Greetings! My name is Robert, and I am an alcoholic.

With eight months of sobriety and on my second time around, I can't say it has been easy. I am 48 years old and my drinking career spanned the last thirty years. My drinking started when I was eighteen years old, and I was immediately enthralled by alcohol and what it did for me. I was the party guy, always funny, and out for a good time. I dropped out of college several times due to my lack of effort in class. The last thirty years of my life have been one endless bout of working and drinking and drinking and working. What this has left me is in debt, lonely, overweight, and depressed, with considerable physical deterioration due to my drinking. I entered the rooms in June of 2001. At that time my life really started to turn around. I am working the program and going to meetings. For me, there is no other answer. If I don't work the Steps and depend on my AA friends and my Higher Power, I will drink myself to death. I truly am powerless over alcohol. Every day I start out with the Serenity Prayer and end my day with thanks … for one more day I have escaped the clutches of alcohol. For me, alcohol means death. AA and my Higher Power can lead me to life. Today, I choose life.