Overcoming Addiction in the Restaurant Industry

I knew I had hit rock bottom as an addict when I did a drunken face plant onto the concrete sidewalk near the restaurant I owned and then used super glue to put my face back together.It was as bad as it sounds. But things got worse. For some of us who are addicted to drugs or alcohol or both, rock bottom isn’t low enough to motivate change.

My lowest of lows came not long after that while riding with my mother in her car.

I loved and respected my mother. She was, and is, a wonderful mom, an exemplary human being, and an accomplished professional with a PhD.

But one afternoon, as we rode near my restaurant, she pulled over and ordered me out of her car. She said she couldn’t take it anymore. She gave me a choice: get help or else she would be out of my life.

I did not immediately agree. To my addicted brain, that was a hard choice.

You can super glue a face back together. But a whole life? I wasn’t so sure.

The odds were not on my side. According to the National Institute on…