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    Going up and Coming Down from Drugs and Alcohol
    Going up and Coming Down from Drugs and Alcohol
    Going up and Coming Down from Drugs and Alcohol
    Ebook147 pages1 hour

    Going up and Coming Down from Drugs and Alcohol

    By Kenneth Michael Spalding

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    About this ebook

    The last thing that I remember is feeling dizzy. When I came to I was surrounded by family and friends and I was in a hospital bed. I was drifting in and out of consciousness, I don't know if I was conscious for five minutes or for five hours. From all of the drugs and the alcohol I had been using, a vein in my esophagus had burst, I had almost bled to death and the doctors told my family that I wouldn't make it through the night. I did survive and here is my story and what I believe led me to the point of death.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJul 20, 2009
    ISBN9781440146107
    Going up and Coming Down from Drugs and Alcohol
    Author

    Kenneth Michael Spalding

    I have lived through Drug addiction and Alcoholism. I should have been one of the people that either ended up dead or in a mental institution. I was always told and I always read that once I was addicted to tranquilizers that I would be addicted for life. I always thought that I would spend the rest of my life addicted. to pills. I have learned that this is not true, it may be hard but there is hope. I have lived through the DT's of alcoholism and the withdrawal of pills. I did do some damage to my body along the way, especially to my liver. But I am in better shape now than I have ever been, I live in Miami Florida, I eat healthy and I also go to the gym. Which when I was using I didn't even consider.

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      Book preview

      Going up and Coming Down from Drugs and Alcohol - Kenneth Michael Spalding

      GOING UP AND

      COMING DOWN

      FROM DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

      BY KENNETH

      MICHAEL SPALDING

      iUniverse, Inc.

      New York Bloomington

      Copyright © 2009 by Kenneth Michael Spalding

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      ISBN: 978-1-4401-4611-4 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4401-4610-7 (ebook)

      Printed in the United States of America

      iUniverse rev. date: 7/8/2009

      Contents

      PREFACE

      I

      Stage One Of My Life

      Stage Two Of My Life

      II

      Stage Three Of My Life

      Stage Four Of My Life

      Stage Five Of My Life

      III

      Stage Six Of My Life

      Stage Seven Of My Life

      Stage Eight Of My Life

      Stage Nine Of My Life

      Stage Ten Of My Life

      Stage Eleven Of My Life

      Stage Twelve Of My Life

      Stage Thirteen Of My Life

      Stage Fourteen Of My Life

      Stage Fifteen Of My Life

      Stage Sixteen Of My Life

      Stage Seventeen Of My Life

      Stage Eighteen Of My Life

      Stage Nineteen Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Of My Life

      Stage Twenty One Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Two Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Three Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Four Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Five Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Six Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Seven Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Eight Of My Life

      Stage Twenty Nine Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Of My Life

      Stage Thirty One Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Two Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Three Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Four Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Five Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Six Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Seven Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Eight Of My Life

      Stage Thirty Nine Of My Life

      Stage Forty Of My Life

      Stage Forty One Of My Life

      Stage Forty Two Of My Life

      Stage Forty Three Of My Life

      Stage Forty Four Of My Life

      Stage Forty Five Of My Life

      Stage Forty Six Of My Life

      Stage Forty Seven Of My Life

      Stage Forty Eight Of My Life

      Stage Forty Nine Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Of My Life

      Stage Fifty One Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Two Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Three Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Four Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Five Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Six Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Seven Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Eight Of My Life

      Stage Fifty Nine Of My Life

      IV

      EPILOGUE

      To my friend Martha

      My companion on the search for peace and tranquility …

      PREFACE

      I am writing this book because if I didn’t stop living the way that I was living I would die.

      I had a normal childhood, but I still turned to a life of substance abuse. I don’t know if I turned to using drugs and alcohol because of insecurities from my low self esteem, or because of my homosexuality.

      I went from drinking alcohol, to smoking marijuana, to popping pills, to taking L.S.D, to injecting heroin, and to taking anything that was put in front of me. I spent a lot of years where my main purpose in life was to satisfy my cravings.

      Life is too short. And physical complications do come from abusing drugs and alcohol. I’ve had a vein burst in my esophagus, and I almost bled to death. My stomach was pumped several times, and I suffered horrible DT’s (delirium tremors). I have Hepatitis C, a serious virus of the blood, and I also may need to have a liver transplant.

      Just to have survived the massive amounts of drugs that I would take and the large amounts of alcohol that I would drink is a miracle. I am very lucky to be able to write this book. This is how I remember my story.

      I

      Stage One Of My Life

      My childhood years in Alabama

      My journey started on January 16, 1962 in Haleyville, Alabama. I was born the youngest of four brothers. The second to the oldest brother died of meningitis before I was born. I don’t have any remembrance of him. I really don’t remember much before the age of five. I do have some memories of when I was smaller, but those memories just pop into my sub consciousness at will.

      My family had moved from Bardwell, Kentucky to Haleyville, Alabama prior to my birth, in the late fifties or early sixties. It was a small southern town of about ten thousand people. The stores in the downtown area gave you that quaint feeling of being in a small town, because they rolled up the sidewalks at five and because the stores were like the small stores in Bardwell, but it was a bigger city than what my family was used to. I guess that is the charm that attracted my father there in the first place.

      My mom was from Illinois and my dad was from Kentucky; when they married they settled in the town where my dad was from.

      They were not rich, but my dad did okay at supporting a family. He worked for Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. He knew a little bit about everything, so he had many hobbies. He was the bread winner of the family, while my mom was a stay-at-home mom.

      It was unusual for a woman to have a job at that time. It was the sixties and if she did have a job it was probably selling Tupperware or Avon. But over all we had a good life.

      My family was pretty normal, but we were no Norman Rockwell family. The time of June and Ward Clever with Wally and the Beaver had ended in the fifties. We lived out in the suburbs in a nice house. Everyone had to keep up with the Joneses. To have the status symbol of being middle class seemed to mean that you had to have the newest or the most expensive car on the block, or a boat, or some other kind of expensive item that would be noticed when someone drove by, sitting in your perfectly manicured lawn. All of the houses along the street had a new car parked in the driveway, and we were no exception; ours was dark red.

      We grew up doing the normal things brothers do. Each day we couldn’t wait for the latest episode of Dark Shadows to come on. On the weekends my brothers would let me stay up late, until the TV would sign off at midnight and play the Star Spangled Banner. After the television was turned off we would watch the spot of light on the tube get smaller and smaller until it would disappear. I could be entertained by the simplest things.

      One of our favorite things to do was to go exploring underneath our house. I still remember

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