I said in my last message, that I would expound a bit on my story of going from homeless to now live a rich, wealthy, abundantly successful, and prosperous life, so here it is.

Around 2015, I was a young to middle aged man living in a small suburb of a large city and life was not too bad, but my whole world was about to get turned upside down and shaken on its head. I was married and we had one child together. I was working sort of peak time hours and also attending college trying to finish my associate degree in business management. I was also using recreational drugs to cope.

On the surface, everything looks good, but beneath the surface, there is a world of inner turmoil that is boiling up and starting to spill out. A few years prior in 2010 my mother had passed away, which was a huge shock to my system, especially because she seemed to be moderately healthy. Also, just a few years prior to that in 2006 I had lost my grandfather whom I had lovingly called “papa for many years had also died and this was the single most important man that had ever been in my life.

I had also lost a friend and colleague to a battle with HIV/AIDS right after Hurricane Katrina. The truth is, I did not handle any of this very well at all. I had been to funerals of people in my family that I was not very close to, but to lose this many people that were so instrumental and vital to my identity as a person, I was just decimated.

Not long after my grandfather died, I basically suffered from a mental break. It was as if I was somewhere in my body and mind, but just not controlling them. To be quite honest it was a very surreal experience that I would not wish on anyone, especially someone like me that is so used to being in control and very logical and levelheaded.

Anyways going back to 2015, after suffering through all of this trauma and not dealing with it in a healthy way, I had another mental break, and this was a big one. I ended up getting in a fight with a police officer and spending some time in jail. While I was sitting in jail my now ex-wife hit me with divorce papers and asked for full custody of our son. I was at rock bottom, or at least I thought I was.

Looking back now, that was just the jumping off point, on my descent to rock bottom. Right out of jail, I stayed with a friend for a couple of days, but then I ended up homeless and, on the street, because he was scared of the cops or my probation officer coming by (he was in a bit of trouble himself.)

After a week, of being on the street, I called my aunt or cousin and asked if I could stay with them for a bit while I tried to figure something out. I was in a terrible place, but it got better, and I did good for a while, but then it happened again and back down the spiral I went.

The worst of it all was when I started using meth. It’s true what they say, “Meth is a hell of a drug” and definitely not in a good way either. This was truly when I felt like I was hitting rock bottom. I was living on the street now for the second and then third time during my Meth use.

When someone is using meth, it is one of the worst kinds of sickness and shock to the mental aspect of a person. Someone that is using meth is generally suffering daily from the worst kind of addiction and delusions of grandeur. To the meth addict though it all makes sense and there is very little a person could do to convince them that what they are thinking and feeling is only true in their mind, not anyone else’s.

I say all that to say this, even after all of these years of suffering and feeling like I had been trapped in the depths of hell, I still found a way to pull myself up by my, proverbial bootstraps and will myself to and through recovery. It is possible and in fact probable, for a struggling addict to recover, but it takes time and a lot of support and mental fortitude, and commitment.

If you are an addict or if you are dealing with an addict, I cannot tell you exactly how to handle your unique situation and challenge, but I can offer you some hope by telling you what worked for me in part 2 of this story.