December 11, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Dr. David Berry lost his newborn daughter, the world around him narrowed until grief became the only thing he could feel. What began as an attempt to quiet that pain led him first to alcohol, then to cough syrup, and eventually to the stolen prescriptions that pushed him out of his home, his marriage, and the profession he loved. Dr. Berry shares how he reached the lowest point of substance abuse and how recovery helped him find solid ground again.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
comes from Oxford, Mississippi, the home of all miss and
it's his story told by doctor David Berry. Here he
is to share his remarkable story of faith, failure and redemption.
Take it away, David.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'll just start at the beginning. I was born. I
was a product of a one night stand. I was
born in Houston, Texas. My birth mother I think, only
saw my birth father one other time after their night together.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Interestingly enough to give.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Kudos to my birth mother, she it was in the
nineteen seventies. I was born March Night, nineteen seventy one,
and as you can imagine, you know, pressure on a
woman at that point to be married or to not
have a pregnancy was huge, and in fact.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Her aunt pressured her.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She went in and spoke to the doctor, and the
doctor told, you know, went over the procedure, said you
got to decide in the next two weeks because otherwise
it's going to be too late. And when she came
back out to the car, her aunt asked her what
had happened, and her response was the doctor said it
was too late. I guess that's when they started the
adoption process. And I was adopted by two loving parents.
(01:36):
We ended up living in Batinaries. They were in New
Orleans at the time, and the adoption was closed, so
they never knew any of my genetic history or my
birth mother or anything like that. My passion life is aviation.
Always wanted to be a pilot, always wanted to fly. Well,
(01:59):
the ultimate goal for me was to be a naval aviator.
But I found out my June, between my junior and
senior year in college, that I was not going to
be able to fly for the military.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I was color blind, so that was a pretty big
blow at that time.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
For whatever reason, whether it was God's calling or what
he had been kind of putting on my mind, this
desire to go into medicine. Now before we pass it
off as miraculous, my dad was a physician, so I
saw what he did. He's probably the man I respect
most in life, and so he played a big role
in that desire. And I started focusing on how to
(02:41):
get into medical school and went to Tulane University in
New Orleans, which obviously has a lot of drinking associated
with it. You know, I always enjoyed drinking. I started
drinking at an early age. I remember being fourteen at
a friend's house. We brought his dad's entire bar up
(03:02):
to his room with you know, thirty bottles, as if
we were casting over or something. Anyway, that was my
first night with alcohol.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I liked it.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I continued to seek opportunities to imbibe.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I never drank to the point of causing.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Any problems for myself until later on, about my second
year in medical school, I met a lady that was
also in medical school or is a year behind me,
and we ended up getting married between my second and
(03:38):
third year medical school, and then about my fourth year
medical school, we had a child, Haley as a little girl,
and unfortunately, she had a condition called spinal muscular atrophy,
and she had the worst kind of type one unfortunately
that's not compatible with life, and she died in her
arms at home January third of nineteen ninety nine. At
(04:04):
that point I was in.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
My first year of residency.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But I can remember that being a breaking point in
a lie of things, psychologically and in my addiction. I
don't as I mentioned before, I always always been a
bit of a drinker, but this really turned the page.
I mean, I can distinctly remember going to the bar
(04:28):
by myself for the explicit purpose of stopping the paint.
I didn't care about being around friends anymore. I didn't
care about drinking socially, although I would use that as
an excuse.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I was off and running.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I mean, I was drinking alone to excess as much
as I could.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I still kind of prided myself on the ability to
turn it off for short periods if I needed to.
That was probably the most dangerous thing I could have done,
because it gave me a a sense of security.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And so opiates.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I remember I had a colleague who was a year
ahead of me in residency, was a doctor, and he
told me, you know, you can go to the pharmacy
and they'll give you some Finnagen with codeine.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It's not a problem. I tried that.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I liked it, and so gradually I used opiates more
and more, and used.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Alcohol less and less.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And I thought I had hit the mother load because
nobody could tell I was impaired, or at least I
thought they couldn't. I didn't smell bad. I didn't, you know,
stumble around slur my words. My drug a choice was
something called tussian X, which is a cough syrup they
don't make it anymore because of how dangerous it is.
