Recovery has a voice. We know, because we hear it every day. It’s a voice of overcoming, of endurance, and of triumph. It’s a voice of strength, honesty, hope, and power. Meet Bret Miller and hear his voice of recovery. Donate today to Healing Transitions' National Recovery Month and give more people a voice: https://healing-transitions.org/NRM/
If you would state your name and, um, your age. My name is Brett Miller and I'm 47 years old. All right. And your sobriety date? June 14th, 22. Oh, no. Strong. What's your sobriety date? June 14th, 21, June 14th, 21. All right. Uh, first question for you is gonna be describe your life before recovery. It's been a lot of bouncing around, you know, a lot of not completing things.
Um, yeah, definitely starting things and not completing them. Um, just always prepared for, for the let down, you know? Um, I just always thought negative because I knew things weren't gonna work out, you know?
Um, when did you hit rock bottom and what did rock bottom look. Well, I mean, I don't know if I've hit bottom because every time I go out, it just gets a little worse. Um, I mean, I guess for me, one of the big things was, uh, being discharged from the service, you know, that was an insult to me. And, uh, they kept giving me ample time to, uh, to get right.
And I just couldn't do it. I mean, they were even telling me the date. That I needed to do things on and I just couldn't stay. I couldn't stay clean a couple days. Okay. What did rock bottom look like for you? Um, homeless, you know, there was a time I was walking around in Daytona beach. Totally homeless.
Yeah. Um, tell us about your life now in active recovery. So my life now in active recovery looks like keeping it in touch, uh, with, with, you know, my support group every day. Um, I'm lucky enough to work, uh, at healing transitions, which is not my recovery, but it keeps me in the middle. You know, it keeps me around, uh, people that are just coming in and every day there's not a day that goes by that.
I don't remember. Um, Where these go, what these guys are going through. You know, I, I can't walk through the halls, um, without thinking what they're thinking, because I've been there.
Um, what has recovery given you? Well, I mean, recovery has, um, it's brought my kids back into my life. Um, you know, I, I get to, I get to speak with them. I get to call them, they call me. Um, you know, I have them for a period of time during, during the summer. Uh, usually we meet up for like a week or two and, um, you know, I'm reliable today.
I show up for work on time. Nobody ever has to wonder where I am. Um, I'm that way with my personal life too. If I say I'm gonna be somewhere I'm there. And, uh, you know, when I do, when I do the right things, good things happen and so much has happened. Um, over this last year and a half, uh, so many good things have happened, even though I've gone through so many bad things.
I mean, I went through a divorce this year and I hung on, um, I've done some moving around this year. Uh, you know, I started working like everything came at one time and, um, I had a great group to help me through. And, uh, what does recovery mean to you? Well recovery to me,
that's a great question. You know, things changed for me when, when I, I was always, I always thought recovery was gonna turn me into this like good person where all this bad stuff was gonna stop happening. And like, that's what, that's what my goal was. Right. But when I realized I'm not a bad person trying to get good, I'm a sick person trying to get.
Everything changed for me.
All right. So what does recovery mean to you? Well, today, what recovery means to me is when I say I'm gonna be somewhere I'm there, people rely on me today. Um, you know, people I'm approachable, um, Probably the biggest thing is, is it reunited me with my boys? So I'm, I'm in contact with them frequently. And I spend time with them every year, whether it's a week or two something I hadn't done.
Um, you know, I'm reliable for my job. I don't call in. I'm not worried about getting fired. I'm not worried about that. I stole something, you know, I just realize when I do the right thing, good things happen. Okay. And what has recovery given. Well re recovery's given me a peace of mind and, and it's changed my way of thinking, you know, um, you know, there was a time where I just thought recovery was gonna turn me into this good person, stop me from going to jail and doing all the bad things.
When I realized that I wasn't a bad person trying to get good. I was a sick person trying to get well, everything changed for me. Well, thank you very much for your time. Thank you