Episode 30: McCord Henry

McCord Henry takes us deep into his struggles with alcohol addiction. At one of his lowest points, he woke up alone in a dark room on twin a mattress with vomit in the corners and empty bottles everywhere.  His family and friends pushed away. He says that he needed it to get that bad in order to wake up. In that dark room he had come to a crossroads. He could either get better and live, or he could die. After multiple interventions, trips in and out of rehabilitation facilities and time spent in a Dallas sober house where the professionals there were more concerned about his homosexuality than his alcoholism, he would eventually choose life. McCord walked into a Santa Barbara, CA hospital on April 3, 2017, to seek treatment for alcohol withdrawals. It was in that hospital, after the many attempts and setbacks at getting clean, where he began his real road to sobriety. 

His unvarnished story is one of a young man filled with much promise looking for his place in the world as he comes to grips with his sexuality and wrestles with the demons of alcoholism. His story is also one of hope. Where a person once passed out drunk on the floor of his job, can now hold his head high with a fierce humility and say, “I am recovered. I am living.”

McCord’s life reminds us that our struggles are profoundly real. And whatever our struggles may be, the victory does not come until we are ready to own the outcomes and circumstances of our lives and do battle with the dark night of the soul. And when that prayed for time does come to step into a new direction, we must have the courage to say, as McCord did, “This is it. This is the moment,” and seize life.