Community Listening Forum Toolkit: Make Your Voice Heard!
This step-by-step guide includes everthing you need to host a succesful Community Listening Forum. Learn more...
Recovery Advocacy Toolkit: Making Our Voices Count
includes media outreach templates, event organizing “how-to” materials and many other resources. Learn more…
|
eNewsletter - September 10, 2009
Sharing your recovery story
is one of the activities that we suggested in August for this year’s Rally for Recovery! One of these stories comes from Bob Dunn who recently joined the board of Aaron’s House in Madison, WI. Bob has decided to share his story, to open up a dialogue about addiction recovery and celebrate the one-year anniversary of someone who is very close to him.
Robert Dunn is a Madison native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He is President of Hammes Company, a Wisconsin-based real estate development and investment firm. He has been in long-term recovery for twenty three years. Bob has taken an active interest in assisting organizations involving substance abuse and addiction with young adults. Some of the local organizations he supports include Aaron House, the Chris Farley Foundation and Horizon High School. Here’s Bob’s story:
Why are you speaking out now?
I’m speaking out about my experiences because drugs and alcohol have impacted everyone from our last three presidents to the kids in the halls of our schools. I believe that addiction is one of our greatest challenges today. We talk openly about other diseases but still seem to hide from addiction. A person who I am very close with has been fighting to overcome alcohol for the past year and encouraged me to share my story. I promised her I’d talk about my experience on her one year anniversary. Happy Anniversary. I learned a tremendous amount from other people who shared their experiences with me years ago. Hopefully, others can gain some insight from my experiences.
Was there something specific that made you stop drinking?
Alcohol caught me at a young age. I guess that gene decided not to skip my generation. When I went to college in Boulder, Colorado it was apparent that I was running on a few more cylinders than my peers. Many of those nights seemed to carry-over for days. It was pretty clear then that alcohol and I were more than just casual acquaintances. I made a conscious decision to stay away from drugs. I tried pot but seeing how I was affected by alcohol I realized that if I got into drugs the end result would be bad. It sounds strange now but that was one of the better decisions I made in those days.
When I transferred back to the University of Wisconsin in 1986, alcohol had become a dominant factor in my life. Shortly after that, my Mother died from cancer. That was kind of the last event in a series of things that caused me to ask myself whether I had lost control of my drinking. For me, the hardest part was honestly asking myself that question.
How did your life change after you quit drinking?
For me, the first real hurdle was to learn a whole new lifestyle. It was hard to give up the college life I had come to know in Boulder and Madison. Overnight you go from being the life of the party to not getting invited to the party. I say that jokingly but there is some truth to it. I hear many people describe it as a very lonely disease. Today, the hardest thing for me is watching other people struggle with addiction and knowing the difficulties that lie ahead.
I was pretty sure that if I had idle time on my hands I’d start drinking again. Interestingly enough, I kind of followed the life plan concept of Aaron House. I didn’t call it that at the time but I wrote down five things I wanted to accomplish over five years. A few of these were very basic and others seemed pretty challenging. I began to see after about a year that I had achieved nearly all of the things I thought would take 5 years. Looking back, I think that was really the point where I realized I had moved beyond drinking. Finding some success early on was a huge motivating factor for me. That is what impresses me with Aaron’s House. There is a real effort to find success in life away from drugs and alcohol. Without some early success it’s hard to stay motivated.
Did you have any support or structure to assist you?
I never became involved with any support groups. Seeing how Aaron’s House works I now realize how important that type of support can be. My wife was the person I leaned on the most. She probably didn’t realize it at the time but she never allowed me to dwell on not drinking. She kept the focus on everything else. In hindsight, she was the reason I was successful staying sober. It seems obvious now but she helped me stay focused on things I could measure with success.
Are there things you continue to do today to stay focused on your recovery?
I also had several reminders that kept me focused on where I’d been. For the first five years, I carried a picture in my wallet along with a citation I was given after a night at the Pikes Peak Institute in Colorado Springs. As I learned, that was the place a disorderly college kid was sent to sober up after a night of heavy drinking. That is a long story. One night in that place was plenty. I distinctly remember sitting there looking at the mountains thinking to myself why was I the only one among all my friends that had taken up residence there for the night? That was the beginning of the end of my drinking. Over the years I’ve had many experiences that have kept me focused on staying sober.
What do you tell young people?
I still carry that same picture. Another experience happened several years ago with some college kids that were guests helping with an event at a resort I own. It was déjà vu, but I was now the adult. It involved a citation that was dismissed, but it still caused a little embarrassment along the way. That citation fills a void in my wallet since my stay at Pikes Peak. Probably the thing that has impacted me the greatest is being directly involved with people fighting to overcome addiction. Helping them through the daily fight is the only reminder you really need to keep yourself from going backwards. This is probably one of the most rewarding things you can do in life.
You’ve had a very interesting career building stadiums and other development projects all over the country.What have been the key ingredients to that success?
We’ve been very fortunate in our business over the years. As with most people, I would say the key to anyone’s professional success centers on a strong education and the support of the people around you. In my case, those have been very important factors. I also know that if I had not changed my lifestyle at an early age the greatest accomplishments in my career never would have materialized.
What do you consider the greatest accomplishments in your life?
My greatest accomplilshment in my life is my relationship with my wife Julie and our four kids. I often think about how much I would have missed if I hadn’t moved on from alcohol. The greatest measure of that is my family.
Faces & Voices will be setting up computers at the national hub event at A&E's Brooklyn Bridge Rally so that participants can email their members of Congress about health reform. Here are some ideas for other advocacy activities that you can do. Let’s make Recovery Voices Count!