Welcome to pathways to recovery Page 1

 "Living with bipolar disorder does not diminish or invalidate his dreams and his creative ideas, no matter how big or unobtainable they may feel to some.  That is part of his genius and as we have all witnessed, many of his big dreams have come true." 

 “Any time I felt God was leading me to do something, it was as if this little voice said, ‘Look, if you try this, they’re all going to find out.   Satan convinced me to keep quiet and not try bigger things. It worked. I was an adult before I admitted having dyslexia.” 

 "I struggled with anxiety attacks since I was 13 and they would manifest through really paralyzing, lower abdominal cramping [and] stomach aches. I would be hiding in [my high school] bathroom just literally praying to God for help and that was really my only source of hope or peace or strength,"  

 "I have great faith. If it gets to a point where I think I can’t quite handle it, I take it straight to God." There is no better way to take care of yourself than to turn to God in your most painful of times. "

 "You need to get out of bed every day and say that life is good. That's what I did, although at times it was very difficult for me."  

 “One of the most important things that I know helped me with the multiple times that I had gone through my own episodes of depression was making sure that I was talking to people.  We as men have a tendency to hold all that in which is not healthy; it’s not good. Depression doesn’t discriminate, so if my past can help, then I’m happy to share.” 

" I grew up in a Christian home but some of my neighbors, relatives even lived their life in the darkness of the world consumed with drugs, alcohol and infidelities." 

 “When you do drugs — a substance like cocaine, for instance — it… makes you feel this euphoria or this pleasure and this high. That's a natural way to get high or feel pleasure or a euphoria like that. There's a supernatural way that you can feel that euphoria and that high and that pleasure, and that comes from the spirit.” 

 “In the privacy of my room, I begged for help. I had no notion who I thought I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether … and, getting down on my knees, I surrendered. Within a few days I realized that … I had found a place to turn to, a place I’d always known was there but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. From that day until this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for help, and at night, to express gratitude for my life and, most of all, for my sobriety."

 "I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the 80s. I spent many, many a night screaming at God to please take this away from me, I'll never do it again because I've only got an hour before I have to be at work," he continued.  Faith to me is not about being a boy scout or the center of this or that, that's what redemption is. It's about that knowingness, the wonderful feeling of being alive."  

 “On a typical day, I’d wake up and feel terrible because I hadn’t done any. You’re either trying to get it, doing it, or worrying about when you’re going to get it next. You don’t even realize that it’s taken over so quickly.”  

 “I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills!  “I need to stop. Something’s got to stop. And if it’s the alcohol that’s doing this, and making things worse, then I quit.”   “I have been taken to my knees in prayer time and again over these last days. I am listening to the testimonies crying out. I am hearing God’s anointed power in the hearts that are steadfast."