Sober about 5 years at the time of this talk, Craig was born in Patterson, NJ and raised in Totowa, NJ. There were racial boundaries growing up. Many around him were looking at the differences - not the similarities. His dad left the family when Craig was 11 years old. Craig's first drink at 12 years old involved the police. A Russian neighbor and he began to use speed and do daring things.
At 18 Craig had a born again experience but was still using. At 21 he became a member of a religious group and studied the Bible from 8pm at night til 3am in the morning for 6 months. At 22, married, he left that group. For 15 years he manged to drink only on holidays, active in religion, got divorced at 23, move to California, went to school and back to New Jersey. There he got a good job and deserved a drink.
That led to crack at age 37. Many detoxes, rehabs and jail but he did not have a problem. He started going to AA meetings when the consequences got bad. He got involved in NA in Brooklyn and was able to get a year here and 5 years there but went back out. He moved to Georgia, slipped again, got arrested and got tired of the consequences. Dry and kicked out of his house he finally got down to working the steps.
(37 min) (12.9 MB) (id#748)