“Addiction comes when you’re not seeing it and it’ll run you down like a monster,” Darryll says.
He should know. He had a wonderful family, a lucrative job, and a lovely home, but partying with his co-workers set him in the path of that monster. “We thought we were just having fun, but it went to another level for me,” Darryll says. “It started out slow, but my drinking and drug use progressed.”
Eventually, his addiction took over his life. “I lost my family, my job, everything,” he says. “My life was shattered. I finally hit rock bottom.”
It was then Darryll decided to come to Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission and enter our House of Hope Recovery Program. “It was so nice to be around people that understood,” Darryll says.
Darryll’s faith had waned in recent years, but through the program’s Bible studies and spiritual mentoring, he reestablished his relationship with the Lord. “I’d given up,” he says. “Hope of the Valley changed my way of thinking and brought me back to Him.”
Darryll has also attended relapse prevention classes, which have helped him stay clean and sober for more than a year. “A psychiatrist comes in and speaks about triggers in our minds that make us slip and fall,” he says. “Now I don’t have a thought about doing anything negative.”
Darryll plans to graduate from the program and go back to work as an aircraft mechanic. “When I came here, I didn’t care about working,” he says. “Now I want to go back. Hope of the Valley gave me a new outlook.”
Darryll credits the Mission with changing the course of his life. “They put their hearts into helping people,” he says. “I’m living proof that they’re making people’s lives better. My whole life is going in a new direction.”
To read the rest of the issue of Sharing Hope, click here.