I came here late October, 1978. I went to treatment here, it was through Epply CDU, it was through Methodist Hospital, it was an inpatient treatment center. They screened me and they felt like I needed to go to a half-way house and so I came here. I came out of inpatient treatment to this facility. I was on inpatient for 35 days.

Mostly inpatient treatment programs here in Nebraska are gone. Insurance is probably the biggest impact. At the time, recovery was so, they would say 1 in 36 with continued sobriety. Insurance companies looked at that and didn’t want to spend the money so they went to outpatient treatment. That’s my opinion. Outpatient is much cheaper and people tend to stay in their community and they can be with their families, you know, and things like that.

Q: How did you get into Epply originally?

A friend of mine who was in Al-Anon whom I had known for probably about 40 years, made the statement to me that she never knew me to be without a drug. And I had had a little run in with the police and there was kind of a choice- go to jail or go to treatment. And I had been to jail and I didn’t really like it, aha, so I figured go to treatment.

Q: What was the run-in with the criminal justice system for?

It was for public intoxication. They would de-classify it as public intoxication. The apartment complex I lived at, I guess I got too loud… and kind of ripped some doors off…

Q: What was your drug of choice?

Alcohol and marijuana. Although I have shot heroin, speed. Probably alcohol, marijuana and speed are what I used most. Smoked some opium- you know, whatever kind of drug I could get my hands on, that’s what I would use. I was a daily drinker, daily smoker. I don’t think I had taken a sober breath for five years. It was daily consumption. But I kind of functioned because I had a job. I was upholstering furniture. I worked for a custom little family shop. Did a lot of drinking while I was there.

Q: Did the family know?

The father, he was probably an alcoholic. And the son used speed and alcohol.

Q: How do you think your addiction arose?

I think family history. There was always alcohol around and it was okay for us to drink. Then, I think it got worse when my mother died in 1973. And I just literally ended up on the streets. I went through a 90 day program. I went out shortly after that to Hastings Regional Center. This was like early in 1979. I became a ward of the state and was court ordered to anabuse. That was the big thing at the time. I drank on anabuse, nearly died… And after that my life just kind of fell apart. I ended up living in a car… Let’s see, I was about 27 I think.

After living in a car for a while, the director here, we became friends and I asked her to sponsor me. And she said, “If you want what I have, do what I did.” She said to go to 90 meetings in 90 days. Being compulsive, I went to seven meetings a week for about a year and a half. Finally told me to go have fun. So I took a day off. Sometimes I would go to two meetings a day. But I was determined to get sober, because I wanted something better than I had.

Q: Are you from Omaha?

Yes. I was born here. I spent about the first five years of my life in a little town called Scribner. About 80 miles northwest of here.

Q: And how old were you when you first started drinking?

Nine.