My Story
by Norm Sharkey, Author, Sanity365:
Daily Help for Sane Living
My story as an addict is not any
different than any other. The drugs may be different but the story is the same:
Try something, get the rush you only dream of when you're straight, and chase it
to the Gates of Hell! End of story!
In Recovery, I was straight five
times over a four year period, with one period of almost two years straight. I
didn't change my thinking nor living habits, so consequently I relapsed. I was
in a skid-row room one night and I thought I was having a heart attack and I
fell out of bed onto my knees, and for the first time in my life I asked God to
help me. Some people say this was just a coincidence, but I know what I believe!
The next night I went back to a
meeting of the program I was pretending to follow, and finally got serious about
it.
About seventeen months later, I went
to work at an adolescent drug program near Montreal, Canada, called "Spera". For the
first time since I was a little kid, I learned what "Real" was. Spera changed me
and my life, and I will forever be grateful to the people there for allowing me
to be a part of them. They gave me the Foundation for my work in the future!
Whether or not addiction is
hereditary is a debatable question; my father and older brother also had
addiction problems, but if that proves anything I don't know. I do know one
thing for sure, addiction destroyed our family!
My dad was a Presbyterian minister,
and everyone who heard him preach will tell you, there were few any better. He
unfortunately, like many parents, subscribed to the philosophy of "Do as I say,
not as I do"! Mine was and still is, "Show me, don't tell me"! That difference
in thinking of course caused problems. The fact that my dad was overseas during
the Second World War for five years and me being three years old
when he left, basically meant he was a stranger when he arrived home.
The "Rev's" addiction was well-hidden
from us. My mom would say he had the flu or various other ailments when he was
coming down. Poor Dad was sick again! It must be the war!
I was good at sports in elementary
and secondary school, and as a teenager discovered the drug alcohol. I was shy
around girls but with my drug I felt like Romeo. Personality change - Big Time!
I got kicked out of school, joined
the military, drank my way through a U.N Peacekeeping tour in the Middle East
and the Congo (see middle picture below!); somehow got released with an
"Honorable Discharge", and eventually crawled into Recovery: one of the
fortunate ones who lived to tell the tale!
The children of Sinai
My usual off-duty occupation
Canadian peacekeepers: me on the jeep
To order your copies of
Sanity365:
Daily Help for Sane Living
securely online,
click any 
link, including this one!
