Now 32 years old, father a mean dry drunk (quit before Zach was born), Zach started drinking at age 17.
Two credits short of graduating HS, he started doing meth a lot. Runs in the family. His uncle was on the first season of COPS. Zach moved out. Didn't call home. Mom thought he was dead.
There were some people trying to kill him so he moved back home. He quit meth but started drinking again and using cocaine and selling it and ripping people off.
Got a DUI in a blackout doing 95 mph in Portland, OR where he eventually got sober.
Drank on probation. Spent time in work release and jail. He wanted to figure how to drink and not get caught.
Got laid off from a good job in 2008 because of the economy. Used drugs mostly for some time. Job hired again but they put him on random UI so he tried to manage his drinking.
Got his license back. Swore not to drink and drive but did it anyway one night.
He woke up way out of town off the side of the road. Then he knew for the first time and told himself he had to stop drinking "or this is going to kill you."
He called his boss and told him what was happening. Even though he had been to AA, he didn't like the people being all cheery.
Went to counselor through his work. He did that 2 - 3 times per week and just did not drink and that was horrible.
He was nine months sober when he came into AA and that was the worst nine months of his life. He would go to work ticked off, wanted to drink all day then went back home to his parents.
His counselor was 22 years sober. He was $20K in debt. He owed the counselor money. She gave him a discount of $10 per AA meeting he went to. He found a meeting with many oldtimers.
Got a service commitment. 2.5 years sober going to 6-7 meetings per week, several service commitments and for the first time in his life he was actually happy and it was really weird. One time his face hurt and he realized it was from laughing and smiling.
He got in a relationship that was great she relapsed and shut off everybody. He got mad at God and stopped praying at all for two years but still went to meetings.
Slow and slowly the ninth step promises started going backwards. He started buying stupid stuff he didn't need.
He finally did another 4th step about 1.5 years ago and realized he needs what he needs not what he wants.
Now he has moved from Portland to what I assume is the Atlanta area and his job has him travel and he does not have as many service commitments - and that is really weird.
Meetings are not always available where he travel when he has free time to get to them.
He moved to the area just because he could in December 2016. Now he is thinking of buying a house.
(55 min) (9.5 MB) (id#1863)