This book is for those suffering from addiction or who have had an addict in their lives. Addiction comes in many forms, all of which do lasting damage. I am not a professional and I do not pretend to have a formula or program for sobriety. I have laid my experience before you so that you may take what benefit you can from it. I hope it will inspire dialogue and action.

To get the most from this book, I encourage you to be brutally honest with yourself about your personal struggle, the impact addiction has had on your life, and the impact your behavior has had on others. No more making excuses! With knowledge comes responsibility.

This is the story of my life, loves, losses, and the complete devastation that resulted from more than 40 years in addiction.

Regardless of how addiction begins, the ultimate responsibility for recovery falls on the addict. It has to, and there comes a point in every addict's life where they have to “burn the boats,” or renounce back doors, escape routes, lies, secrets, and excuses to reach for the only life that doesn’t end in tragedy: sobriety.

Addicts will always choose their addiction over everything else. This is an absolute, unavoidable fact. Even in my times of sobriety, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could obtain my drug of choice, places where I could use it, and a dozen lies I could tell to buy myself time alone to use again. “Just this once, and then I’ll really quit forever,” I’d say to myself.

I hope this book will help others, because I know for a FACT that there is a solution to addiction. Real recovery is a spiritual journey. And it is a shared journey.

If you are not a little fearful of what’s next in this book, you should be. It’s been a wild ride! But please find comfort in knowing that millions of people have walked in the same shoes you find yourself in. Many have discovered a way out, and now experience the joy of a healthy life. To live a joyful life is a choice, one I hope to encourage by telling my story in the following pages.