Bryan Hullihen's Story

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 ...

Bryan Hullihen lived at his father’s house for one year before moving back to his mother’s in Jupiter, FL. When Bryan got home and settled in he recalls feeling as though many of his friends and children he grew up with moved on without him. Bryan states: “Many of the kids I knew went on to for new social groups and people seemed to act differently. It was a strange feeling because I felt as though I no longer truly fit in with all the kids I grew up with. It was like I had to make friends with my friends all over again." It didn't take Mr. Hullihen long to settle back into life in Jupiter and soon after his return he was doing well in school and being a kid at home. Bryan spent much of his free time fishing, surfing, and skating with his friends and, for the most part, did very well up until his sophomore year in high school. It was around this time that Bryan and his family moved to his stepfather's house in a part of Jupiter called Jupiter Farms. Moving to "the f...

Bryan Hullihen was only 13 years old when he began smoking pot. Growing up in a beach community like Jupiter, Florida provided an abundance of opportunity for this kind of behavior and a level of social acceptance that made it easy for Bryan to justify it. Many of Bryan's friends smoked pot and drank and it wasn't long until most of the social engagements were centered around drinking or getting high. At this point in Bryan Hullihen 's life he lived in two worlds where one realm demanded that he do well in school and perform in sports and the other had him surfing, skating, fighting, and getting high. Before long school began to become an inconvenience and Mr. Hullihen's attendance dropped so low that he had "incompletes" for grades which was worse than F's if you can imagine that. Bryan wanted to do well and knew that his life would go nowhere if he didn't pull up out of this nosedive. Bryan also knew that his father could, and would, provide him wi...