I had the good fortune of being invited to enroll at Serenity Life Counseling late last year. My personal story is not all that unique but let me say this: I have been an acute alcoholic for almost twenty years, probably even longer but I remember that special day that I knew alcohol was going to shape my life. I was only fourteen. I also became a heavy user of narcotics. Through a tortuous last few years in and out of hospitals, DUIs, personal, business and health failures, I finally realized I had to get some help. So after yet another hospital detox followed by yet another relapse and then finally a residential detox followed by a live-in structured-living program, I became an active member of a twelve step program and finally put together some sober time from 4/11/07-1/2/09.
But I had major unresolved issues and had an intensely negative outlook and even though through my newfound sobriety I had more success personally and financially, I was still miserable. After a series of relapses and rehab and detoxes I finally found the one thing that got me sober; jail. I had almost four months without a drink or drug when I was released but I felt terrified and completely inadequate to handle any form of day to day life. I entered an inpatient treatment facility immediately upon my release and that is where I first met Eric McCoy.
He was the program director of the facility and under his watchful, understanding eye; I was able to slowly transition back into emotional sobriety and life. He helped address many of the key issues I struggled with such as low self-esteem, depression and a very unhealthy fatalistic perception of myself and the world around me. Eric was uniquely qualified to get me to take a look at the process of thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions. For the first time I was able to understand on an emotional as well as a clinical, scientific level where many of my self-defeating thought processes stemmed from and how there were actual steps and measures that I could take to deal with life and start to enjoy it and not be so controlled by negative feelings. Eric taught me how to turn my negative perceptions into a far more reality based, proactive way of looking at not just everyday situations but at myself and my life. He brought something new to the table that I desperately needed.
I truly do not know how I could have survived those first months out of jail without Eric's kind, firm guidance. And he knows from where he speaks. He has the up close and personal relationship with substance abuse which for me is a mandatory "degree". I couldn't take anyone seriously who hadn't walked down many of the same paths I have. And Eric has but he brought much more to the table, he had found a solution and it went beyond the basic, standard twelve step programs. Eric has an extremely detailed knowledge of the physiological psychological pharmacological aspects of substance abuse. And this really helped me to be able to look at my "disease" in a whole new light.
For me, I demand facts and Eric's program delivered those facts along with so much more that when he opened Serenity Life Counseling I jumped at the opportunity. Not only did it satisfy my Felony, HI-Control Probation Officer's requirements, Serenity Life Counseling was also accepted by Judge Jones of Harbor Court as meeting the conditions of my strict, heavily monitored court-ordered treatment. Eric appeared in court with me and continued to make sure I was in compliance while he helped me change my thinking. That is the thinking that put me in such a bad frame of mind that I wound up in jail with a $500,000 bond, facing five, seven year term, strike-able felony counts.
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