BUTTE — September is national recovery awareness month and for one Butte man, recovering from severe alcoholism is a big challenge.
"When I got sober, the police in this town got to holster their guns cause when they come after me, they’d come with their guns drawn. That’s how terrible I was—I thought I was a nice guy but I was a drunk and when you’re drunk you do stuff that you won’t normally do when you're sober," said Terry, a member of the Butte Alano club.
It’s been a long road for Terry in his journey to sobriety. He started trying to get sober in 1973, but it wasn’t until 1994 when he joined the Alano club that he took the journey seriously. Ever since, Terry has been sober for 28 years.
"People ask when does it get better. For me, when I come back into these rooms and know I didn’t have to face all that turmoil, it got better right then," said Terry.
Terry had siblings die because of alcoholism and says his worst moment was when he would abandon his family to get drunk.
"And the mom and the kids are saying don’t go, don’t go, but I had to go to the bar because in my mind I was gonna miss out on something," said Terry.
He says the best thing about getting sober was getting his family back.
"I got sober and my two youngest children at the time, they wanted to give them to me right then. I said no, cause the state had them, said I need to take care of me first. So about ten months sober, I got my two youngest and that was a neat thing. . .No one can make you stop. No judges can’t, cops can’t even though they tried a hundred times with me. If you want to stop, seek help. You know, we’re here," said Terry
