Hello

By Geoff Patterson

 May 4th, 2012 - 8 years ago RIGHT NOW (crazy to think about) I was held captive in that very room, hogtied on a plastic tarp being beaten by the IBH (Indian Brotherhood) Gang. I’d been up probably 6 days. I was threatened with rape and death. Sadly death sounded great to me, the other certainly did not and wasn’t an experience I wanted right before dying. It was terrifying and shook me to my core. Healing has taken many years and it started with me realizing it happened because of ME and my reckless choices, not those people.

Every bit of humiliation I’ve ever felt can be summed up by how I felt on that floor tied up.  What I didn’t know that day was that the experience would scare me enough to accept help and go to long term treatment at the Prescott House in Arizona and start my life over. Addiction had taken everything and everyone away from me that I had ever known or loved. I weighed 125lbs and had track marks all over my arms from IV meth use. I had disgraced myself and my entire family. I basically woke up in detox in AZ. Things certainly haven’t been perfect since but I also didn’t know that experience very much saved my life at the time. I would honestly thank those people if I could. They have been in and out of prison ever since.

Fast forward to afternoon on May 4, 2020 and I’m finishing up a workout, practicing some much needed self care rather than being beaten on a tarp in a seedy motel room by a drug gang. I don’t have 8 years sober, I have 3 though and am grateful for it. Today I am part of my family again and I try to be the best son, brother, cousin, father, and man I can be. I participate in life. I have full custody of my 2.5 year old son. I am a very active Catholic/Christian and help run 2 ministries, one for addiction and one for single parents. I have people that love me and I love them with my heart not just my head and because I’m supposed to... 

It’s a life I never thought possible while in that motel room. As hard as life is sometimes, it’s ALWAYS better than THAT.  That’s not bragging, that’s being grateful in recognition of God's Grace and the miracles in my life. I have survived many awful things. Sometimes hell is on the other side of a door or a choice made, but that hell is EXACTLY what is needed to wake up and take real action or die. I’m one of the lucky ones. I take nothing for granted today... I thank God for what was on the other side of a door of that sketchy motel. Without it I doubt that I would have the life I have today. I love what’s been on the side of the latest door I opened. #Godithandled