I guess it had twice the hydro codone of other
(05:41):
cough syrups. It even had a coconut flavor with little
bits of coconut in. I mean, like came from the
devil himself, you know. I mean I would have drunk
it even if it didn't have the hydro codone in it.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
But it did.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And once I, once I got on that, I was addicted.
I can remember waking one morning think it. You know,
I can get through a hangover, but this is what
addiction is. I can't even get to the bathroom without
a little bit of opiates in me. I need a
little of that.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Costs are up just to be able to function. And
I'll tell you this.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I had a system set up where what I would
do is I would use I would find patients at
work that about my age and mail, and I would
take one of their stickers that when you check into
the emergency room, they'd print a sheet of stickers with
your name and date of birth and.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Medical record and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And legitimately, we'd use the stickers and put them on
top of a prescription write the prescription out and that
would be a legitimate prescription we'd give to patients. So
what I would do is I'd find someone that was
kind of match me, and I would.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Steal their stickers. I'd steal, you know, ten of them,
and I put them on prescription.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I'd write the prescription for the Tussin XT and then
I would just go to the pharmacy and present the prescription.
And then most of the time they just fell it
and give it to me. Always pay cash, because I
was worried about them tracking a credit card or something,
and I ended up having to set up a pretty
elaborate system. I had probably a hundred pharmacies between lafayat
(07:15):
Louisiana and east of New Orleans that I knew how
many prescriptions I'd gotten, how many refills I had left
when I got them, so that I would keep my
suspicion as low as possible. It was like it was
like a runaway train heading for a brick wall. I mean,
I knew it wasn't going to end well, and I
(07:36):
knew that it was going to cause great pain, but
there was like I felt like there was nothing I
could do to stop the train.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I was able to get away with it for a while.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
One Sunday, I believe I had run out and the
woodrawals start setting in and I just didn't care anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I was at the end. I was ready for something
to stop.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I didn't have any stickers, so I went to the
pharma seat near my house and I just told the farmer, says, hey,
I'm a physician. Can you give me a little tossy
next for a cough?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And he did.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
He didn't say a word, didn't bite an eye, he
gave it to me.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
The next day, the police showed up at my house.
They had looked up my prescriptions. They knew they were fraudulant,
and they arrested me. And they arrested me at my
house in front of my neighbors, put me in an
unmarked car. I guess that's fortunate. My family was away.
My wife at the time was in New Orleans, so
(08:36):
nobody really knew that I'd been arrested. It was a
Friday night, so they brought me to the local precinct
and they put me in a big holding tank. And
I remember I was in this holding tank and I
was the first one in there because it was like
three point thirty in the afternoon, and I remember thinking,
you know, I'm not going to be alone forever. Somebody's
going to get put in here with me. And I
started thinking, if I tell them I'm a physician that
(08:59):
rope descriptions, they're gonna tear me limb from limb. So
I started thinking of these stories. And sure enough, as
that evening went on and night went on, I started
fill up and had some pretty rough looking characters in there,
and a couple of them asked me, you know, what
are you in for? And I told him I was
dealing OxyContin, and they caught me because I'd rather say
I was dealing OxyContin than tell them the truth. So
(09:21):
that that's a I guess it shows how far addiction
could take you to where you lying about dealing oxycont
is better than the truth.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
When we come back more of the story of doctor
David Berry, you're on our American stories, and we returned
(10:09):
to our American stories and with the story of doctor
David Berry telling the story of his own struggles with addiction,
and eventually you'll hear his story of recovery. When we
last left off, he was in a jail cell. He
was getting filled up, and he even managed to tell
a lie about well being an actual drug dealer rather
(10:32):
than tell the truth about how he'd ended up there.
