This is just some basic information in my story... I will add to it as my memory allows...
michael
I was born Michael Anthony Spudich in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on January 2, 1956... I have four brothers and a sister... My father was a Police officer and my mother a waitress... I guess I should mention my father was an abusive husband and father and a full fledge alcoholic... Three of my brothers were over four years older and heavily influenced me as well as my father as it relates to doing the wrong thing...
I was drinking and doing dope before I was 12... That would have been 1968-1969 and the rest of the sixties and early seventies laid a foundation of my alcoholism and addiction... I was in and out of Juvenile Court and with my father being a cop I was always released being enabling my insane behavior...
In 1973 I got in trouble one to many times and ended up choosing between being reform school or the Army... I joined in 1973 and did two tours getting out in 1979... The military ignited my problems to another level... While in the Army I married and we had our first child... We ended up having four children, two girls and two boys... Today I have a grandson and a granddaughter...
I was in an outpaitent drug abuse program at 12 years old in 1968 attended my first 12-step meeting... They say some get it quickly and some get it slowly, I was the later... I tried to get clean and sober many times over the years for all the wrong reasons but the result was always the same... Short periods of white knuckling it followed by using again...
In 2001 I finally surrendered on March 28, 2001 and was working my program and did so for Two and a half years... My final few months I had allowed myself to stop doing the things that allowed me to stay clean and sober... I ended up going to the bitter end again for the second time... My path once again took me through the darkest corners of the neigborhoods, living on and off the street and being institutionalized in the Psych Wards again...
On January 2, 2005 I surrendered to my addictions, my alcoholism, my mental illness and to God... I have learned many things over the years to get clean and sober... My problem was staying clean and sober... What I failed to do, over and over again was surrendering it all... Surrender is Absolute and each day, I surrender my mind, my heart and my soul to God...
Today I have a plan of recovery I diligently follow, support groups that I use, Therapists that I see, meetings I attend, literature I read, medications that I take and a Lord and Savior that I follow... All of these things I do One Day At A Time...
I came to St. Petersburg Florida in April of 2005 at the age of 49 with all of my possessions in two suitcases... I moved to Jacksonville Florida a few months later and today I'm engaged to be married... I'm on disability and have the upmost respect for life today... Miracles do happen, I should know, I am one... Praise be to God!
