- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Friends & Family
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
The year 1981 marks a turning point in Mark’s life. It was the day he entered the life of recovery and enjoys the freedom and joy of sobriety ever since. Today, he is attending the 5K run for recovery at LSU in Baton Rouge to support a newly developing collegiate recovery community. “As I went through LSU in the 70s there was no support for people living sober; college life was all about getting drunk. I don’t even remember most of the time I spent here,” Mark remembers and smiles.
Mark was drinking and drugging between the ages 14 and 27. He said he got a lifetime’s worth during this period consumed. Being asked what kind of drugs he was using he just answered, “Everything and more.”
When he was 27, he felt like he was a hundred years old. It seemed that he could not go just one more day. “I know I had to make a change, but I had no idea what was in store for me. I did not know what a wonderful life was waiting for me,” Travis states.
At that time, he was tired of everything and today he feels like the most blessed person in the world. He was the fourth member of his family to enter treatment– one after the other getting sober. It just came naturally that the others tried to convince him to go this step into a better future. He agreed to go and went to a treatment center inside a hospital in Baton Rouge where he started to steer his life in a new direction and learned the tools to make it last.
He didn’t know anything about recovery and sobriety and it was a long, slow process for him to come back to life. “I didn’t know anything about myself, about my feelings, about living or about people. Everything I needed to learn about life, I started to learn at the age of 27. It was not one thing that was an improvement, it was a process of improvements.” Mark adds.
Today he is attending multiple meetings a week and has sponsees and a sponsor. Not all of his family members are still sober today; some have taken their own path. His life is very active, he swims and works out almost every day. “There are a lot of fun things to do in life and you need to be fit to do them,” he says.