Recovery Spotlight IV - Full Interview Transcript
- What was life like before recovery?
- Dark, lonely and hopeless. Really sums it up as best as I can. Sick all the time. Drugs and alcohol had completely stopped working. Up to a handle a day, needed at least a fifth, and I was completely alone in life
- How did you find your way into recovery?
- My then girlfriend kicked me out, and I reached out to my dad on her prompting and he came and picked me up. I literally texted him “I need help,” and that was it.
- What’s life in recovery been like?
- I can best describe it as finally growing up. It’s been up and down, but the general trend has been positive, it’s been a process of learning about myself and coming to acceptance with the person that I am, kind of a journey of self-discovery.
- Do you have a message for the newcomer or people contemplating a change?
- If you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it…
- It can get better. It’s probably gonna be the hardest thing you ever do, it’s a challenge of consistency and intent. For me it was a process of learning how to be honest with myself.
- When in recovery did you find GFR?
- I first found it when I was in rehab and thinking about immediately going back to school, it didn’t wind up working out that I could come back immediately after getting sober, but it was a resource that I was pretty interested in when I got myself in a position to finally come back to school. At first it was just a resource that I listed on my academic self-reflection that I would use to avoid getting back into the position that I was in originally, but I was attracted to just a good group of people with a desire to not use substance, and who were going through the same stuff I was going through.
- What’s your relationship with school like compared to before?
- I treat it more as something that I GET to do. Before, school was a justification for my living expenses to be taken care of, and there’s still days that it’s like that, but now it’s more fulfilling a commitment I made years ago. Really, it’s part of making an amends with myself.
- What are some cool things you didn’t expect from recovery?
- That I would find people that I could relate to at a really deep level, who shared the same patterns of thinking I had. That I could find acceptance of the way that I had behaved in addiction. That I could find a way to leverage my past experience to help somebody else, to give meaning to all of the suffering that I went through.
- What are some annoying/frustrating things you’ve encountered in recovery?
- I don’t really think in that way as much anymore. Sometimes the normies [people not involved in recovery]. People that I perceive as not being honest or obviously [lying to] themselves like I used to and they can’t open their eyes, but I see that more as a me problem, as in me having trouble accepting them as they are. The most annoying part might be that I’m still the same person, and have to continually revisit the same problems of laziness, self-seeking behavior, still wanting to have things the exact way that I want. If there’s anything that drives me up the wall it’s myself.
- Anything else you’d like to add?
- There’s no such thing as too far gone, and you don’t have to dig all the way down to rock bottom to earn recovery.