Learning How to Drive Your Own Bus: A Survival Guide to a Better Healthy Sober Life

By Timothy J. Pacholyk

Learning how to drive your bus is a magical and informative bus ride to finding your way to a good sober way of living. You learn how to maneuver your way from anxiety, depression, and drug and alcohol addiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669871996

Timothy J. Pacholyk

Timothy J. Pacholyk lives in the upstate New York area. The first-time author has always loved the country. Growing up on a small dairy farm as a kid, he quickly learned that life wasn’t fair and kind. He grew and fought his way to an educational life of meaningful sober living and encountered amazing friendships with people who guided him on his amazing journey to a healthy sober life.

Book preview

cover.jpg

Learning How to

DRIVE

Your Own Bus

TIMOTHY J. PACHOLYK

Copyright © 2023 by Timothy J. Pacholyk.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/10/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

852299

A pocket survival guide for people who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction, anxiety, and depression.

Contents

Dedication

Disclaimer

Chapter 1

Chapter 2   The World Does Not Rotate Around You

Chapter 3   Being Judgmental

Chapter 4   The Long Road Back

Chapter 5   Back-Up Plan

Chapter 6   Take The Leap

Chapter 7   Don’t Poke the Bear

Chapter 8   How Can I Help You, Not Me?

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my beautiful daughters, Jennifer and Stacey. Your love empowers me to be a better man and to never give up or walk away from this journey.

Nothing in life is free. Life is measurably good.

When we live with passion, wisdom, and experience, there is no single thing that is a fix-all for our troubles. Learning is a gradual process that cannot be rushed or immediately digested. We must work at it and put forth effort. There are so many people who have touched me emotionally and guided me with their wisdom. Wisdom presents itself in many forms through an amazing bouquet of incredible people from all walks of life. I am so grateful to be alive today and to share these experiences with you. I pray to our God Almighty that my long journey be lovingly filled with humor and love and help to reach others who desire knowledge and a humble understanding of growth through their own lifelong journeys.

Disclaimer

I want to tell you a little bit about myself. For one, I am not a certified counselor. I have never been a counselor.

One gift that I do have is my journaling. Through the years, I have listened repeatedly to too many professional people in my life. And an interesting point I want to make is that counselors are people just like you and me. A lot of people that I know used to be in the addiction field and were very sick. They became intrigued with the industry and decided to dedicate their lives to becoming professional counselors. Now the flip side of that is I also know, through experience, that because they are human, some counselors couldn’t take the stress of the business—got sick again and fell off. They’re only human.

Can’t hate them for that. I’ve been asked repeatedly in my life to go to school and get my certifications to become a drug and alcohol counselor. But my feeling is this, I don’t want to bring my work home with me. I take things too personally, and I can’t sleep at night. I think about an ongoing problem with somebody else instead of focusing and concentrating on myself. Please don’t think for a minute as you read my book and my memoirs that I am a trained professional in the addiction field. I am not. On a lighter note, I do want to say that I have great admiration and respect for people in the counseling field. To this day, many years later, I am still friends with a few of them who are still alive because unfortunately, a lot of counselors were very old when I met them. But they were wise beyond their years.

The other thing I want to state, and my disclaimer is if I offend, upset, **** *** anybody who reads my book, I am sorry. I am only expressing myself through my years of experience, and acknowledgment of what my journey has been like. I’m only wishing to share my experiences with you. You can’t please everybody. I’ve learned that the hard way. So I want everyone to know that I’ve done my best in this book. My next book will be the longevity of sobriety. This journey is about people that help me get sober—learning how to drive my own bus, and my own bus is full of stuff. Just like you carry around a lot of stuff in your life. Well, I have a busload too.

I had a friend many years ago I knew but he’s gone now. His name was Tony Anthony Verdi. Tony was my business dad in life. He was one of the smartest, wisest businessmen I ever knew—wise beyond his years.

Anyway, Tony used to tell me a funny story, and I want to share it with you. Tony’s opinion? Life was like a series of buses. You