I remember when I was in the third grade. I came home one day to find that my older brother, John, had a two-inch gash in his head. It was about one-quarter-inch deep. My mother, who had wielded a croquet mallet Lizzy Borden fashion, had put it there. She had then poured iodine in the wound. I remember my brother saying that he could feel the iodine burning as it slowly cascaded down between his scalp and his skull. I wasn't surprised, except in the viciousness of this particular incident&

This is not your typical recovery or Christian "feel good" book. My point of view comes from one who has been on the í?front linesí? all of his life. As an innocent child caught in an abusive family environment, as an alcoholic in early, middle, and late stages, and as a drug and sex addict. I know the progression and self-destruction that inevitably accompanies addiction. I know what it feels like to become willing to do things that I never thought I would ever do to get that next "high" in order to escape from the reality that I had created for myself. There is nothing else that quite compares.

I also know the hope and power of recovery. I know the joy of climbing up and out of darkness and into the light of day after years of terrifying descent. I have successfully recovered and I have helped many others to do so, not as an occupation, but as part of my own recovery. I feel that I am in a unique position to help those who are still lost (and their loved ones), provided that they are willing, and to guide them out of the "living hell" that is addiction. I pray that this book will help spread the message of hope to alcoholics/addicts and their families everywhere.