Harmony Recovery has been providing addiction healthcare services in Estes Park since 1969. We would like to offer these stories from our alumni to show the humanity, strength, and perseverance of those working to recover from addiction. Often stigmatized and misunderstood by society, people on their path to recovery are managing a chronic illness which is a unique journey for each individual. Here is one such story. – Shane Hudson, CEO, Harmony Recovery
I came from a simple home with a very caring and supportive mother and father. There were six of us kids living in a modest home in Southwest Denver. I had two older brothers and three sisters. Sports were a huge part of our lives. Both of my older brothers played professionally, one for the Yankees and one for the Brewers. I attended Mullen High School where I excelled at a high level in both sports and academics. I was offered multiple scholarships to a variety of high-level college baseball programs. Ultimately, I ended up attending UNC in Greeley on a full-ride baseball scholarship. Things were looking up for me with the potential of going professional in baseball.
Once I left home and moved into my dorm at college, it was like a caged animal was released in me, and the drinking and partying began. I drank continuously, day after day, and rarely stopped. Amazingly, I was still able to pitch at a high level for two years, but the drinking continued. I had a problem. My girlfriend at the time became pregnant, and I quit school after completing two years. I was now married, and we had a baby girl. The drinking continued, and a couple of DUI’s landed on my record. My wife gave me an ultimatum: either stop drinking or she was leaving me and taking our daughter with her.
I quit drinking and was sober for quite a long time, roughly 20 to 25 years. After 30 years of marriage, our relationship was crumbling and divorce was on the horizon. I chose to start drinking again, and as they say, alcohol addiction only gets worse. Mine certainly did. This led to five additional DUI’s within two years (three in one month), which ultimately landed me in jail serving a three-year sentence. I was definitely an alcoholic.
After getting out of jail, I moved in with my daughter, her husband, and four grandchildren, and I began another attempt at sobriety. That quickly changed once I had a couple of knee surgeries and a shoulder surgery, at which time painkillers and opioids entered my life, and a new addiction began. Again, my addictive behavior took over. This cross-addiction to drugs sent me down a dark rabbit hole, eventually leading to fentanyl and meth. Once my daughter discovered this, I was asked to leave her home, which led to me living in my truck and ultimately living on the streets for roughly four years.
Being on the streets in my early 60s was very difficult. It was a struggle trying to support my addiction, battle the cold, avoid being robbed at knife and gunpoint, and even ward off an attempted rape. It became a daily struggle simply to survive. I began accepting the fact that I would either not wake up or be killed, and I was strangely at peace with that because all that mattered were the drugs.
One day, an old high school teammate found me on the streets and told me that a group of former teammates had raised money for me to attend Harmony in Estes Park. I had turned him down a handful of times before, but one day I finally said, “Okay, I will go.”
I arrived at Harmony in late August of 2023. Prior to that, I had tried numerous rehab facilities, but all had failed for various reasons. The day I was admitted, I was severely undernourished, anemic, and the withdrawal symptoms were absolutely awful. Once I regained my strength, I gave the program a very earnest effort, to pull myself out of this addiction. Harmony was different from previous treatment facilities—they helped me understand the traumas I had gone through and how to deal with them. The connection to other addicts was helpful as well. I met great people, and the staff were phenomenal. I wasn’t going to be cured in 30 days, but it gave me a strong starting path to continue my sobriety. With help from the staff at Harmony, I was able to go directly to a sober-living environment and continue additional therapy.
Best of all, I met my current wife at Harmony, who is also in recovery from alcoholism. We are very happy and continue to be committed to one another and to our sobriety. The beauty of our marriage is that we get to talk about sobriety and recovery daily, which helps us both stay sober.
– Mike D.