Let's return to doctor Barry.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I stayed in there all night, well most of the night,
and because it was a Friday, they transfer all the
prisoners to the Central I think it was a Central
East Battony's pair Sheriff's department.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Way out by the airport.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
It's a big it's where the main prison is. So
we got ready to go and they handcuffed us. One
hand got handcuffed to another prisoner in another hand to
another prisoner, and they put us in back of this van.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And I remember I was handcuffed this guy.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I don't know if his first name was Door, last
name was Doll, but he I don't know if he
thought thought I was his his psychologist or what. But
he kept talking to me, like laying his problems on me.
And he kept saying to Mary, he said, Dave, can
you imagine the judge saying, doh, you got life in prison.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Life? He kept saying, I keep believe I got life
in prison.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And I was thinking, man, here I am counseling this
guy that just got life in prison for god knows what.
And you know, really I'm the one that needs needs
the counseling.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Over this next couple of.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Years, my family basically, I hate to say abandoned me
because it sounds like it was their fault, but they
cut off all contact with me, and so to the
point where I didn't have a house to go to,
I didn't have much money. I had to get rid
of my truck, and eventually I found myself homeless for
(12:09):
like a year and a half, and over the year
didn't didn't happen all at once, but you know, with opiates,
I would try to wean myself off.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And when I say a try, I meant it probably
took me two years.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Of this endless cycle of trying to wean myself off
almost getting there.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Can't take anymore. I got to take a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I got to take a little bit more opiates to stave.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Off the woodraws.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And the thing about withdraws opia wooddraws is it doesn't
let you take a break.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
If it takes fourteen days to.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Withdraw and you get to day twelve and stop, you
don't get to pick back up there. You got to
go all the way back to the beginning. So that
was a hellish just going through. And I want to
describe anybody's been through it knows the darkness you feel
and the loneliness and the despair. But there was one
point one night I just decided, I said, I don't
(13:13):
care how bad I feel. I don't care if this
kills me. I'm not putting any more of that stuff
in my body. One of the reasons for it was
I'd seen I'd seen other people come along that were
started off at my level and they got through it.
They got through either their alcohol addiction or whatever it was,
and they were back at work. There were respected people,
and here I was just still circling the drain.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And I think that had a big.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Part in me making that decision to just really just
to realize that I'm going to have to go through this.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
There's no other way.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And the other thing that happened to me is I
remember laying down on the ground and just saying, God,
you've got.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
To it's up to you to save me.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I said, I got no more big ideas, I got
no more suggestions.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Either either you you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Completely intervene and save me, or I'm just gonna die,
and I was okay with which with whichever way he
wanted to go, but fortunately he chose to save me,
and and I can remember feeling just not a you know,
the angels didn't descend, and there wasn't a great light,
(14:22):
but I remember, for the first time I felt a.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Little bit of hope that it was gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And I can honestly say from that day on, each
day and sometimes I didn't feel like it was, but
each day was a little bit better than the last,
and eventually I was able.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
To get the help I needed.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Miraculously, my parents, just randomly, after not speaking to me
for a year or two, came up to Monroe and
found me. I remember my mom was actually said, I
can't believe how good you look, even though I was
you know, I probably looked terrible, but I think she
didn't think I would be sober, you know, and she
(15:02):
didn't think I would be healthy.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And so anyway, I remember saying that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The other thing that was kind of miraculous for me
is I I met a guy in Vicksburg who was
a doctor, and he really took an interest in me,
named Randy, and he kind of from that point on
walked me through professionally to help me get back get
back my professional life, which I'd lost my license a
(15:27):
long time ago. I wasn't even thinking I'd ever be
able to practice again, and he gives me the hope
that maybe I'll there's a chance that I'll be able
to practice again. It took several years, but eventually he
was right. I was able to get my license back.
