Digital Dharma

I’m an alcoholic and addict. My name is Bill.

My last drinking and drugging was on the afternoon of September 14th, 1989 — eighteen years ago today.

I’m not bringing this up because I want praise. I’m due no praise; it was quit or die, and it seems I didn’t want to die badly enough. Nor am I writing about it because I want to proselytize about getting sober, and how wonderful it is to have a program of recovery, and the wonderful friends you make, yadda-yadda-yadda. All those things are true, but that’s not the point.

I had my first drink when I was eighteen, give or take a few days. I had my 45th birthday while I was in treatment for my addictions. But I’m not writing this to tell you about the chaos I caused in people’s lives, or the professional losses, or the depredations on the family fortunes, or the effects on my kids and my marriages, or the wasted time and potential, or any of that stuff. That’s water under the bridge, over the dam, and long in the past.

My reason is much simpler than that. It’s to tell anyone who might need to hear it that it really is possible to get sober, one day at a time. I did it. It’s worked for quite a while now. You can do it, too.

That’s all.

Thanks for letting me share.