Our Stories
Share the power of long-term recovery. If you are in recovery, a family member, friend or ally of someone in recovery, we want to hear your recovery story!
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Voice of the Recovery Community Award
Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) is the recipient of The Joel Hernandez Voice of the Recovery Community Award!
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Our Stories
Christina Thompson
Belton, SC
A Recovering Bi-Polar Addict who has been alcohol and drug-free since the 18th of May, 1983.
I no longer do the things I used to do when I was obsessed with the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more. I have learned respect for myself and to respect others. Not only am I no longer abusive to my family and society, I am genuinely loving to my family and contribute to society by helping others who are like I was find a new way of life. In fact, after years of mutually discordant communication, my mother now receives weekly calls from me with love and gratitude.
I had difficulty with stability for many years in Recovery, because I was long since identified as being Bi-Polar, but untreated.-- So I was a tornado in peoples' lives, couldn't sleep well, had auditory hallucinations, over-reacted to most emotional stimuli, was unpredictable in behavior and speech (I sometimes shocked myself!), irresponsibly spent money, and occaisionally got suicidal. During one of those suicidal ideation bouts was when I was identified a second time as being Bi-Polar and offered medication, but was discouraged from taking it by well-meaning but un-educated people in Recovery who said that "taking any medication would be the same as 'using'". And I wanted Recovery more than anything else. So, during a total of 10 years Clean, I tried medication only twice (once during a trip to a mental institution because of my condition -- at seven and one-half years Clean) and quit because of the stigma. It wasn't until I made a series of terribly wrong, life-changing decisions and wound up having a breakdown in a public place that help was finally given to me and it was out of my hands. It still took an additional seven months before I finally surrendered and accepted medical help; and I was an emotional, mental and physical wreck during that time -- like never before.
So I have been willing to take medication -- as any diabetic or high blood pressure patient would -- and, after about 12+ years of trying to find the right medication, have finally found an effective one and have been working the proven method of Recovery and now have stability and serenity.
In fact, I have been contentedly married for over 10 years and have two healthy and reasonably happy children who know they are loved.
But I don't consider myself cured; I continue to go to meetings and practice recovery to give back to others and to maintain my spiritual growth, and I still take medication to remain emotionally and mentally stable.
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