My name is Marc, and I have had continuous sobriety since July 22, 1977.

I started getting high when I was 15, and soon dropped out of school.  I quickly moved from marijuana to harder drugs, always looking for a better high.  Pretty soon I was shooting heroin five times a day just to not get sick.  I tried the geographical change- and just ended up getting high in Florida instead of Michigan.  I tried enlisting in the Air Force- and just ended up being discharged within a month.  For a long time I would find someone in the room worse than I was and say, “I’m not as bad as that guy.”

When I was 21 I woke up in a motel room following a binge and had no one worse to compare myself to; I was at rock bottom.

I tried to enter treatment in Detroit but showed up several days late for my intake and was turned away.  In an moment of desperation, I got on a payphone and started calling every rehab center in the yellow pages.  A place in Washtenaw County said to be there the next day, so I hitchhiked there with nothing but a suitcase and withdrawal symptoms.  Soon after arriving I was almost picked up for violating my probation following a possession/sale of heroin arrest.  I was facing serious prison time.  The judge decided to let me finish treatment and to appear 90 days later.  I haven’t used drugs or alcohol since.  Six of us from that cohort are still in recovery and all celebrating 40 years of sobriety this year- a true miracle.

I got plugged in with the recovering community.  I cofounded a 12-step young people’s conference that still exists today.  I built a life worth living.  A lot has happened in the last 40 years: I started a business, get married and divorced then remarried, was a single parent, changed careers.  A role in the recovering community and a relationship with a higher power have been the constants that have allowed me to stay sober through it all.

Today I have a loving wife, two great sons (one of whom is also in recovery), a successful real estate career, and wonderful friendships.  It has all been with the help of a higher power, one day at a time.