Recovery Story of the Month: February 2022

Shamell B.’s Story:

Where do I start?  Let me just start by saying this, “One drink”, and I was hooked.  After a drink I felt like I won the lottery, but it also made it hard for me to think, and it covered up the pain.

It traumatized me forever, that “One Drink”. I started drinking when I was 16, and for 24 years it took over my life.  I was forced to dance with the Devil every time.  Drinking made me think I could take on anybody, but I always woke up with black eyes.  I lost every one of the battles. After a night of drinking, I wouldn’t want to go outside or look at my face all day. I was always wondering why, after I had that “one drink”, I was in the back of a cop car or in handcuffs in a cold jail cell. Always asking myself how did I get there? I believed all the lies that “one drink” told me.  I always told myself that I was not going to do it again, but I did.

I had to start looking at all the scars, blackeyes, and Rap Record jail bids. I know I didn’t deserve them because I did everything that “one drink” told me to do.  That’s when I noticed I was being stabbed in the back by a friend, the “one drink”, who did not want me to see me for who I truly was. That’s when I finally took that last drink and threw it out.  

I tried to stop drinking. One night I went to 7-11 to get something to drink and my hands were shaking so bad from the withdrawals. There was a cop there.  He saw me and held the door open for me. He must have seen that I was in bad shape, I was spilling my drink everywhere. I ended up going to the hospital and asking for help. 

While in the hospital, they gave me the card to call Sherpa and Thrive about my “one drink”, and I did.  Since then, Kathie and the Sherpa Team have been helping me stay on track.  Since then, I haven’t been arrested and have had no police contact. I would say that’s a clean record to me.