Tweet9 years without a drink. 9 years without not ever once wanting one. 9 years ago I was gone. I was history. I was about to become a memory.
I couldnt fucking stop. I went to rehab. I went to a Betty Ford type in patient center. Nothing worked. Religion failed. Friends intervened, it failed. I was about dead. I was in the hospital over 12 times. Doctors in the ER and hospital would tell me "If you dont stop drinking, you will die" I tried and couldnt stop and I kept trying and nothing worked.

When I finally stopped drinking I was over half a million in debt, I had a $150,000 IRS tax lien on my house which was in foreclosure and scheduled every month for sale at the courthouse. My business was basically shut down. I had almost no income. I was alone, I had nobody to talk to. I had my mom to call and talk to and that was it. She was a rock in the middle of my personal hell. I had friends but nobody I wanted to burden with my problems. Trust me, people dont want to hear about your problems anyway. I had no wife, no kids and basically no family. You cant begin to imagine the loneliness, the darkness and the heartache.

Now I have groups ask me to come and talk to their groups to tell them how I overcame alcoholism. I have spoken publicly at many venues now and I dont hesitate to tell my story because I know that there might be one person who can hang on to the hope of my story and can save their own life.

Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson says that alcohol literally wipes out 5-10% of the human population.

People always ask me "How did you stop drinking?" It had nothing to do with religion, I promise you that. Because anything that I was seeking outside of my own self, only weakened me and made things get worse. I tried to be a good christian and it didnt get me off alcohol. If I thought god, or people or a relationship would somehow help me, It just made me outer dependent and kept me helpless. It was only after I stopped looking outside of myself for solutions and began to trust my own ability to do it , my own mind to create, that I was finally set free. I set some big goals in that last month in the hospital. 28 days in a hospital bed because of something you did to yourself gives you a lot of time to reflect and change your life. Thats what I did in June of 2008 and Ive never looked back and I went from the bedrock of pain and desolation and now I have rebuilt everything and business is booming and life is hellatiously good. Some days I cant even believe it happened. It really did. Wow.

June 2018 will be my 10 year anniversary. OMG Its been an amazing journey

TweetIt is very easy to show all the gains we make in BB or PL here on this site but what really makes us the family that we are is that we can share our darkest times in our lives and yet everyone is still supportive and encouraging of us in our most personal struggles. We all have very compelling stories that would make any normal human give up. We all have the same common goal, "not to be common'.

Dzone, You made it through and have a very bright future helping others how to overcome their obstacles.