Speaker 1: This is the audio from Recovery Stories Message of Hope,
Speaker 1: Part four, recorded on October seventeenth, twenty twenty four, in
Speaker 1: Traverse City, Michigan. This special presentation of the two seventeen
Speaker 1: Recovery podcast is courtesy of Month's in Behavioral Health. Here's
Speaker 1: Russ Herndon with a story about his recovery.
Speaker 2: Jurney, how's it going, everybody. My name's Russ. I'm an
Speaker 2: addict alcoholic. My sobriety date is May twenty third, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. Thank you, the day that finally got me
Speaker 2: started down. This journey was just like any other day,
Speaker 2: the middle of May. I'm getting off of work ten
Speaker 2: hour day cooking pizzas for the masses, head to toe
Speaker 2: covered in flower cold outside. I'm a transplant from South Carolina.
Speaker 2: It's always cold up here. But as I'm stumbling my
Speaker 2: way to the store to try and make sure I
Speaker 2: have what I need for the night, because I'm not
Speaker 2: going to run out, I can't go through that. I
Speaker 2: get into the store. Y'all know how it is. You
Speaker 2: go in the store, they see you every day. You
Speaker 2: don't have to say nothing, They just set it on
Speaker 2: the counter for you. Turned around, my best friend's standing there.
Speaker 2: She looks at me and says, with Russ, how you been.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, how have you been? I haven't seen
Speaker 2: you in a couple of years, and she says to me,
Speaker 2: you were at my house last weekend. I've gotten no
Speaker 2: recollection whatsoever of this. So after I leave, you know,
Speaker 2: I start strolling around town thinking to myself, what have
Speaker 2: I been doing these past couple of years? What are
Speaker 2: my memories? I've gotten no idea, been gone so much.
Speaker 2: The only thing I know is what people have told me,
Speaker 2: what they've shown me, and I think I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: to change. I can't live like this anymore. But it
Speaker 2: didn't change that night. I waited till the next morning
Speaker 2: because I don't know. I guess I gave up. But
Speaker 2: that's what started me down the path to recovery. Went
Speaker 2: to treatment, and I kept hearing the same corny sayings
Speaker 2: over and over that nothing changes, nothing changes. Finally, about
Speaker 2: a month into treatment, it stuck with me. I decided
Speaker 2: I was going to change everything. That's what brought me
Speaker 2: to Travers City. I'm a resident at ATS Housing and
Speaker 2: a tea house. It works, it'll do, but you know,
Speaker 2: instead of being the introverted, standalone person I've been most
Speaker 2: of my life. I've actually been reaching out and talking
Speaker 2: with people and things like that really help. When y'all
Speaker 2: are struggling, Remember there's friends in this room. Talk to somebody.
Speaker 2: They'll be there for you. If nothing changes, nothing changes,
Speaker 2: And I can honestly say today, when I look at
Speaker 2: myself in the mirror, I actually of the person I
Speaker 2: am today.
Speaker 1: Thank you all, thanks for listening to the two seventeen
Speaker 1: Recovery podcast. Listen to over nine hundred episodes on the
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Speaker 1: or online at two seventeen recovery dot com