Introducing: Tommy Huggins
The saying goes: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Unfortunately for drug and alcohol addicts, a relapse can and does kill. But when it doesn’t, it can make them stronger.
The saying goes: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Unfortunately for drug and alcohol addicts, a relapse can and does kill. But when it doesn’t, it can make them stronger.
Tommy and his son, lives restored
Tommy was an only child who, by his own account, had a really good childhood, with supportive parents
“I was a pretty good kid.” He liked working on computers, and he came out of high school with a goal of joining the Homeland Security Department combating cyber-terrorism. But he ended up dropping out in his first year of college. The reason: “Weed and chicks.” It didn’t make him change his ways. Cocaine and pills joined the mix. With addiction, Tommy noted, a person’s morals and values get thrown out the window. He recalled crawling across his parents’ living room floor to get to his mother’s purse. He would take her debit card to an ATM for some cash.
“That’s where addiction took me.”
However, Tommy made it to Dynamic Life and his life completely turned around, so much so that after a year of sobriety he became an assistant manager of the facility.
"Dynamic Life was different-a community where people actually cared about you getting well."
He also entered into a personal relationship with God – something he hadn’t found growing up in church. “Being able to talk to God as a friend and not a disobedient child.” Tommy felt that his journey had given him some power tools and a power source – God – that could allow him to succeed even after relapsing. “It was a hopeful broken, not a hopeless broken.”
He views the future with new goals: staying sober; seeing his four-year-old son grow up; going back to school for a degree in counseling. The message of recovery, Tommy said, is that with hope, faith, courage and perseverance, “It can get better.”
“I was a pretty good kid.” He liked working on computers, and he came out of high school with a goal of joining the Homeland Security Department combating cyber-terrorism. But he ended up dropping out in his first year of college. The reason: “Weed and chicks.” It didn’t make him change his ways. Cocaine and pills joined the mix. With addiction, Tommy noted, a person’s morals and values get thrown out the window. He recalled crawling across his parents’ living room floor to get to his mother’s purse. He would take her debit card to an ATM for some cash.
“That’s where addiction took me.”
However, Tommy made it to Dynamic Life and his life completely turned around, so much so that after a year of sobriety he became an assistant manager of the facility.
"Dynamic Life was different-a community where people actually cared about you getting well."
He also entered into a personal relationship with God – something he hadn’t found growing up in church. “Being able to talk to God as a friend and not a disobedient child.” Tommy felt that his journey had given him some power tools and a power source – God – that could allow him to succeed even after relapsing. “It was a hopeful broken, not a hopeless broken.”
He views the future with new goals: staying sober; seeing his four-year-old son grow up; going back to school for a degree in counseling. The message of recovery, Tommy said, is that with hope, faith, courage and perseverance, “It can get better.”