By Melanie Slone
“I had no way of getting out of the problems that I was in,” says Brian D, an alcoholic in recovery. “I had to lose everything…my job, my freedom, my family. I drove away my parents, my wife. My kids didn’t want to know anything about me.”
Brian is now in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). “I’ve been able to change my life through these meetings,” he tells North County Informador.
“Alcoholism is a disease,” Brian explains. “It rips everything away from you… It’s very difficult for an alcoholic or an addict to stop consuming.”
He started drinking at a young age. “It’s kind of the norm, especially in the Hispanic community,” he says. “As the years progressed, my drinking kept getting worse and worse…It started taking over my life.”
Living in his car in Oceanside, Brian called a suicide hotline number he heard advertised. “I was of the mindset that my life was completely done for,” he says.
Hope and Recovery
The counselor directed Brian, who had “hit rock bottom,” to AA. “Through AA, something magical started happening when I started talking to somebody who understood me and what I was going through. Because they had also gone through the same thing,” he tells us.
He says he feels more at home at the Spanish groups. “Even though I speak perfect English, I’m bilingual, it’s the culture…it’s just a whole other vibe.”
Brian has been sober for two years, 10 months. He was able to repair things with his wife and is rebuilding a relationship with his children and parents. “That’s one of the things that I’m always going to be grateful for—that I was able to recover my family,” he says.
For AA, “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or where you are in life…The only requirement is that you want to stop drinking,” he says.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) · Alcohólicos Anónimos
400+ English-speaking groups, and 18 Spanish-speaking groups in North County · Más de 400 grupos en inglés y 18 en español en el norte del condado
Only requirement is to want to stop drinking · Único requisito es querer dejar de beber
No cost · No tiene costo
Each group is autonomous; members decide when to meet, from several times a day or once a day to once a week · Cada grupo es autónomo; miembros deciden cuándo reunirse, entre varias veces o una vez al día hasta una vez a la semana
No personal information is shared · No se comparten los datos personales
Hotline in Spanish · Línea de ayuda en español: 760-758-6905
Grupos en español: https://distrito18sdaa.org/grupos/
English: https://ncsandiegoaa.org/