I was able to get back into practice. I have
licenses now in multiple states. I was a Fortunately I
(15:48):
was able through some people that I met, one being
the CEO of my hospital, was able to put together
a team and we developed and started our own alcohol
and drug treatment center and call her u uh. It's
still open to this day. And it felt good to
be able to give back to people that you know
or are so desperate. But during us, I'm going to
(16:16):
AA meetings all the time, and a's not for everybody.
I don't particularly espouse to that being the end all,
be all answer, but at the time it was the
only thing I had, so it offered a routine for me.
And I met somebody pretty early on in one of
the aams, and we really we became best friends. We
(16:36):
were all we were both heading in the same direction.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
We were we both wanted the same thing out of
our recovery in our life. And uh and and and
we really really matched like I've never matched with the
person before. And after several.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Years of being being best friends, we fell in love
and we got married. And that's who my my my
soul mate, my wife to this day is. And so
when Courtney and I got married, I didn't have my
license back and she was working at a school. But
maybe a year after after we got married, I got
(17:15):
my medical license back in Mississippi, and so I started
working and applying for emergency medicine jobs.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
That's my training is.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
And I got one up near Oxford, Mississippi, and so
I started going this job, but I was driving two
and a half hours back and.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Forth from Jackson to this this job.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And uh, you know, pretty soon after after we got here,
she became pregnant with our oldest boy, Laflin and uh
and and and five years after that we had our
second boy. So you know, God took away one job,
but he gave me back two.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And uh, I just.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Feel like I wouldn't be able to appreciate them more
my life the way the way I do. Had I
not gone through what I went through, I'm just so
grateful for every day.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I'm grateful for them and for Courtney, and.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I'm just glad to be able to be part of
be part of a community, and be part of a
church that can that can help others and kind of
is on the same mission that I am.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery and Caleb Robinson. And a
special thanks to doctor David Berry for sharing his story
and all the rawness, all the realness and many many
families in this country, most probably touched in some way
or another by alcohol or drug addiction and mental health
(18:51):
problems and the combination of the two. I wouldn't appreciate
the life I have now without going through what I
went through. Gratitude you could hear it gushing from this
man's lips. The story of doctor David Barry, his fall
and his redemption here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
comes from Oxford, Mississippi, the home of all miss and
it's his story told by doctor David Berry. Here he
is to share his remarkable story of faith, failure and redemption.
Take it away, David.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'll just start at the beginning. I was born. I
was a product of a one night stand. I was
born in Houston, Texas. My birth mother I think, only
saw my birth father one other time after their night together.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Interestingly enough to give.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Kudos to my birth mother, she it was in the
nineteen seventies. I was born March Night, nineteen seventy one,
and as you can imagine, you know, pressure on a
woman at that point to be married or to not
have a pregnancy was huge, and in fact.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Her aunt pressured her.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She went in and spoke to the doctor, and the
doctor told, you know, went over the procedure, said you
got to decide in the next two weeks because otherwise
it's going to be too late. And when she came
back out to the car, her aunt asked her what
had happened, and her response was the doctor said it
was too late. I guess that's when they started the
adoption process. And I was adopted by two loving parents.
(01:36):
We ended up living in Batinaries. They were in New
Orleans at the time, and the adoption was closed, so
they never knew any of my genetic history or my
birth mother or anything like that. My passion life is aviation.
Always wanted to be a pilot, always wanted to fly. Well,
(01:59):
the ultimate goal for me was to be a naval aviator.
