David Mattingly

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   My life in long-term recovery is more rewarding and purpose-filled and happy than I could have ever imagined. But the road to get here was rough! Trouble began for me in a dysfunctional home, where drug and alcohol use was prevalent. I began using at an early age. Failure after personal failure matched my intensifying drug and alcohol abuse step for step. As a young adult, this lifestyle took me all the way to bottom…and I was locked up. Thankfully the court-system ordered me to a long-term in-patient treatment center. Here I learned that I actually had a disease. The name of this disease is Alcoholism, also called Addiction. I was treated for this disease and learned to cope with it through the 12-steps of Recovery. 

   Today I mentor others in early Recovery and have founded several local Recovery-living centers. I am now a Peer Support Specialist and volunteer much of my time to battle drug addiction in my community. My entire life is rich with awesome people who were once in the same terrible condition as me, and they have also recovered and healed.