After a near-fatal crash and months in a coma, he credits God and the Twelve Steps for his sobriety
Published
Cole Bennett shared his story of recovery.Submitted
Blue Sky Voice and Opportunity plans to celebrate recovery all year with its “Looks Like Me” campaign. The goal is to share the message that addiction and recovery don’t have a look — they have a story. The campaign aims to shift the way the community sees and supports individuals and families affected by addiction, focusing on truth, connection and breaking down stereotypes. This story is written by Cole Bennett.
I am grateful to say I am an alcoholic/addict in recovery. Nobody plans on becoming an alcoholic or an addict. I know I wasn’t expecting that to happen.
I can assure you when the teacher in school would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never said, “I hope to be an addict someday.”
My home life was never an issue. I was surrounded by two loving parents, and my dad’s parents lived right across the road. This was a pretty good deal for me because my best friend, my grandpa, lived within walking distance, and I got to see him every day.
When he passed away, it was the most devastating loss I had ever endured. It was a lot for a young boy to handle. This is when I started putting anything and everything into my body to numb my feelings.
All my friends drank, and it seemed OK to me since “everyone else was doing it.” However, it didn’t take long to realize I wasn’t like everyone else. Everyone else was drinking to have a good time and relax a little, and I just drank until I was either throwing up or passed out and couldn’t drink another drop.
After a little while, the alcohol wasn’t enough, so I moved on to harder substances. This led me down a dark and dangerous path. I was hanging with the wrong crowd and making questionable decisions. I truthfully was disgusted with who I saw in the mirror staring back at me.
Just when I thought I may be at rock bottom, I hit it and kept on digging. On the morning of Aug. 8, 2022, I caused a head-on collision on the way to work. I was in a coma for 45 days and in the hospital for 165 days total. I had multiple surgeries and many complications along the way.
I battled every day physically and mentally to get back to walking, talking, feeding myself and leading a normal life again. But what I didn’t realize was I also was suffering from a threefold illness: a mental obsession, a physical allergy and a spiritual malady.
Being removed from alcohol and drugs for that amount of time, I should have been alright, but I still had that mental obsession. I had a few setbacks. I finally got beat down to a state of reasonableness and let what I had been through make me teachable. I surrendered to the fact I couldn’t do this on my own.
Today everything I get to have is a direct result of God and The Twelve Steps working in my life. My hope is that anyone struggling reaches out because there is hope and help around every corner of this town. Utilize it. I have now been sober since March 21, 2024.
