Mike knows what it's like to feel alone, needing help. “These are difficult moments that one cries alone in his solitude,” he says. “I was crying in my bed and asking God to help me. I couldn’t with myself anymore.”

That day he made a commitment to his personal growth and sought support for his substance use disorder (SUD). “I looked at myself in that mirror, and I said, ‘No, I’m going to fight for myself. I’m not going to do it for anyone—I’m doing to do it for myself.’ I learned to love myself.”

Mike lost contact with his family during his active substance use, like many Californians. Over the past year and a half, he has been building new meaningful relationships, including friends and co-workers.

“I feel like family, as if it were my own family. That confidence they have in me, that makes me feel good and keep going,” he says. “Claudia is one of them. I’m a person who she barely knew. And when she found out, when she found out that I had nowhere to live, she worried for me. And those are things that I appreciate. That people worry about me.”

Each of these relationships is helping Mike grow in his recovery. “I keep walking and I am grateful to life, to God, for everything he gives me, for everything I am.”