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Hi, my name is Brian, and this is my recovery story.
I am an alcoholic and an addict. I was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire by a single mother who worked as a teacher. Growing up, it was just my mom, my brother, and me. My father struggled with addiction and alcoholism and spent much of his life in and out of prison.
My childhood was not abusive or chaotic in the ways people often imagine. We did not have much, but my mother did the best she could, and she loved us. From the outside, things looked mostly normal.
As a kid, sports were everything to me. They gave me structure, purpose, and a place to belong. That all changed in junior high school when I broke my wrist snowboarding. I was prescribed Vicodin for the injury, and at just thirteen years old, something clicked.
That was the moment my addiction began.
The way those pills made me feel felt like relief. Like confidence. Like the version of myself I thought I was supposed to be. It did not take long for things to escalate. Drinking, smoking weed, and eventually anything that could help me escape what I felt inside.
Once addiction had its grip on me, it moved fast. Jail cells became familiar. Charges piled up. What started as a teenager experimenting turned into a lifestyle that followed me into adulthood.
I have spent more of my life incarcerated than free. I have spent more of my life in active addiction than sober. In and out of jails, prisons, and rehabs, I kept repeating the same cycle, convinced this was just how my life would be.
In 2022, my father passed away. That loss sent me into my final run. I picked up new charges and eventually landed in Drug Court, a place that quite literally saved my life.
Drug Court was not easy. I struggled. I had setbacks. But one thing had changed. I was done with prison. The last time I was sanctioned, something finally gave way. I surrendered to my higher power and stopped trying to do things my own way.
For the first time, I truly put the work in.
My sobriety date is January 25, 2024. I am set to complete Drug Court on November 17, 2025, and for the first time in my adult life, I will be off parole.
Today, I work in treatment, helping other addicts sustain recovery and work toward their goals. I have an apartment with my girlfriend, my stepdaughter, and my son. I get to show up today as a father, a partner, a son, and a friend.
I am present. I am reliable. I am living a life I never thought I deserved.
If I can spend my entire life in and out of the streets, jails, prisons, and rehabs, and now be approaching two years clean, then anyone can do this.
Recovery did not give me a perfect life. It gave me a real one. And that has made all the difference.