But I found out my June, between my junior and
senior year in college, that I was not going to
be able to fly for the military.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I was color blind, so that was a pretty big
blow at that time.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
For whatever reason, whether it was God's calling or what
he had been kind of putting on my mind, this
desire to go into medicine. Now before we pass it
off as miraculous, my dad was a physician, so I
saw what he did. He's probably the man I respect
most in life, and so he played a big role
in that desire. And I started focusing on how to
(02:41):
get into medical school and went to Tulane University in
New Orleans, which obviously has a lot of drinking associated
with it. You know, I always enjoyed drinking. I started
drinking at an early age. I remember being fourteen at
a friend's house. We brought his dad's entire bar up
(03:02):
to his room with you know, thirty bottles, as if
we were casting over or something. Anyway, that was my
first night with alcohol.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I liked it.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I continued to seek opportunities to imbibe.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I never drank to the point of causing.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Any problems for myself until later on, about my second
year in medical school, I met a lady that was
also in medical school or is a year behind me,
and we ended up getting married between my second and
(03:38):
third year medical school, and then about my fourth year
medical school, we had a child, Haley as a little girl,
and unfortunately, she had a condition called spinal muscular atrophy,
and she had the worst kind of type one unfortunately
that's not compatible with life, and she died in her
arms at home January third of nineteen ninety nine. At
(04:04):
that point I was in.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
My first year of residency.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But I can remember that being a breaking point in
a lie of things, psychologically and in my addiction. I
don't as I mentioned before, I always always been a
bit of a drinker, but this really turned the page.
I mean, I can distinctly remember going to the bar
(04:28):
by myself for the explicit purpose of stopping the paint.
I didn't care about being around friends anymore. I didn't
care about drinking socially, although I would use that as
an excuse.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I was off and running.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I mean, I was drinking alone to excess as much
as I could.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I still kind of prided myself on the ability to
turn it off for short periods if I needed to.
That was probably the most dangerous thing I could have done,
because it gave me a a sense of security.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And so opiates.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I remember I had a colleague who was a year
ahead of me in residency, was a doctor, and he
told me, you know, you can go to the pharmacy
and they'll give you some Finnagen with codeine.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It's not a problem. I tried that.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I liked it, and so gradually I used opiates more
and more, and used.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Alcohol less and less.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And I thought I had hit the mother load because
nobody could tell I was impaired, or at least I
thought they couldn't. I didn't smell bad. I didn't, you know,
stumble around slur my words. My drug a choice was
something called tussian X, which is a cough syrup they
don't make it anymore because of how dangerous it is.
I guess it had twice the hydro codone of other
(05:41):
cough syrups. It even had a coconut flavor with little
bits of coconut in. I mean, like came from the
devil himself, you know. I mean I would have drunk
it even if it didn't have the hydro codone in it.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
But it did.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And once I, once I got on that, I was addicted.
I can remember waking one morning think it. You know,
I can get through a hangover, but this is what
addiction is. I can't even get to the bathroom without
a little bit of opiates in me. I need a
little of that.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Costs are up just to be able to function. And
I'll tell you this.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I had a system set up where what I would
do is I would use I would find patients at
work that about my age and mail, and I would
take one of their stickers that when you check into
the emergency room, they'd print a sheet of stickers with
your name and date of birth and.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Medical record and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And legitimately, we'd use the stickers and put them on
top of a prescription write the prescription out and that
would be a legitimate prescription we'd give to patients. So
what I would do is I'd find someone that was
kind of match me, and I would.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Steal their stickers. I'd steal, you know, ten of them,
and I put them on prescription.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I'd write the prescription for the Tussin XT and then
I would just go to the pharmacy and present the prescription.
And then most of the time they just fell it
and give it to me. Always pay cash, because I
was worried about them tracking a credit card or something,
and I ended up having to set up a pretty
elaborate system. I had probably a hundred pharmacies between lafayat
(07:15):
Louisiana and east of New Orleans that I knew how
many prescriptions I'd gotten, how many refills I had left
when I got them, so that I would keep my
suspicion as low as possible. It was like it was
like a runaway train heading for a brick wall. I mean,
I knew it wasn't going to end well, and I
(07:36):
knew that it was going to cause great pain, but
there was like I felt like there was nothing I
could do to stop the train.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I was able to get away with it for a while.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
One Sunday, I believe I had run out and the
woodrawals start setting in and I just didn't care anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I was at the end. I was ready for something
to stop.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I didn't have any stickers, so I went to the
pharma seat near my house and I just told the farmer, says, hey,
I'm a physician. Can you give me a little tossy
next for a cough?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And he did.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
He didn't say a word, didn't bite an eye, he
gave it to me.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
The next day, the police showed up at my house.
