Life on Life’s Terms –
November 13, 2019 – When he was on the road, he and his colleagues would retreat to one of their hotel rooms and drink. For Mr. Breland, drinking was a way of being social, but he was also doing it to “ease the pain,” he said.
He and his family moved back to New York City in 1988 after his wife was offered a job with the Metropolitan Transportation Agency. But he said he soon found himself “moving too fast” as his drinking began to spiral out of control. He returned to South Carolina within a year and moved in with his sister. His alcoholism and the distance from his family put an enormous strain on his marriage. He and his wife separated.
“I didn’t do the thing that I wanted to,” he said. “I planned a nice family house. I failed myself.” Mr. Breland’s life was not supposed to play out this way. In March 2018, Mr. Breland checked into a detox program in Queens for a few weeks, then entered an inpatient substance-abuse center on Wards Island. He attended classes, lectures and counseling sessions that he said helped him through the recovery process.
