- Alcohol
- Drugs
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
I did crack until I cracked two teeth. Then I knew it was time for crack to go. I did heroin until a needle broke off and started to enter my body. Lucky break. I quit heroin cold turkey.
After detoxing on my own for three weeks of sweating, pain, and withdrawal-related obsession, I finally felt that I might be able to quit drugs. Unfortunately, I then doubled my consumption of alcohol to two gallons a week.
I finally had enough of all of it together, and I entered an official detox. While in detox, I had a fireworks display in my head and the constant sound of wind in my ears. The people who do commitment exercises during my treatment program came in and said to us, “I left a wake of destruction in my path.”
“Me too,” I said to myself. They were right.
They said, “You must go to meetings.”
“I’m in a meeting now,” I told them.
They insisted, “You must go to meetings when you get out of here.”
So, I made a decision. I grabbed a meeting list and decided I was going to go to 12-Step meetings.
I was inspired when I read that once you make a decision, you are halfway there. Being inspired is the reason I am healthy today.
I left detox at 9:30 am Saturday, May 2, 2009. I walked home with my plastic bag of clothes. When I opened the door to my apartment, the lady next door was leaving hers. I asked her where she was going. She said, “to an A.A. Meeting.” I asked if I could join her. She said yes, and I had arrived. I was in a meeting an hour after I left detox. That is a miracle. This is the 12-Step-program, the fellowship.
That same day, there was a horse race on television called the Kentucky Derby. The winner was a “fifty-to-one long shot” and his name was ‘Mine That Bird’. I said if a fifty-to-one long shot can win the Kentucky Derby, I’ve got a shot at this thing called recovery. We are all fifty-to-one long shots. We are all miracles.