My name is Rene and I am the founder of Autentisk, which is based on my own experiences of healing and addiction. My goal is to bring healing to as many people as possible and help break their addiction. Having tried everything within addiction treatment, I believe that I have found the essence of what works.
My personal story begins in a bar where I grew up. My father was an alcoholic who worked as a waiter in high-end hotels, and since this was in the 1970s he also had a bar in his house. After the divorce, my mother married her second husband, who owned a restaurant and bar.
This is where I remember growing up. But my strongest memory was not the Boney M songs I would listen to in the bar with the customers at age five. It was the beatings that my mother took after work, while I would lie crying and scared under the bed. I still remember her screams till this day.
And they continued into the 80s, where her next boyfriend would also beat her up. Around this time, I remember sexual abuse in the family, and mid 80s I start with drugs in high school and later in the 80s, its the beginning of house and techno music.
At this time drugs were everywhere in the clubs and with my mother’s third husband being a member of a biker gang, I had free access to them. Also at time, my father who was bi-polar, had become so sick mentally that he was drinking in the park every day.
When my father died suddenly very early at 56, I went on a trip around the world. India and the impact of my father’s death caused a spiritual awakening in me and for almost a decade, I went on a spiritual walk where I wasn’t drinking and working for non-profits.
These were the blissful days that I spent with my ex wife, whom I had met at Burning Man. But a decade later, I became tired of not having much money and decided to go back into business. I ended up buying a business, which brought both stress and conflict into my life.
After my spiritual years, I had forgotten my past and I soon ended up drinking daily. Any major conflict or stress at work, would make me hide under the bed again by going to the bar across the street. First, it was at 5pm, then 4pm, then 3pm and then drinking at lunch.
When I started seeking help. First therapy, then doctors and pills, and later AA and any other treatment programs that I could find. It was clear that I had trauma, but when I started looking at the research and found the 10 ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), I was in shock.
I had kind of glamorized my childhood, but when I found out that I had all 10 ACEs and started looking into them, I was horrified by what I had been through. Facing my demons, or Jung’s shadow, was heavy and sitting in meetings with this guilt and sadness would bring me to drink right after each meeting.
My sponsor told me that I would lose my wife, my business and my life. I did lose my business and my wife for a while. But it was really when the doctors told me that I had stage two fatty liver, one step before cirrhosis, that the fear set in.
On a trip back home to Denmark, meeting my best friend from high school with a bottle of white wine for breakfast, he asked me why I didn’t go on a spiritual trip again like last time. And so I did; two months in Europe and three in Asia, where the final stop was Bali.
After weeks of yoga, meditation and spiritual healing, I fell into a binge again. This brought me to a kind of near-death experience that forced me to take the decision. I am still digesting the experience, but it’s clear that my demons’ reflection in the powerful spiritual energy of Bali, caused a rebirth of my soul.
I found my authentic self again and this rebirth made me stop drinking. Looking back at everything that I have read and learned, I now understand that my experience in Bali was “the kick” that Peter A. Levine writes about, which is the “psychic change” in AA’s Big Book.
This is the experience of how authenticity can heal us that Gabor Mate speaks about and it is this personal experience of mine and the many lessons that I have learned on my path that I want to share with others. I don’t want anyone else to struggle or die from their addiction.
This is the mission of Authentisk and I invite you to join this vision of healing.
May you heal too,
Rene Jorgensen
