I, Addict

A personal tale of dependency and reconciliation.

On January 2, 2009, I entered a detox clinic of my own free well. I left behind a trail of self-destruction and an endless succession of dark days full of pain and helplessness.

This is the true story, in first person, of how, with help, I got over my addiction to alcohol and cocaine and managed to take back my life.

I am writing this book for my friends (some of them sadly no longer with us) and many people I don’t know but with whom I share a devastating illness that shatters lives every day.

I don’t have a Gandhi complex, I’m not trying to rival Mother Theresa, I don’t have the least intention of people comparing me to Paolo Coelho, and of course I’m no smarter than anyone else, but I hope that, with luck, with humility, these pages can become a book that will help addicts and those who aren’t addicts to understand there is a way out and that internal and external wounds can be healed.

For the rest—those lucky enough not to fall into the abyss of addiction—maybe this will help explain it from the inside, destigmatizing a hidden taboo that’s talked about in whispers.

Whoever you are, I invite you to accompany me on this trip that was my life—sometimes shadowy, sometimes shameless, terrifying, amusing, with a more than happy end because you wind up with me, twelve years later, writing these lines today.