We have dedicated this entire page to our Alumni. We wish you continued success on your path of recovery. We are here for continued support and encouragement.


Upcoming Events

Suggestions

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Mon. Jan 30th 2012
12:00pm

We would love to hear from you. Please send your suggestions for the Alumni page to Ashley Carter, marketing specialist and alumni relations coordinator. Her email is Ashley.Carter@centrahealth.com. Thank you!



Stories of Recovery

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Sun. Jun 29th
12:00pm

Pathways would like to hear your stories and add them to the alumni section of the website. We want to celebrate your recovery, share your story with other alumni and offer encouragement to those seeking treatment. Please email your story to Ashley Carter at ashley.carter@centrahealth.com Criteria: At least one year sober, 1,000 words or less, Must be anonymous, First name only, Leave out identifiers Pathways reserves the right not to publish.



Weekly Alumni Panel

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Wed. Jan 9th
12:20am

Anyone who has attended or finished the Pathways Program is invited to come and share their experience, strength and hope with current patients every Wednesday at 6:30. Please call Pathways at (434) 947-4455 and ask to speak to Robert for more information.



Pathways Newsletter

 Along the Path - June 2003

 Along the Path - October 2003

 Along the Path - May 2004

 Along the Path - November 2004

 Along the Path - May 2005

 Along the Path - November 2007



Suggestions and Stories of Recovery

Pathways would like to hear your stories and add them to the alumni section of the website. We want to celebrate your recovery, share your story with other alumni and offer encouragement to those seeking treatment. Please email your story to Ashley Carter at ashley.carter@centrahealth.com Criteria: At least one year sober, 1,000 words or less, Must be anonymous, First name only, Leave out identifiers Pathways reserves the right not to publish.

Please read our first Story of Recovery below.

"I’m grateful to be a member of AA." That is how I introduce myself at meetings, not as an alcoholic but as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I don’t like the word alcoholic. It conjures up negative images in my mind and after years of feeling worthless and unlovable, I’m ready to feel positive about myself. I’ve learned that for me it is important to identify with the solution instead of the problem. Alcoholism is my problem, AA is my solution.
I vaguely realized this 10 years ago when I set out into the real world at the age of 43 after completing a 28 day treatment program at Pathways. I was vague about most things back then. My nerves were shot and my brain was operating in slow motion. Fortunately, I was able to remember a few of the recommendations I had received at Pathways and at the AA meetings we attended in the Lynchburg area: Don’t drink, read the Big Book, do 90 meetings in 90 days and get a sponsor.
Within the first few weeks of daily meetings, I met a woman who had what I wanted. She was 14 years sober and had a quiet serenity about her. I had listened to her share so I knew that she had drunk through many years of her marriage, but somehow she was still married to the same man and actually seemed happy about it. My marriage was a train wreck and I couldn’t imagine how to begin repairing the damage. But I wanted to try and who better to learn from than someone who had been through it herself. I nervously asked her to be my sponsor and was speechless when she said, "I’d be honored to sponsor you. Call me at least one a week, go to lots of meetings and make some friends in the fellowship."
I continued to be speechless for some time after that. It was so hard to make conversation without the familiar cup of liquid courage I had relied upon for so many years.
But I did what my sponsor told me. Although I wasn’t much of a conversationalist people actually seemed to care about me and soon I was going to the meeting after the meeting and beginning to discover that what my sponsor had said was true, "Keep coming back and it gets better."
I didn’t notice until later that nobody was saying it would get better right away. The first couple of years were quite difficult. I over-ate, over-shopped and over-caffeinated myself unmercifully. I had high cholesterol, insomnia, heart problems and nerve damage - all from years of drinking. Everything but the insomnia has corrected itself through healthy living! Imagine that! I have had two major bouts of clinical depression but with the help of my doctor, a therapist and the right medication my symptoms seldom bother me.
The first Three Steps were a challenge for me. During my drinking days, I had viewed religion as a weakness, a crutch people used to get through hard times. Isn’t it odd that I never saw my drinking that way? Fortunately the Big Book didn’t say I had to join an organized faith or believe in any one else’s idea of a Higher Power. That meant that I was free to imagine a loving and caring God as I understood him. After much thought, I came to believe that any concept of God I had would be limited by the human nature of my own mind, experience and imagination. Today it is enough for me to accept and be grateful for the marvelous Mystery of the Force that gives and sustains life and sobriety.
With my sponsor’s guidance I began the 4th and 5th Steps (along with the 6th, 7th, and 8th) when I was about six months sober. I began to make my 9th Step amends then, but it was several months before I was humble enough to actually contact everyone on my list, and of course, being human, my moral inventory and amends-making continues on a daily basis with the 10th Step. For the 11th Step, I practice mindfulness meditation, and I pray as often as I can remember. And finally I began to sponsor my first newcomer (12th Step) when I was about 2 years sober. This sounds so cut and dry, but I have found that I’m never really done with the Steps. They are not just a part of my life they are my way of life.
Three years ago, my mother and one of my sisters died, not undue to alcohol and drugs. Only a few of the remaining members of my family will admit that though. (Denial is just amazing, isn’t it?) I have found relationships with my birth family to be the most emotionally troubling experience in my sobriety. But with the help of an experienced therapist and my fellow AA’s I have been able to travel the dangerous terrain of the alcoholic family without sacrificing my own sanity and sobriety.
I continue to attend 2-3 meetings a week. I have a home group and we enjoy lunch together afterwards. I participate in a book study and then I catch an open discussion meeting in or out of town once a week. I have served as treasurer, secretary, literature coordinator, coffeemaker and greeter and I like to read the first 164 pages of the Big Book every year around my sobriety date.
My marriage, the train wreck, is happily back on track although we do have an occasional breakdown or simply run out of steam. Fortunately for me, my husband attended Al Anon for the first full year and we now share our spiritual reading, a daily meditation and a passion for motorcycling. (Last year we rode for two weeks in California and this summer we rode to Maine.)
For me, it takes a village to stay sober. Because of my husband’s work, I have moved from one state to another five times since leaving Pathways. That’s a lot of church basements to locate and many new sponsors and sponsees to meet. But since I stay in touch with many of them, I have friends all over the place! And I know wherever I go, AA is nearby.
So thank you, Pathways. Ten years ago you gave me shelter from the storm of alcoholism and thanks to the God of my understanding and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous I haven’t had a drink since.