worse feeling in the world than being without HOPE.

Sound like you? Project Sobriety can help!

There is HOPE!!! There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an oncoming freight train. I created Project Sobriety as a faith-based recovery management program during my early recovery. This is the program that has helped me maintain my sobriety. Project Sobriety helped me and I KNOW it can help you!