I’m a complete type "A" overachiever. I’ve run marathons and competed in triathlons for many years. I am a professional artist, and incidentally, I’m a professional businessman who is a founding partner in a commercial real estate company. If I want to make a million dollars, I make a million dollars. I do it at 150 miles an hour. I’m in control of myself and I thought I could handle anything. I’m very goal oriented and I’ve never said no to anything in my life. In retrospect, I realize that, for the first time, there is something I have to say no to—I can’t do drugs.

My previous drug history consisted of alcohol since I was 15, and recreational use of pot and cocaine and excstacy. At age 43, I took my first hit of crystal methamphetamine for fun at a party, and instantly knew that I was going to have a hard time NOT doing it again and again. Each time, I swore to myself that that time would be the last time for me. When I lost a close friend in a car accident, I used his death as a crutch to use meth and to get over a bad circumstance. I finally gave in to my cravings, and I was hooked on meth for 30 months straight. At first, I would use on the weekends and then I’d try to leave it alone on the weekdays. That worked for me until the weekends and weekdays became the same to me--going fast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I was the worst kind of addict because I always had money and I made sure I never ran out.

At the same time that my addiction took hold of me, I was building my dream house--something that I had worked very hard to make happen. My elderly father, during this period, began his road to death. I didn’t want to see my father in a helpless state, so meth was a great way for me to avoid that pain. It allowed me to make up any excuse to look away and ignore the issues, both business and personal, and keep on partying.

I’m super organized and I could hide my addiction very well. I thought I could say what people needed to hear and be the things I needed to be. The truth was that I was high all the time, only I was showered with a shirt and tie and propped up. I was talented at living the lie, and I could do my life and drugs very well, or so I thought. The reality was that I was only able to successfully juggle the two for a very short time. I tried to stop several times—initially for a week, then a couple of days. I’d eventually throw in the towel and would start partying again. I couldn’t handle the withdrawal, depression and anxiety, so I just kept using 24/7, only getting an occasional four to five hours of sleep whenever my body couldn’t handle staying awake. I remember a time when I slept through four hours of an alarm clock shrieking at me about a meeting I had missed.

When my father, who had been very ill, passed away, I wrecked my new car on the way to the funeral—and yes, I was high. Yet, that still wasn’t enough to make me stop hitting the pipe. I needed help, and I wanted help. I just couldn’t put the pipe down. I was on a merry-go-round I couldn’t get off.

Then came the intervention. Eight people, including my sister and brother, were there. Everything that was being presented to me was conventional rehab, and I wasn’t about to commit to that. One of my intervention buddies mentioned that he heard about a new treatment program for meth addiction called the PROMETA program. I looked up the Website and it looked like a possible answer for me.

I was using all the way up to 15 minutes before my first scheduled PROMETA program medical treatment. I was higher than a kite. Five minutes away from the treatment center I called my buddy and pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store. I had a trash bag full of all my drug paraphernalia. While I was on the phone, I opened up the dumpster and threw the bag in with glass flying everywhere and slammed the dumpster shut. I was ready to get my life back, and there was no turning back for me.

I had never been to rehab, and I’d never had counseling, so the PROMETA program was my first and only treatment. I started my medical component of the PROMETA program on a Friday, and completed the treatment over the weekend. I slept 26 hours straight after my first day of treatment. When the week began, I was back to the office on Monday, and immediately began attending my group counseling twice a week.

After the PROMETA program, I have, and can now enjoy, my dream house and my golden retrievers. My commercial real estate business is bouncing back, and I’m reconnecting with my family and friends. I’m an accomplished artist with several successful shows to my credit, but I didn’t paint once while I was using. Even when people requested my art, I simply couldn’t produce. I’m back to exercising and running regularly. I’ve been able to reflect and reposition my life without the cravings or depression that plagued me previously. These experiences are the good things in life, and drugs had taken all that away from me.

With the PROMETA program, I am now able to work on the psychological side of how and why I turned to drugs in the first place. I am the 14th person in the state of Arizona to get this treatment and it is one letter short of a miracle, and I don’t use that word freely. If the PROMETA program can help someone like me with a no good, dirty drug addiction, who is a partner in a successful company, with the world at his fingertips, and who’s on the verge of losing it all, back into a productive citizen, then the cost of the program was pennies in exchange for getting my life back.

Steve