All tagged 12 step recovery

Stigma: How It All Started

I’m an alcoholic.

That’s one of the greatest sentences I have uttered out loud and I say it often in private meetings all around Nashville. The sentence keeps me grounded in my recovery. It reminds me of something important. It allows me to be open, to grow, and to learn and love.

And yet, until six months ago I never realized how high the horse was that I was riding while saying it. It took someone important to me to die for me to realize.

In Development

In fact, the contractor or the tech start up is more in line with what we actually do than any of the above mentioned assumptions. It is true that there is a level of creativity and artistry we shoot for in our work but at the end of the day we are making a product to sell, plain and simple. That said, the deconstruction of what the product is and who the buyer is proves to be the most difficult part for people willing to chat with us longer than five minutes to understand. 

How Deeply Stigma Trumps Substance Use Disorder

“I want to thank the Justice Department for seeing this, this horrible thing... And I didn’t speak them by the way, just so you understand. They saw the horribleness of a nine year sentence for doing nothing... You have murderers and drug addicts- they don’t get nine years. Nine years for doing something that no one can even define what he did.” -President Trump

A life changed

In December 2014 I met a man who helped change my life. I walked in to my very first 12 step meeting and it was obvious to this man I’ve never been in a place like this before. To steal a phrase often used by Robin Williams, I looked like a deer in front of a Peterbilt.