Stories of Addiction

The great Nelson Mandela once said, “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” This quote strongly applies to how Billy made his way through constant terror from bullies growing up. Having started weed at age eleven, he progressed to booze and drugs thereafter. In this episode, Billy shares his life story from childhood to present day, going to Genesis House, finding work as a bouncer, succumbing to alcohol, doing stand-up comedy, and eventually being an addict again. His timeline may look bad, but being in jail due to drugs made Billy take a 360-degree turn for the better. Know more about Billy’s incredible commitment towards remaining sober forever in this episode.

Andrea did not start using drugs until her twenties. She married and had children but she lost these to drugs and alcohol. Andrea has lived in her car for over a year but maintained an Executive Assistant job in Silicon Valley. Now Andrea has eleven days clean, will she be able to stay that way?

A 26-year-old male shares his journey from alcohol in middle school to heroin in his mid-twenties and how his life fell apart. This is a powerful interview with wise words from a young man. Blake has been 95 days clean and sober. Will it last?

Luke had very little structure in his early teens. Smoking weed occasionally at eleven years old led to smoking pot heavily at thirteen. Luke is a big, strong, young man who was a stud on the football field. A broken arm introduced him to pain pills, which lead to heroin and then crack. He could not get off the drug train and would openly smoke crack on the Bart train system in San Francisco. A month in rehab would give his body a break but he was soon back onto the cycle of weed, pills, heroin, and crack. Luke’s fifth visit to rehab seemed different. This time he feels more serious about getting clean and staying sober. He wants the American Dream of owning his own home, having a wife and family, and being happy. Drugs will not get him there, but will he do the work that is needed? He is 28 days clean today and is thinking and taking "one day at a time".

Dysfunctional family life tends to manifest for some people into addiction. Having learned he was adopted at a very young age, J.J. has since tagged himself as different from everybody else. He then spiraled into his story of addiction, beginning at 14 years old. A client at The Gault House Sober Living Environment, J.J. is on his recovery from his drug of choice, alcohol, along with meth. He shares his story with us on how he went through years of struggle, going in and out of his addiction across significant events in his life—from getting a divorce, meeting his biological family, to the 2008 recession. Read on this episode as J.J. shares the details of his journey into addiction and then out towards recovery in this authentic episode.