OVER 35 COLLEGE students die each week from alcohol related incidents and a military warrior commits suicide every 36 hours - National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense. Reading the above heart breaking statistics was my primary motivation for writing this book. For 30 years I have worked as a true creature of the night, one whose calling is to walk through the horrifying real-life nightmares of others. I am an Emergency Medical Technician (A Paramedic). As a 30 year 911 EMS responder I came to realize I had only truly saved several at risk lives as a hands on life saver and possibly hundreds more as a DUI Intervention Educator. The real potential of saving thousands more by sharing my story of 'The Wretch In The Mirror' gave me the courage to pass on the lifesaving lessons I have learned. These lessons were not learned in any of the formal classes I attended but through my personal enrolment in The School of Hard Knocks.The 'Wretch in the Mirror' is based on my EMS and military careers of helping others while learning to deal with my own hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I share several stories of my tragic life changing encounters with patients that have remained in my head. I also share how I gradually lost my way to the dark side and the grace that saved my life. For many in today's at risk population there is a real lifesaving value in the emotional empathy felt, once exposed to the tragic cost of high-risk behavior. Several successful passion guided initiatives have discovered that (Evidence based) positive behavior changes are enhanced through increased targeting of the affective learning domain. In other words, often the most effective way to reach their heads is through their hearts.This book is dedicated to all those who lost their lives battling their own hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I consider myself a survivor who benefited from their struggles as well as my own. It was the light of grace that showed me generational curses can be suppressed, if not cured. My mission in life is to help as many souls as possible avoid or overcome the type trouble I have witnessed and experienced firsthand. For, there is always a better choice in life, even when we are unable or unwilling to make it.
