By the time Matt was 35 years old, he had three children, a wife and an addiction to crack cocaine. He started drinking in high school, a habit that soon spiraled out of control. After graduation, he added cocaine to the mix. He got a good job but then began to need more money so began to steal from the company and got fired. A bad relationship breakup sent him further down the spiral, and he began to cope by drinking in bars till closing time and then using cocaine to wake up for work the next morning.
In the midst of growing health problems, he met another cocaine and alcohol abuser and got married. As three children came along, they tried to keep their care of the kids and drug and alcohol abuse separate but were only partly successful. When Matt’s wife disappeared, his world crumbled. He lost his children but this event still didn’t wake Matt up to the need to get sober.
When everything in his life seemed wrecked — finances, relationships, family, all his possessions — he finally faced the fact that he needed help. He was amazed when friends came forward to help him get to a Narconon rehab center in Texas.
Recovery was not an easy path but he rebuilt himself as a man as well as restoring his relationship with God. He stayed on at this Narconon center to help others recover and finally got his children back. “I know I am not an addict in recovery, I am a recovered addict,” he said. “I know if I just continue to take responsibility for myself and others, I will be fine.”