Recovery is Possible –
March 26, 2018 – He came back from Vietnam “in a rage.” Though Ron Brown didn’t know it yet, his experiences in the war had left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and in trying to cope with it sought out alcohol, the same solution generations of his family had turned to in times of grief. But when drinking couldn’t solve the problem, it was quickly joined by a combination of amphetamines and marijuana. Five years after returning home, he made his first suicide attempt. It was another eight years before he checked into rehab. “I was done for. I just ran out of bridges because I had burnt everyone,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t a human being. I had left my kids, I had ruined relationships with people. I lost everything.” One of the most unsettling things about Ron Brown’s story is that it’s far from unique. He’s well aware of this fact, as it inspired him several years ago to not just share his own story, but the similar stories of others.
