I was a drug addict who began with marijuana at 13 years old and graduated to methamphetamine and opiates over the course of the next 20 years. What finally got me to come clean was losing everything and hitting rock bottom. I lost my family, my job and everything else and then the drugs stopped working. Using drugs was enjoyable for a lot of years, then it became like torture to use anything. I would use because I had to and then languish for hours waiting for the effects to wear off. It became so horrible I prayed to God over and over to help me recover from this affliction. One day I said, "This is it!" stopped using cold turkey and slowly made a recovery one agonizing step at a time.

Looking back on it all, I know the exact point where I hit rock bottom but at the time I was so screwed up it wasn't clear. All I knew at the time was that drugs no longer did the job and I needed to figure out what to do to stop using and become a productive member of society. It was a very slow process, but over the course of the last 9 years, I made a total recovery. Today I work full time, my wife stays home with the kids and I thank God every day for answering my prayers.

And The Dr. Laura Show played a part in helping me to understand how a husband and a father should live.

I'd like to add my sister who is a college grad and successful social worker was raised in the same home I was, but in a totally different fashion. She received a lot of nurturing from my father while I received a lot of physical and mental abuse which eventually led me to try pot in an attempt to fit in with the cool kids. I love her dearly but sometimes it seems like she is from another planet. Of course addicts always have an excuse for their poor behavior but the point I'm trying to make is the initial thing that drove me to try drugs was a deep need to feel like I belonged somewhere
instead of being a perpetual inconvenience.

John