RECOVERY, TODAY
We asked these clean and sober individuals what their life is like today as they navigate living a life of recovery from drugs and alcohol
MY WILDEST DREAMS
“I’m living a life beyond my wildest dreams. I’m saving people’s lives one day at a time. I’m a program director for a detox facility in Studio City where I’m given the opportunity by the grace of my Higher Power to show other people that this can be done. Before, I was a hopeless junkie with a needle in my arm, shooting heroin every day, all day, and now I put together three years and three months of sobriety. My credit score is up, I have my parents, I’m blessed with a good career, I no longer have financial insecurities… it’s a life that I could not have dreamt of. I’m a recovering heroin addict and alcoholic. I lost everything. My partner of 18 years passed away of Stage Four colon cancer. I burned everything down to the ground after he died. Today, I maintain my recovery with prayer and meditation, I send out a gratitude list, I have a sponsor who I call every day, I am connected to a big sponsee family, and I talk to my sponsee brothers every day.”
—David J Takamine, sober since December 12, 2020.
TOTAL GAME CHANGER
“Sobriety has allowed me to be present, not just in my own life, but in my family’s life and it allows me to be there for my friends. It allows me to be the person that I always wanted to be. Today I have a life worth living. I have friendships, and I’ve created relationships with my family. It’s a total 180 from the life I was living for 13 years. When I was doing drugs, I was helpless. Drugs were sort of was my whole entire life, and I was very lonely and it was very solitary. Now I go to meetings, I take commitments, I work with my sponsor weekly, and I stay in the middle of the boat. I surround myself with sober people. I stay away from the apps or any place where I used to find drugs in the past. I avoid the people I used to hang out with and I stay away from the bathhouses because that was where I used to do drugs all the time. I didn’t know about recovery when I was using, I didn’t really seek out treatment, but now that I know about being sober, it’s a total game changer.”
—Christopher Perez, sober since October 11, 2020.
TIRED OF THE CYCLE
“It’s not my first rodeo at being sober. I started my recovery journey when I was 23 and I’m 40 now, so it’s been an experience… I got HIV in 2011, and it’s been a struggle. Now this is the first time in a long time where I actually have purpose. I’m going back to school, and I’m building my self-worth and self-love again. I’ve been running from myself for the longest time, I would say since my diagnosis in 2011. I’ve also struggled with sex and drugs, so this time I’m giving it a rest. I still consider myself sex positive, but in order for me to love myself, I need to put that on hold and figure out that I’m worth saving myself for whichever encounter I choose, whether it be in a committed relationship or a sexual relationship. I’ve had little periods of sobriety, but now I’m at the point where I’m just tired of the cycle of coming in and out, and I’m finding I’m wanting to stay and love myself—truly love myself, and build a life for myself. I realize the only way I can do that is by being sober.”
—Ethan Greene, sober since July 28, 2023.
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