A New Life

When I first started in NCCDP, I felt I had to control everything and everyone around me. Most times the results did not come out as I had envisioned. Due to this, I got angry and harbored resentments against all those involved except for myself. These resentments fed upon each other until I resorted to substance use and abuse as a manor of relief.

As I met more and more friends in NCCDP who only wanted to help me, I gained trust in the individuals and the program. I learned I could not control other people’s actions; all I could do was try to be a good person and control my reactions. I started to forgive others who have hurt me instead of carrying the bad feeling around buried deep inside. My NCCDP friends loved me for the person that I was, not for what I could do for them. I discovered I had nothing to offer them, but they had a new freedom to offer me. The more that I listened to the directions they presented to me and followed the program the more freedom I gained.

The NCCDP was slowly releasing me from the prison I had created for myself. This new found way of life brought incredible joy to me. The more I did as the program and my friends directed me, the better and freer I felt. I realized that an incredible weight had lifted from my soul. I learned to appreciate the world and people placed in my life, not on my terms but on life’s terms. I learned grace. I became grateful for a new way of life and accepted both the good and the bad. I tried to return both with nothing but good.

It’s still a work in progress but the more good I do, the more good I get back. I have become grateful for all the big and little things that occur in my life, good and bad. My friends in NCCDP share the good things that occur which doubles the pleasure, and they also share the bad occurrences that halves the pain. I am very grateful for my new life that has been bestowed upon me thanks to the NCCDP and all my NCCDP brothers and sisters that believed in me and never gave up on me. Thank you, my dear friends.

— A Grateful Recovering Dentist —