From age sixteen to forty-four I struggled with addiction, primarily heroin and alcohol with other drugs as part of my history. I have experienced failed marriages, arrests, a police raid on my home, suicide attempts, hepatitis episodes, drug overdoses, and thirty-eight treatment attempts. This was a twenty-eight year ordeal. I have been clean and sober as of February 6, 1997. I have worked with others as a part of my own recovery process. This has included serving in residential as well as community based programs and assisting inmates in the Tulare county jail system.