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Chris had a rough start in life: His older brother is an alcoholic and his father, severely addicted, took his own life when Chris was only eight years old. Despite the fact that Chris managed to get through college and dental school, his career didn't last. Soon he was following in his brother's and father's footsteps. He nearly lost it all, then he found a drug rehab program that changed his life.

As a dentist, Chris had open access to the opiates. He was able to keep himself supplied with all the oxycontin he wanted. And he became addicted. But he didn't stop there: he run the full gamut of substance abuse: everything from alcohol and cocaine to methamphetamine and methadone. And it went on for years.

It wasn't until his mother traveled across the country to visit him a couple of years ago that it was recognized that he had a serious, life threatening problem. He was forty pounds lighter than the last time she saw him and he was obviously struggling with the addictions that plagued other family members. He no longer went to work and he rarely left his one bedroom Denver apartment in Denver, Colorado ' except to refill his prescriptions or to cop illegal street drugs.

His mom, worried and distraught at the thought of losing her son, convinced him that his best chance at recovery would begin in a residential drug rehab program. He reluctantly agreed to go, but soon discovered a world beyond the vicious cycle of alcohol and drug abuse ' the only world he had known for so long.

'Drug rehab gave me a strong foundation; I feel that for every month I spent in drug rehab, I learned as much as I would have in three months in the outside world.' At 34, Chris is now fully recovered. He spends his time volunteering his services as a dentist at a local jail and talking to others about how they might find a new beginning through drug rehab.

It's obvious that Chris has paid his dues in recovery to get to this point. He's now been clean and sober for five months. 'I have learned gratitude in recovery. I am one of the luckiest guys in the world. I could have been arrested, gotten a DUI, lost my license to practice dentistry. None of that happened to me. For that I am grateful.'

Chris is living proof that it is possible for to overcome addiction. National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month celebrates the successes, and urges those who need help to get into a successful drug rehab program so they too can reclaim their lives.