The woman last night was about 50, very attractive and well spoken. She had been a meth user and also alcoholic for some 22 years. She had called the police after her also using husband tried to beat her up one more time. It wasn't the first time police came to her door for the same problem. You see when you stay awake for days on end your mind begins to see things that are not there. Crystal Meth users call the visions "shadow people". They imagine the shadow people are watching them. The shadow people are the FBI or the police or perhaps even the CIA. Paranoia runs deep in the disease of Meth abusers. So the husband beat up the pretty girl. The cops told the girl that she needed to make some changes in her own life. The police were her friend and told her that Child Protective Services would take her 2 and 4 year old from her if she didn't do something right away. The police just don't get enough credit for saving lives but they most certainly saved her life that night.
Pretty woman was now homeless. She went to a shelter for battered women. They took her in with the understanding she could stay three nights and that she had to stay sober the whole time. Three days may not sound like much time to the average person but to a crystal user/alcoholic, three days is an eternity. Shaking and coming out of her skin they told her she would have to go to meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. Today we know only about ten percent of those who go to AA for any reason stay sober. So indeed it was a miracle when she got a sponsor and started to work the 12 steps. She didn't have a job so she attended many meetings and stayed sober. The personality change sufficient to stay sober occurred and days and months of sobriety started to build.
She divorced the man. She started to work for the first time in years. Her kids grew to trust her again. Then she had to make amends to the one who beat her. She called him and as often happens in Alcoholics Anonymous things started to happen. She had not seen or heard from him in three years and when she called she found out that he had gotten sober right after that same night she got sober. His path was some what different in that he had been placed in jail and then offered a stay at a ranch that specialized in helping men to recover from the seemingly hopeless state of mind and body that is alcoholism. When she called he too had three years of sobriety and he made his amends to her face to face. They found that they still loved each other. They got remarried. Today they share a home of love and respect. They work hard to help their teenagers get through life and school without depending on drugs or alcohol to fix them or change the way they feel. Today they each have nine years in recovery. Today is another miracle in recovery for one family.
