It takes some people months or even years to make the decision to quit drugs and go clean. To take a good hard look at yourself now and to compare this with where you wanted to be many years before can be rather confronting.
There are others who reach a crisis point rather quickly and suddenly, although often unsurprisingly. The confrontation is more immediate, with the consequences of not acting right now being much more readily apparent.
Michael Giacapuzzi’s story sounds a lot closer to the latter. Four years ago, after taking medication for an asthma attack, he had four alcoholic drinks, got into his car and headed down the interstate. After going over 100 miles per hour he blacked out, rolling his car a couple of times, before hitting the left medial strip head-on. Not only would death have been expected under the circumstances, it would have been a logical outcome of the way he had been steering his life.
When he was 12 he weighed 200 pounds, a natural target for cruel schoolkid taunts. His self-esteem was lowered and barely recovered for the next 34 years. He started taking drugs when he was 27 out of a wish to rebel against society and live what he saw as a life of glamour. But as
he was to discover later, he was just papering up cracks that were growing wider and wider. And when his father - his best friend - and then his mother died within a couple of years of each other - in 1999 and 2001, respectively - he burst open. And it would take a miraculous escape from death and a couple of days in a prison cell to make him really want to pull himself together.
And how he did. A month later he landed a job as, ironically, a fitness instructor. Four years later and he has some projects on the go, including a series of DVDs, a line of clothes and the possibility of doing some motivational speaking. Now 50, he wants to inspire others - especially those over 50 - to keep fit. And he also wants to get people invigorated by life, no matter what circumstances has befallen them. Much like himself really.