Jim

Floundering in and out of hospitals, treatment centers, jails, and 12-step meetings for twenty five years, I could never accumulate a period of significant sobriety. Devastating relapse has always been just the other side of fresh hope. I was desperate for a solution to my lack of control but none could be found. Eventually I lost everything and everyone that ever meant anything to me. I found myself alone and no longer able to function in society. I became critically ill but was powerless to stop drinking. My doctors predicted no more than one year to live if I did not stop drinking. I could not. Hopeless and helpless, I gave up. Death. I’ll drink to that.

Yet, here I am, very much alive- almost three years later- sober, healthy, happy, and blessed. Oh-so very blessed indeed. How did this miracle happen? To the relief of my alcohol saturated brain and liver I landed behind bars once again. Before my release I promised the few family members who would still talk to me that I would try out a place in Denton called Solutions of North Texas. In a rare moment I kept one of my promises.

In the first few days at Solutions it became painfully apparent that these people didn’t know what they were doing. This isn’t how everyone else does it. Bingo! It isn’t. Soon I felt hopeful for the first time in many years. Two months later, on a seemingly normal day, while riding a city bus, my life changed forever. In an instant of pure, perfect, crystal-clear clarity, I realized that I never had to drink again. The obsession to drink was lifted from me. It was real, it was profound, it was God doing for me what I couldn’t do for myself.

I owe Solutions of North Texas my life for showing me the way to a power greater than myself. I call that power God. Today I am truly happy for the first time in my life. I never knew that life could be so utterly beautiful.

Jim Guthrie