Much respect for everyone who posted his/her thoughts and feelings in this thread! I think everyone goes through these ups and downs, and it is posts like all of these that make the world go round! Thanks for sharing everyone!

I wish my little brother would read this thread. He is going through a lot of what is posted here plus more. He is a recovering heroine addict that recently lost his job because he started drinking again after being sober for a little over a year. He had a strict policy with a big company in which he had a zero tolerance policy because they paid for his rehab through their insurance. He was doing so good and until he had a few drinks on a Sunday and wound up taking a blood test that he didn't even have to take at the time. He wound up having a very minuscule amount of alcohol in his system (like 0.0000001), and they fired him. That sent him into a downward spiral of drinking really heavily, really heavily. Thank god he did not get back on the hard drugs, but the alcohol and being on anti-depressants were enough to make him crazy as hell. On top of that, he found another job in the meantime and looked like he was trying to climb back out of the hole he fell into. Well, that didn't work as he continued to drink and abuse some of his meds he was prescribed. Then, he took some acid one weekend, and flipped out on the third day of taking it. Once he came down from all of that and we thought that he was getting back straight until his prescribed anti-depressant meds sent him on a crazy spell. The meds made him freak out and was not coherent about what was going on and had to be restrained and taken to the hospital. This was all in the past couple of months this year, and now it finally looks like he is trying to get himself straight (or so I pray so!). I hung out with him for Easter weekend, I can tell he was not the same brother that I once knew. He could not calm down for anything and always was talking about something random. It was hard to listen to at times because I could tell that his brain could just not shut down and be calm, and he was always fidgeting with his hands. He went to a psychiatrist to try to get himself medicated properly and for alcohol withdrawal, and is on his third week of being on his new meds. Praying that this is where he turns his life around for the better. It breaks my heart to have to worry if he will harm himself. I do not believe that he will as he really is a great and caring person. I want my brother back and hope I get him back soon!

Thanks everyone for sharing again, very inspirational!