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Our Stories
Mike Barry
Louisville, KY
My name is Mike Barry. I am in recovery and have been for nearly a decade. My drug of choice was alcohol.
I graduated from college, became a father, and started a successful career that brought me a lot of money and much fame. I rose from a small radio station disk jockey to become a highly respected television news anchor and producer. I worked in St. Louis, Nashville, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. I had a small part in the soap opera Santa Barbara and did a bit on the Today Show. I wrote for several magazines on a freelance basis and did commercials all over the country. All by the age of 35.
Ten years later I had lost all those jobs, my house, my family, my children, and had nearly landed on the streets. In the end I was living in a homeless shelter. I had lost it all; most of all, I had lost all hope and I attempted suicide.
One of the many reasons I had difficulty getting into recovery was the stigma placed on the disease. I was in a Catch-22. If I admitted my problem I was likely to lose my job and if I didn’t do something about my alcoholism I was likely to lose my job.
Today I am happy and life is good. I have so much less materially, but I have so much internally. I have been blessed with a wonderful gift. I am happily married. I have my own business (which is struggling, of course), and my children are speaking to me. I have a beautiful granddaughter who has never seen me drunk. Hopefully the cycle has been broken. With my public advocacy, I want to let people know there is help, hope, and healing. I want to take the stigma out of this disease by letting others know I’ve been to Hell and back. I don’t want to be held back by some of our antiquated public and private policies. I don’t want to be denied health care or other benefits like school loans just because I admitted I had a problem, sought a solution, and recovered. There are people who have committed more serious crimes who aren’t denied these rights.
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