They had looked up my prescriptions. They knew they were fraudulant,
and they arrested me. And they arrested me at my
house in front of my neighbors, put me in an
unmarked car. I guess that's fortunate. My family was away.
My wife at the time was in New Orleans, so
(08:36):
nobody really knew that I'd been arrested. It was a
Friday night, so they brought me to the local precinct
and they put me in a big holding tank. And
I remember I was in this holding tank and I
was the first one in there because it was like
three point thirty in the afternoon, and I remember thinking,
you know, I'm not going to be alone forever. Somebody's
going to get put in here with me. And I
started thinking, if I tell them I'm a physician that
(08:59):
rope descriptions, they're gonna tear me limb from limb. So
I started thinking of these stories. And sure enough, as
that evening went on and night went on, I started
fill up and had some pretty rough looking characters in there,
and a couple of them asked me, you know, what
are you in for? And I told him I was
dealing OxyContin, and they caught me because I'd rather say
I was dealing OxyContin than tell them the truth. So
(09:21):
that that's a I guess it shows how far addiction
could take you to where you lying about dealing oxycont
is better than the truth.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
When we come back more of the story of doctor
David Berry, you're on our American stories, and we returned
(10:09):
to our American stories and with the story of doctor
David Berry telling the story of his own struggles with addiction,
and eventually you'll hear his story of recovery. When we
last left off, he was in a jail cell. He
was getting filled up, and he even managed to tell
a lie about well being an actual drug dealer rather
(10:32):
than tell the truth about how he'd ended up there.
Let's return to doctor Barry.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I stayed in there all night, well most of the night,
and because it was a Friday, they transfer all the
prisoners to the Central I think it was a Central
East Battony's pair Sheriff's department.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Way out by the airport.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
It's a big it's where the main prison is. So
we got ready to go and they handcuffed us. One
hand got handcuffed to another prisoner in another hand to
another prisoner, and they put us in back of this van.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And I remember I was handcuffed this guy.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I don't know if his first name was Door, last
name was Doll, but he I don't know if he
thought thought I was his his psychologist or what. But
he kept talking to me, like laying his problems on me.
And he kept saying to Mary, he said, Dave, can
you imagine the judge saying, doh, you got life in prison.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Life? He kept saying, I keep believe I got life
in prison.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And I was thinking, man, here I am counseling this
guy that just got life in prison for god knows what.
And you know, really I'm the one that needs needs
the counseling.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Over this next couple of.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Years, my family basically, I hate to say abandoned me
because it sounds like it was their fault, but they
cut off all contact with me, and so to the
point where I didn't have a house to go to,
I didn't have much money. I had to get rid
of my truck, and eventually I found myself homeless for
(12:09):
like a year and a half, and over the year
didn't didn't happen all at once, but you know, with opiates,
I would try to wean myself off.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And when I say a try, I meant it probably
took me two years.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Of this endless cycle of trying to wean myself off
almost getting there.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Can't take anymore. I got to take a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I got to take a little bit more opiates to stave.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Off the woodraws.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And the thing about withdraws opia wooddraws is it doesn't
let you take a break.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
If it takes fourteen days to.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Withdraw and you get to day twelve and stop, you
don't get to pick back up there. You got to
go all the way back to the beginning. So that
was a hellish just going through. And I want to
describe anybody's been through it knows the darkness you feel
and the loneliness and the despair. But there was one
point one night I just decided, I said, I don't
(13:13):
care how bad I feel. I don't care if this
kills me. I'm not putting any more of that stuff
in my body. One of the reasons for it was
I'd seen I'd seen other people come along that were
started off at my level and they got through it.
