Shane recalls never fitting in with his community; neither his neighborhood nor even his family. He blames this for acting out as a child. Shane was such a discipline problem that he was switched around to 16 different schools by the time he was 15 years old. But it wasn’t until he was away at college that Shane started drinking. He says alcohol gave him confidence and a sense of fun. Shane’s life dream was to become an actor, feeling drawn to New York City looking for work but finding wild cast parties instead. In the middle of that stretch, Shane has first experience with sobriety; a woman he was trying to date encouraged him to stop drinking, and he stayed clean for for five years. But Shane knows now that sobriety didn’t come from within, and when moving to Los Angeles to find more acting work, he became engrossed in a cocaine-fueled Hollywood life lasting years. His only wake-up call was when he began to beat his girlfriend whose only affront was her attempt to keep the drugs away.
