Last week I talked with Eric Miller of Keystone Treatment Center. I asked Eric if he would recommend a resident that is in recovery.  In an instant, Eric recommended Mike of Sioux Falls.  Eric contacted Mike about doing an interview with me.  Several days later, Mike was in studio sharing his story.

Mike told me his obsession with alcohol put him on a path to destruction.

"I had nowhere else to turn. I' was 42 years old and looking to go to prison. I'm living in the basement of my parent's home."

While in the throes of the addiction, Mike says he didn't think about suicide.

"I have always been a person with an attitude. I always thought taking my life would be the easy way out. I really never thought about suicide that much."

So, what did it take for Mike to recover from the alcoholism?

"After all the trouble I got in with the law, I got into treatment again...probably the fourth time I had been in treatment. The last time I went into a 12 step meeting in Sioux Falls. I had to go there. I had my little card signed by the treatment center people. I sat in that meeting in the back row with my arms crossed. I thought to myself---this isn't going to work for me. I thought that I was pretty much doomed. But, I kept coming back to that place because I saw people that were happy. People that were normal. I wanted that so badly in my life. I was miserable. I was dying inside."

And that's why Mike returned to the 12 step meeting again and again.

"There were people in the meeting with answers. I listened to them. I tried to do what they suggested me to do. At that point, my life began to change for the better. No more alcohol."

And for the past 11 years, Mike has been in recovery!

"My life today is very good and very normal. Like I said before---all I wanted to be was normal like the rest of the people in the world. I have a regular job, I have a home, my family is on town. I have many friends in recovery and not in recovery. Life is good!"

If you're battling a substance abuse addiction, Mike offers this message of hope.

"There are things that I thought of when I came into the program. I thought that nobody could help me. I thought that I knew it all. All I can tell others is to give it a chance. Just one chance. Go in there and listen to what people have to say. I used to think that everything that came into my head was correct and I found out it wasn't. Recovery is another chance of life and I think people should take that!"

 

 

 

 

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