- Alcohol
- Faith
Start by describing the situation that changed your life or a loved one’s life.
My wife becoming an active alcoholic, the challenges it provided for me and the spiritual and personal growth it has afforded me.
Based on your situation or story, was there a turning point that prompted the need for change or help?
Beating my fists on the dash board of my wife’s car out of sheer frustration and anger at not being able to get through to her and, not liking the person I had become.
How did you or your hero get help?
Found my way to the rooms of support groups and counseling for myself.
Based on your experience, what lessons did you learn? Do you have any advice to give?
Each of us has a journey on this earth and beyond. We are given the freedom to choose our own path, and the path we choose is ours and ours alone. I can choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing every waking moment of every day. I pray for guidance to do the right thing and to allow others to find their own way. That seems to help (when I can actually do it).
If you or your loved one is in recovery, describe what life is like today.
I have been in recovery for maybe two years, and I see more hope than ever before in my life. I have been blessed that my wife chose recovery for the majority of the last year, and in recovery life has been rewarding and challenging. I have learned more about myself in the last two years than I had in the previous 50 years. I have begun a spiritual journey, and this is also new to me. I think I had always had a long distance relationship with the God of my understanding, and in recovery this relationship has become more personal and so much more rewarding.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Running saved my life. I do not say that lightly or with any drama. I literally was ready to throw in the towel. I was living in fear and despair. I had not run in almost 20 years, and, when things were unbearable for me in my house, I would go out and run. Sometimes I had to run to get rid of the anger I felt about what alcohol was doing to my wife and my life, sometimes I ran because it just felt good to be outside, sometimes I ran out of gratitude that I could run. I ran when I was frustrated, I ran when I was happy, I ran when I was sad and I ran when there absolutely nothing else I could do. Little by little I realized I liked me better when I ran. I felt better about myself, it gave me something to do that was good for me and it stopped me from stewing about what was bothering me. It kept me out of trouble, and it made me breath when I felt like I was holding my breath. Less than 2 years ago I put on a pair of running shoes for the first time in almost 20 years (to actually run in). During that first run that I did in anger and out of sheer frustration I ran 3 miles in 33 minutes, and it felt like hell. Yesterday I ran 3 miles in the early afternoon and 3 miles in the early evening, both times in under 24 minutes. I look back and see that progress, and I am truly grateful that I have stuck with it, but more importantly I looked back at the same two years and words cannot begin to express the gratitude I feel to remember how I felt then and the way I feel today (about myself). It has been very humbling in the best way possible. I am so grateful that I not only stuck with my running but also have kept going to support group meetings. Both have afforded me a new way of looking at myself and my life. I don’t hear God actually talking to me, but if I did I think He is telling me, “Run but don’t run away.” When I do that, things in my life seem to go more smoothly.