The following is the final installment of the four-part “Journeys in Recovery” series to honor the memory of and in the z’chus of the neshamah of HaRav Avraham Yehoshua Heshel ben HaRav Yaakov Yisroel, zt’l—Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski. This story is presented anonymously. It is published in the hope that it serves to expand awareness around the issues of addiction in our community, as well as the hope of recovery. The stories in this series were collected and edited by Menachem Poznanski, LCSW, director of The Living Room, a division of Our Place in NY, Inc. Participants filled out surveys about their lives, and their responses were adapted to create this narrative. Keep in mind that to protect anonymity, ancillary facts were changed, but all the details of stories are true events in the lives of our community members. Menachem wrote the section titled “Lessons from Recovery” to help illuminate what we all might learn from these spiritual messages.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Hi, my name is Zev and I am an addict. Today I am clean and sober for three years. Over that time I have addressed issues related to substance abuse, drinking, and gambling, but I have also experienced a complete transformation of my life. I am simply not the person I was back then. Misery has transformed to happiness, purposelessness to the meaning of serving others, and hopelessness to a faithful joy for life. The end of my road in active addiction was really scary and sad. When I showed up to my first recovery meeting I was skeptical that I could find help there, but, at the same time, desperate for help. As skeptical as I was, I was equally wishing that this might be it. While sitting in that first meeting, I felt a tremendous identification with those random strangers around me. I felt like the people there understood what I was feeling. They understood in a way my therapist did not. It was clear that they had been where I was and had found a way out.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                To read more go to: http://www.5tjt.com/journeys-in-recovery/