couldn’t sleep or feel safe without that light on. Light provided me with a sense of security and well-being, so ultimately I could choose the path with the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I bask in the sunshine of my newfound freedom, joy, and happiness. Darkness is no longer an option for me or a desire, thanks to working a program of recovery.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my family, as always, for providing me with hours upon hours of support, laughter, unconditional love, and insanity! James and Patricia Storm, Brian Storm, James K. Storm Jr. Love you all!
Cynthia Romano, thank you.
My two beautiful inspirations, Cheyanne and Mia Storm. You are both my sweet angels.
My sponsor, Magi, and her amazing girls, Morgan and Jordan, who kept me sane in early recovery and who continue to serve as daily touchstones for me in my life.
All those who made this book a possibility, Central Recovery Press and Nancy Schenck, Valerie Killeen, Ben Campbell, and Bob Gray for reaching out to me and making this book happen! Jean Cook for your amazing editing skills and constant support and encouragement of my writing, thank you! Sharon Castlen for staying by my side and being an amazing friend and supporter of my work. Devra Ann Jacobs, my agent, for believing in my work and me! Cathy Renna for your mad skills and connections! Jennifer Merchant, you are my ambassador of public relations and my birthday sista. I got mad love for you, girl.
As always, my incredible staff at Victim/Witness Assistance Program and my board of directors; your encouragement, space, and support mean the world to me.
INTRODUCTION
I used to live my life deep inside the vortex of addiction. My life spun and spun out of control for ten years as I plunged further down the scale of disgrace and detriment. I picked up my first drink at age twelve and drank addictively the minute the liquid spilled down my throat. It was as though I had been dehydrated for the first twelve years of my life, and suddenly my mirage appeared in the shape of a tall tin can of beer. I blacked out that first time, and when I woke up I was being sexually assaulted by a man more than twice my age. Thus my introduction to sex and alcohol came in its most destructive and painful manner. Instead of that crime serving as a deterrent from alcohol, it drove me right to the bottle, searching and longing desperately to ease the ache and to quiet the confusion.
I had my first overdose/suicide attempt at age thirteen. What should have been a carefree summer leading to junior high, I wound up spending in a psych ward. Drinking quickly led to smoking pot, dropping acid, and snorting cocaine—which became a weekend norm by age seventeen. I was a bad drunk. I couldn’t hold my liquor. “Beer before liquor, never sicker; liquor before beer, you’re in the clear”—this age-old saying didn’t apply to me. It didn’t matter in what controlled combination I attempted to drink; two things were certain: I had no control, and I was always sick as a dog, puking my brains out. That is, until I found cocaine. Cocaine became my great love. It became my savior. It became the great enabler I was looking for. It allowed me to drink more, longer, and stronger. I became dependent upon the combination of drinking and cocaine. It was always about the alcohol, and cocaine gave me the freedom to drink as much as I wanted. I was looking for anything that helped me dull the pain and escape the disorder in my life. I went to great lengths to maintain a chemically induced state of euphoria.
Drinking that way led me straight into more victimization. One day, after discovering for the seventh time in three years that another person I loved was dead, I tried the drug that brought me directly to my knees. I was addicted to crack cocaine before I exhaled my first hit. It engulfed me in a state of nothingness that I demanded at the time. Daily I hit the pipe. I lost many jobs, friends, relationships. I was totally unstable and my life was completely unmanageable.
I drank to avoid dealing with my feelings. Emotions were a foreign concept to me. I quelled them, squashed them, and attempted to create a fantasy world where all things were happy. Except that it wasn’t real. I don’t think I ever experienced a real emotion. It’s not that I didn’t feel—emotions would rise in me like a great tide, building and building, with waves of sadness or anger crashing over me—but I would immediately detach. Go somewhere safe in my mind. Or hit a pipe. Or take a drink. Anything to escape and create a state of flat affect that became synonymous with my day.
I was an escape artist.
But I never got away.
Everywhere I went, I was still there.
My emotions were all stuffed inside me, hidden just beneath the surface, encased in darkness like a box of valentine chocolates. Some were darker than others. All were contained and appeared pretty and normal on the outside, but when people tried to scratch beneath the surface, they would find a sticky mess. It became harder and harder to keep my feelings hidden beneath the protective glaze I gave them with my daily dose of whatever substance was most convenient.
Eventually it became impossible to tame the rising surge of shame, guilt, remorse, horror, self-loathing, denial, defeat, despair, and hell I was living in for the ten years I used and abused. All those avoided emotions came to an abrupt head one night after a weekend bender. They wanted out like caged animals and began seeping through every pore of my being. No matter how much I drank, how many hits I took off the pipe—they wouldn’t stop coming out. Tears spilled uncontrollably down my face. Anger reddened my cheeks and ears. I sat with a pretty pink razor with daisies on it, slicing and dicing my own wrists apart. Intent upon ending it all, I turned my mattress into what looked like a blood-soaked maxi pad.
The feelings were released and exposed to light. When I woke up the next day in a hospital bed, I was amazed and changed. I had an awakening. It wasn’t a moment of clarity, but undeniably an awakening, for it lasted well over a moment. I began hearing what people said around me. I became willing to listen. Words like “alcoholic” and “drug addict” passed my lips with ease. I just knew I was. I was addicted. I was alive. I had a chance. I had hope.
The beauty of recovery was that it was mine and mine alone. I charted my path as it suited me.
“OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us… give us…” Blood was dripping over my fingers that were clutched tightly around a rosary—the rosary that
