Taking Commitments

Being a Pennsylvania drug rehab, we count on people from 12 step programs to come in and speak to our patients. They need to hear from people that have recovered from the disease of addiction. Below is a testimonial of one of our former patients. He tells how speaking at a drug and alcohol treatment center helped him also.

I have been told since the day that I got sober that one day my story is going to help save someones life. I never really believed the people telling me this. I always felt like I was a little bit worse than the other people in AA. That was until the other night when my home group in AA had a speaking commitment at a local treatment center. For the most part out of the 60 people it looked like maybe ten of them were paying attention to me. The others were talking or sleeping or laughing quietly at me. I know today that those are the people that don't make it. That is a story for another day though. When I was finished speaking I felt great. My story from start to finish was able to take me back to where I came from and where I am now. Often times in my sobriety I always think that I am falling short. That is until I hear my own story from my own mouth. What the miracle of the evening was, someone came up to me after the meeting and told me that his story is the same as mine. No money, in troube with the law, family won't talk to him, owns only the clothes on his back, and hates himself. He said his name was Adam. His next sentence was "I want my life to be like yours". I have to tell you that a tear came to my eye. Four years ago no one wanted a life like mine. I told this broken 22 year old guy that he can have what I have. It isn't that difficult. All you have to be willing to do is twelve simple things and your life doesn't have to ever be like it is now. I can honestly say that he seemed to believe me. I think that you can actually see hope in someones eyes, and that is what I left this kid with. I learned that nothing in the world feels better than the delivery of hope to another suffering human being. There is not enough money in the world that can bring that special feeling. This is a credit, for me, to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the wonderful people who have taken me in and built me into a man.