I remember when I was in the third grade. I came home one day to find that my older brother, John, had a two-inch gash in his head. It was about one-quarter-inch deep. My mother, who had wielded a croquet mallet Lizzy Borden fashion, had put it there. She had then poured iodine in the wound. I remember my brother saying that he could feel the iodine burning as it slowly cascaded down between his scalp and his skull. I wasn't surprised, except in the viciousness of this particular incident&

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This is not your typical recovery or Christian "feel good" book. My point of view comes from one who has been on the ¡°front lines¡± all of his life. As an innocent child caught in an abusive family environment, as an alcoholic in early, middle, and late stages, and as a drug and sex addict. I know the progression and self-destruction that inevitably accompanies addiction. I know what it feels like to become willing to do things that I never thought I would ever do to get that next "high" in order to escape from the reality that I had created for myself. There is nothing else that quite compares.

I also know the hope and power of recovery. I know the joy of climbing up and out of darkness and into the light of day after years of terrifying descent. I have successfully recovered and I have helped many others to do so, not as an occupation, but as part of my own recovery. I feel that I am in a unique position to help those who are still lost (and their loved ones), provided that they are willing, and to guide them out of the "living hell" that is addiction. I pray that this book will help spread the message of hope to alcoholics/addicts and their families everywhere.