Friends of Recovery - New Hampshire

P.O. Box 295 Concord NH 03302

I was born in Oklahoma City, OK in the middle of World War II to teetotalers. I grew up in ahome that thought of alcohol as the "devil's brew." I was forced to live with my parents until I completed college but back in those days being a "townie" meant no curfews so whilethe dormitory women had to be in by 11PM or face getting expelled, I was out with theguys solving the problems of the world and tiptoeing home in the wee hours. Blackoutsbegan by the time I was a senior but I thought that everyone who drank alcohol had them. I lost my first real job because of the use and abuse of alcohol and after came a series of geographical cures-the problem with that being, of course, that I always took my alcohol problems with me. Finally, I ended up in New York City and met a man with a capacity to drink that was even greater than mine. Naturally we had to get married and unfortunately he was a nasty drunk. After some pretty scary physical abuse I sought help from a counselor.Even though I reconciled occasionally with him for the next 2 years, I did finally manage to see that he was probably never going to recover so I left him in Boston, MA in 1972. Many of my problems did disappear when I stopped drinking but a clinical depression did surface 4 years into my sobriety; again a good clinician helped me get back on my feet. Today much of the satisfaction that I get from helping others comes from knowing that so many have helped me.