They got through either their alcohol addiction or whatever it was,
and they were back at work. There were respected people,
and here I was just still circling the drain.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And I think that had a big.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Part in me making that decision to just really just
to realize that I'm going to have to go through this.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
There's no other way.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And the other thing that happened to me is I
remember laying down on the ground and just saying, God,
you've got.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
To it's up to you to save me.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I said, I got no more big ideas, I got
no more suggestions.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Either either you you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Completely intervene and save me, or I'm just gonna die,
and I was okay with which with whichever way he
wanted to go, but fortunately he chose to save me,
and and I can remember feeling just not a you know,
the angels didn't descend, and there wasn't a great light,
(14:22):
but I remember, for the first time I felt a.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Little bit of hope that it was gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And I can honestly say from that day on, each
day and sometimes I didn't feel like it was, but
each day was a little bit better than the last,
and eventually I was able.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
To get the help I needed.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Miraculously, my parents, just randomly, after not speaking to me
for a year or two, came up to Monroe and
found me. I remember my mom was actually said, I
can't believe how good you look, even though I was
you know, I probably looked terrible, but I think she
didn't think I would be sober, you know, and she
(15:02):
didn't think I would be healthy.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And so anyway, I remember saying that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The other thing that was kind of miraculous for me
is I I met a guy in Vicksburg who was
a doctor, and he really took an interest in me,
named Randy, and he kind of from that point on
walked me through professionally to help me get back get
back my professional life, which I'd lost my license a
(15:27):
long time ago. I wasn't even thinking I'd ever be
able to practice again, and he gives me the hope
that maybe I'll there's a chance that I'll be able
to practice again. It took several years, but eventually he
was right. I was able to get my license back.
I was able to get back into practice. I have
licenses now in multiple states. I was a Fortunately I
(15:48):
was able through some people that I met, one being
the CEO of my hospital, was able to put together
a team and we developed and started our own alcohol
and drug treatment center and call her u uh. It's
still open to this day. And it felt good to
be able to give back to people that you know
or are so desperate. But during us, I'm going to
(16:16):
AA meetings all the time, and a's not for everybody.
I don't particularly espouse to that being the end all,
be all answer, but at the time it was the
only thing I had, so it offered a routine for me.
And I met somebody pretty early on in one of
the aams, and we really we became best friends. We
(16:36):
were all we were both heading in the same direction.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
We were we both wanted the same thing out of
our recovery in our life. And uh and and and
we really really matched like I've never matched with the
person before. And after several.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Years of being being best friends, we fell in love
and we got married. And that's who my my my
soul mate, my wife to this day is. And so
when Courtney and I got married, I didn't have my
license back and she was working at a school. But
maybe a year after after we got married, I got
(17:15):
my medical license back in Mississippi, and so I started
working and applying for emergency medicine jobs.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
That's my training is.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
And I got one up near Oxford, Mississippi, and so
I started going this job, but I was driving two
and a half hours back and.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Forth from Jackson to this this job.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And uh, you know, pretty soon after after we got here,
she became pregnant with our oldest boy, Laflin and uh
and and and five years after that we had our
second boy. So you know, God took away one job,
but he gave me back two.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And uh, I just.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Feel like I wouldn't be able to appreciate them more
my life the way the way I do. Had I
not gone through what I went through, I'm just so
grateful for every day.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I'm grateful for them and for Courtney, and.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I'm just glad to be able to be part of
be part of a community, and be part of a
church that can that can help others and kind of
is on the same mission that I am.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery and Caleb Robinson. And a
special thanks to doctor David Berry for sharing his story
and all the rawness, all the realness and many many
families in this country, most probably touched in some way
or another by alcohol or drug addiction and mental health
(18:51):
problems and the combination of the two. I wouldn't appreciate
the life I have now without going through what I
went through. Gratitude you could hear it gushing from this
man's lips. The story of doctor David Barry, his fall
and his redemption here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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