The Drunk Who Came in From the Cold

Sixty days into my sobriety, around 10 p.m., during a cold 20-below-zero dark night in 2009, my old self-will deceived me into leaving a treatment facility in Wasilla, Alaska. Located on a ranch, the facility was, at that time in my life, the only hope and salvation from a lifetime of substance abuse. After intense objections from staff counselors, clients, my biological son and my AA sponsor, I remained stubborn and determined to prove everything was under control when realistically my way of thinking was way out of control.