MY AA Story- (Abbreviated)

*MAY TRIGGER NEWCOMERS READ WITH CAUTION*

Hi everyone! I'm JMRH and I am an alcoholic. I have been sober since September 13, 1988. I took my first drink in my mother's womb. Back in those days, they didn't know much about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and such, so Mom popped pills, drank and smoked a pack a day all throughout her pregnancy with me.

She divorced my father in '69 and remarried. That marriage ended in three years. She was then a single mom.

She was abusive - verbally, physically and sexually.

I detested her alcoholism and all while growing up I kept promising myself that I would never drink.

When I did take my first drink, it got me sick and I vowed never to do that again.

In 9th grade, I found pot (my mom's stash) and speed (my mom's stash) and I was gone from that day forward. Suicide run. When mom discovered that her ounce of dope and 500 white cross were gone, she beat the crap out of me and I ran away from home.

My teenage years were turbulant, bouncing around from relative to mom to dad to friends houses.

My dad has the "ism" but was an abstainer. He also was a rage-a-holic. I won't get into the gory war stories, but it was no fun.

I joined the Marines in 1984 and went up for a security MOS when they popped my urine and found all sorts of things in there. That's when they shaved my head, put me in Cas Co. and gave me the boot.

This is when my alcoholism really took off. Booze was always the last drug of choice, but now, because I was of drinking age, it was easy to get and cheap, I became a daily drinker.

Long story short, I ended up on Maui. The first couple of years I managed, but then I started getting sick. By the time I hit bottom, I was homeless, unemployable, weighed 115 lbs, had liver disease, had several grand mal seizures and was in the throes of Delirium Tremens.

I was dying from the disease of alcoholism at 23 years old. I had a moment of clarity early in the morning of September 12th, 1988. Everything I owned was in a small Addidas roll bag and there was a book of numbers and addresses in there. I called I guy I had met a couple years earlier when I called AA but wasn't ready. He gave me the number of another guy who I knew had five years of sobriety and I called him.

Dumpster Dave was his nickname and he ended up being my first sponsor. He saved my life as I had another Grand Mal that almost killed me and brought me to the hospital. I had the DT's on and off for about a week.

But on September 12th, when Dave sent this other guy Scrappy to come sit with me, Scrappy asked "If I stayed here with you for the rest of the day, do you think you could not drink?" and for some reason I said yes. September 13, 1988 was my first day of sobriety and I have not found it necessary to pick up a drink or a drug since then, thanks to AA and a loving God.

I'm now 43, run a successful business, sponsor lots of guys, am active in church and living a life beyond my wildest dreams. But it does have chalenges. No one said it would get easier but they did say it would get better. And it has.

Thanks for reading and it's good to be here.

JMRH