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Name: Jim H
Age: 49
Home:
Hamilton Township, NJ
Sobriety Date: April
18, 2003
Interests:
Reading, Parenting, Spirituality.
Hobbies: As
Above
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 | Biography/Personal Statement
I was born in a middle class environment in Southeast,
Michigan-“car country.” Neither
of my parents were drinkers in fact I can count the times I have seen
my parents drunk. I enjoyed a peaceful childhood, my parents rarely fought, and
usually seemed to be on the same page.
I am the eldest of three children.
I started drinking at about 13 years of age.
My first drunken experience was a blackout. I was at a party
with my parents and I discovered beer on tap.
There were many drunken episodes in my high school period.
Looking back, I recognize that I drank solely to get drunk.
As a seventeen
year old boy, fresh out of High School, I joined the US Army.
There I was allowed to drink anything I wanted, practically, any time
I wanted. After my
technical schooling I was sent down to the Panama Canal Zone where I
was introduced to cannabis and cocaine.
Both of which I partook of freely.
I was reassigned to Fort Campell, Kentucky, after three years
in Panama. While there I
started to question the life style that I have adopted-the drinking
and drugging. I became somewhat depressed about my future prospects.
I found that it was much more costly to consume the illicits
that I have been ingesting and the alcohol was doing nothing but
adding to my depressed state. At
this time I have seemed to stumble upon my first spiritual awakening.
This period of my life became a brief respite from consistent
alcoholic imbibing. I had
my moments of blackout drinking-but they were few and far between.
During this period I was married to a girl who came from a
family who had lost a son at the hands of a drunk driver.
She did not permit alcohol in our house and I respected this
edict for a short season.
I found work in the construction field. I became a driver for a
company in central New Jersey.
I managed to stay dry for a few years.
It wasn’t what I would term sober.
After a period of time I reacquainted my self with alcohol and
binge drinking. Here
again I had many blackout moments.
By God’s grace I was never involved in any traffic mishaps
though I have driven many a mile under the influence and, with my
children in tow!
In time I have come to the realization that I was a real
alcoholic. I fought the
drink for control of my unmanageable life and I was getting my butt
kicked. I would say that I had a high bottom. For that I thank my God every day.
I came into the rooms of AA on Easter Sunday, April 19, 2003.
At first I thought that perhaps I had been a tad hasty in my
admission of powerlessness and unmanageability.
I thought that maybe I could continue my drinking habits until
the law or some other force not my own drove me into submitting to the
program. Fortunately, God
again intervened and I was able to accept the deception of my
thinking. I have found
that I cannot compare my drinking
and drugging stories to many of my AA brothers and sisters but
I certainly can relate to the thought or (lack there of) process that
can drive an addictive person to use and abuse a substance.
Unfortunately, my marriage has not survived my new found sober
desires, and I am forced yet into another transition in my life.
My retreat from a hereto for co-dependant relationship led me
to the threshold of Tabor House.
The moment I entered this house I sensed a peace, spiritual,
that I Haven’t felt in years if at all!
My first chat with Gez cemented my hope that someday I can find
and maintain the serenity that I “felt”
in this place. I have
enjoyed the short time I have been here.
My spiritual life has improved dramatically.
There is a long road ahead but I am now looking-no desiring,
for God to show me the paths that he would have me tread.
My prayers are directed towards the power of God in this house
that I might be as a beacon of light in this area. |
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