“I grew up in a household filled with alcoholism and co-dependency,” says Gene. When he was 13 years old his parents divorced and he moved to Northern California from Southern California. He began using alcohol and drugs in his early teens. “I was introduced to marijuana at 13 years old and from that point I did all type of drugs,” says Gene. For the next decade he was abusing alcohol and drugs regularly. In an attempt to quit, he entered military service in his early 20s. But, that proved ineffective as the urge to use drugs was more powerful than military life. “I was asked to leave because of cocaine use,” says Gene. In the mid-1980s, Gene’s family and friends staged an intervention and he went into a treatment program. “I was able to stay sober for 13 years and I got my life back on track,” says Gene. But, Gene relapsed “while sober I didn’t take care of the underlying issues that caused my addiction and expand my spiritual life,” he says. During an especially difficult life changes – divorce and job layoff – Gene slipped into taking prescription pain pills and illegal narcotics. For the next decade Gene went through the darkest moments of his life. “I dealt with alcohol blackouts, started using cocaine again, and overdosed,” says Gene. “I was tired of living this way.” A few friends of Gene found Summit Estate. In summer of 2015, they encourage him to give it a try. “Summit Estate’s approach to recovery was different – a holistic view of overall health,” says Gene. Summit Estate introduced him to healthy ways to deal with his addiction and how to live differently – without drugs and alcohol. “Summit Estate thought me how to just sit with myself, how to breathe when confronted with difficult situation, how to mediate, and I even started practicing yoga – simple steps that helped a lot,” says Gene. “Summit Estate introduced me to a holistic approach to recovery – it felt like recovery 2.0 – they taught me to take care all the aspects of life to gain true recovery,” says Gene. Gene is continuing with his recovery and he is also helping others who are on their own journey of recovery. “At Summit Estate I learned to identify those triggers that would cause a relapse and how to deal with them without jeopardizing my recovery,” he says. Now 55 years old, “I am in a good place spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically,” says Gene. His sense of humor also continues to be a source of strength by living life on life’s terms. “I am in the 3rd quarter of my life and looking forward to overtime,” jokes Gene.