Alcohol doesn’t care how much money you have. It doesn’t care how much you’ve accomplished and it certainly doesn’t care about how much you say you want to get better. In order to successfully break free from alcohol addiction, your will has to be stronger than the addiction itself. This is what took me years to learn. I’m a self-made business owner, who made a lot of money just by sheer spite and drive. People like me were not vulnerable to addiction; we were too strong, too smart and too busy for it—this is what I told myself.
My wife tried for years to get me to stop drinking. She had even researched a luxury alcohol rehab in Florida that she had wanted me to go for treatment. Each time I would dismiss the idea as completely unnecessary waste of time and money.
Looking back on everything now I guess I must have been pretty insufferable to my wife and my employees. In addition to the usual withdrawal symptoms, I was upset that I even had to think about this problem. What right did anyone else have to tell me to control my alcohol consumption? I took this resentment and ran with it. I decided that my life belonged to me and nobody else, and if I wanted to drink, there was not a person in the world who was going to stop me.
All that changed pretty quickly after my wife divorced me and I nearly lost my business because of my drinking. I finally admitted to myself that I needed to get professional help and I contacted the luxury rehab in Florida that my wife had found for me.
This luxury alcohol rehab program really saved me, and my business by getting me sober and teaching me how to stay sober. Unfortunately, it was too late for my marriage but I use it as a reminder to help me stay sober everyday of my life.
I have been sober for the past 9 months now.
