Bryan Hullihen's Story

Around this time Bryan Hullihen moved back to Jupiter Florida with his friend who's name was also Brian. Bryan rented a room from his friend's mother for a small amount of money that he paid each week. It was a good thing that it wasn't a lot of money because he didn't make much. Bryan got a job working for a landscaping company where he worked each day during the week and quickly proved his worth to the organization. At this point in Bryan's life he would not touch alcohol and truly believed his problem to solely be that concerning the use of alcohol which is exactly why he found it so easy to decide to start smoking pot again at twenty-one  years old. Every day Bryan went to work he would see so many of the people that he worked with smoking pot with seeming impunity and, with the belief that his problem was solely alcohol, he found easy to jump off that cliff one morning with the rest of his crew. That day was a breeze for Bryan as he recalls barely thinking abo

Bryan Hullihen spent the majority of his free time while living at Born Anew either at 12-step meetings or surfing on Palm Beach Island. Mr. Hullihen talks about that time of his life with such warm regard and recalls the simplicity of working a humble job, going to 12-step meetings, and surfing in one of the nicest places in the country as his primary focuses. Bryan got a job working for an extremely wealthy woman who lived on Palm Beach Island about a half-mile from Donald Trump's Resort/house. This particular woman owned a commercial real estate business and hired Bryan initially to simply do a couple odds and ends but ended up hiring him on full-time after a single week. She knew Bryan was an alcoholic in recovery and since she had a close relative that suffered from addiction, she wanted to help Bryan however she could. Bryan was extremely grateful for this opportunity because it allowed him to focus on recovery from his alcoholism while feeling valued by someone as success

At 18 years old Bryan Hullihen entered into the sober living program called "Born Anew" which was located in an extremely rough part of West Palm Beach. Bryan had no vehicle at the time, no job, and had no idea how to overcome his insatiable desire to drink alcohol. Born Anew was a program which consisted of three neighboring houses that all shared one big backyard where there was a gazebo and an office. The gazebo was very large and is where most of the meetings centered around recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction took place. This program was for males only and between the three houses there were about 20 members of the program. The first several days Bryan was not allowed to leave the program grounds and he was given certain tasks and chores to accomplish to help him stay busy and learn a little humility. Around 5:00 in the evening all the other members of the program would return home from their jobs and, following dinner, would join together in the gazebo for rec

For several more years Bryan Hullihen continued to experiment with drugs and drink alcohol while his behavior became increasingly more unstable due to his continued substance abuse. Bryan spent most of his time during this phase of his life with his girlfriend, his stepbrother, and his stepbrother’s girlfriend. Although Bryan was only 17 he drank more alcohol than most 21-year olds and he lived his life as if it were a perpetual party. The beginning of the end for this way of life for the young Mr. Hullihen occurred one night while camping with those who Bryan spent most of his time with. Bryan and his friends had been drinking all night while camping on an island when around midnight they had run out of beer. Not wanting the party to end Bryan took his friend’s boat back to the marina where his vehicle was parked and headed off to the store to buy more alcohol. Bryan ended up at the beach as his friend’s birthday party was ending and he hoped to catch his friend to wish him a happy