I was invited to give a talk at Salem State Teacher’s College on alcohol abuse. My curriculum vitae for the event was being a gold medalist in the Olympics of self destruction. I had thirty years of sobriety at the time and they thought I would be a safe bet.

What they were looking for, they didn’t get. My approach to life salvaging wasn’t in their course of study. They sat there in stunned silence. Faculty who never had a drug problem. 🙂

When you hit the wall, it’s time to do something else. Whether it’s booze, pills, crack, meth, sex or doughnuts, here’s your sign.

Your early warning blinker is on. You can ignore it as many do, or you can take a turn into a whole ‘nuther life. My philosophy.

Getting hooked on stuff doesn’t make you a bad person. We’re all searching for relief from something. Can I get an amen?

I meet a lot of folks who abruptly stop a nasty habit and wait. They go to meetings and pray. They ask their higher power to just get them one more day without their addiction(s).

When I have to kick something, (see above) I make a decision to fill that void with something life changing. Something positive that will change me forever.

These vices are a distraction, they keep you from becoming you. A simple understatement.

I think that if I’m going to kick something huge, something huge better slide right in there. I feel If I’m gonna be uncomfortable, it might as well get really hot in here.  It works for me.

I have reached expert status in so many things just to keep my “jones” at bay. You might have picked up a little compulsion here.

The first time I almost met my maker was in 1979. I should have hit the rubber table but it was unavailable. I had to go cold.

In my pain and misery, I vowed if I couldn’t drink, smoke, or do dope, then goddamit, I was gonna scare the crap out myself.  And the world.

Then I became enlightened.

I became a track star, dropped fifty pounds, got a GED, started sleeping on top of the bed instead of underneath, went back to church and became a nutrition expert.

After twenty years of burning the candle at both ends and in the middle, I blew my own doors off.

I entered a new world. A beautiful world.

This.. absolutley…scared… the ….shit out of my family. They intervened on me. The old Bobby they understood…. who the fuck was this?

So when I meet newly straightened out folks who have just come out of the abuse tunnel, I tell them to get leveled off by which ever means possible, then replace that negative distraction with a positive.

You should always get some gain from your pain. Open ‘er up and jam something positive in there.

Here’s your sign.

Good luck and God bless ya.