Even in business attire, tattoos creep up his neck and into view over his collared shirt. More ink spills out past the cuff of his sleeves. Wesley Hooks is a well-known figure in Denver’s recovery community, and this is his addiction recovery story.
Wesley is a man who has transformed his life from a dangerous addiction to dedicated sobriety. He once described his early life as, “living the life of a rockstar without the star part, I was just rockin’.” But long before his recovery from addiction, he was off the beaten path.
An Unusual Childhood and Early Exposure to Addiction
Born in Grand County to a rodeo lifer and a budding musician, Wesley had an unconventional upbringing that included some Christian homeschooling. With his father’s encouragement, he entered the rodeo world but eventually realized he was doing it more for his dad than himself. By age 14, he left the bareback bronc-riding scene, but the thrill-seeking remained.
As a teenager, his parents separated and spent a lot of time on the road pursuing their careers, leaving Wesley with time and space to experiment. At 16, he got drunk for the first time at a friend’s house party in Kremmling, CO. “I drove home [drunk] that night in a whiteout blizzard, and I remember just loving it…I felt like a badass.” The reckless lifestyle took hold, leading to parties, heavy drinking, and cocaine use at his family’s ranch, earning him the nickname Wesley “Wildman.”
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Reckless Driving and the First Rollover
Despite his growing substance use, Wesley graduated high school and enrolled in college in Fort Collins. He even made it through one semester before getting his first DUI. Known as the “most responsible drunk driver” among his peers, he drove back from a party in City Park. Everyone else walked home, but one friend jumped in with him.
As they raced through the trees in the park, his friend challenged him to do a “180” (a reckless driving stunt) and Wes complied without hesitation. The car rolled multiple times, grass poking through the shattered windows with every flip.
Miraculously, both Wesley and his friend survived. They quickly cleaned the car of empty bottles and went home before Wesley reported the accident. When the police arrested him in front of his intoxicated friends, he once again remembers feeling really badass. This would be the first of 11 rollover accidents and the start of a long battle with addiction.
A Life Consumed by Alcohol and Meth Addiction
After the accident, Wesley moved to the mountains where he got a job pouring concrete floors. It was grueling but fast-paced work and he relied on methamphetamines to keep up. Excelling at his work, he was soon managing a crew. But as his meth use increased, he drifted further from his family. His mother remembers hearing from him only once in over a year, wishing her a happy Mother’s Day.
Concerned by his rapid decline, two of his supervisors staged an intervention. They kicked down the door to his meth lab-style residence and took him in, warning him of the drug’s dangers. Wes remembers, “They didn’t scare me sober, they scared me away from methamphetamines”—pushing him back to alcohol.
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Rock Bottom and a Turning Point
On his 21st birthday, his mother called and suggested that he go help his brother in California. Although Wesley didn’t recognize it at the time, his mom was trying to get him away from the scene and the people he was drinking with. He moved to Idyllwild, CA, and got a job with his cousin. The change of scenery didn’t change his behavior though—recovery from addiction requires more than just a new location.
He soon found himself in another hard-partying crowd. “I partied hard, and somehow I never got arrested in California.” Before long his cousin fired him. Jobless, too ashamed to call his mother, he moved to Montrose, Colorado, to work for his dad.
His downward spiral continued. After starting a forest fire in Creede, Colorado, his father sent him back to Fort Collins to face his outstanding legal charges. Instead of turning himself in, Wesley attracted police attention by doing a burnout without realizing he was directly in front of a cop car while driving drunk. The stunt brought attention to his outstanding warrant and landed him in jail for 3 months.
His lowest point came after his release. Though he got a job and even got a raise, he celebrated by drinking heavily. Driving under the influence, he rammed into a stopped car, fracturing his jaw and the orbital bone on his face. “I sat in jail for a long time then…that was my true rock bottom,” he admits.
The Path to Addiction Recovery
While in jail, Wesley’s mind replayed something his ex-girlfriend said to him several years back: “You were meant to do so much more with your life.” His cellmate was stipulated to go to the Stout Street Foundation, a two-year addiction recovery program. While the cellmate was enraged, Wes saw an opportunity and jumped on it. Despite his reputation for manipulation, he convinced the judge to allow him into the program.
His family remained skeptical, but for the first time, Wesley saw his destructive behavior clearly. He wrote it all down in an insightful letter to his loved ones from the Larimer County Detention Center shortly before starting to rebuild his life. His grandmother called him, “the silver-tongued devil” and he had certainly used this gift to manipulate the people around him. But Wesley knew it was time to rebuild trust with himself and his family.
Now in treatment, he had a moment of reckoning when he woke up one day with severe abdominal pain. Once at the hospital, Wes refused to take the opioid painkillers to manage the pain for fear of relapse. The CEO of the Stout Street Foundation advised him to take the medication in this case.
As soon as the drugs kicked in, his pain shifted to reveal that his appendix was near to bursting. Wes was rushed into surgery, and his appendix was successfully removed. This experience made him realize that without treatment, he might have ignored the pain, leading to fatal consequences. That was his wake-up call.
A Full-Circle Recovery Story
From that point, Wesley started taking his recovery more seriously. He started working in outreach for Stout Street as his unpaid resident job. After excelling in his outreach efforts he was hired before completing his two-year residency, making him the only resident on the payroll.
He later worked at multiple addiction recovery centers, including Quiet River Addiction Center, Universal Health Systems, Sandstone Care, and The Foundry—a treatment program run by his friends in recovery. While at Stout Street, they all dreamed of running their own program someday and eventually made it a reality.
Today, Wesley is truly living in recovery. For years, Wesley thought reckless behavior made him a badass. In truth, sobriety has given him the strength and purpose he never knew he had. He participates in Spartan and Tough Mudder races, climbs mountains, organizes events, and is an award-winning marketer in the addiction recovery field. He receives calls from across the country for treatment recommendations, using his past experiences to help others find hope.
As destructive and selfish as Wesley was while he used, he is even more caring now that he is sober. He connects with recovering addicts in a way that only a fellow addict can. We at Sandstone Care wish him all the best as he continues to help people out of the self-destructive spiral of addiction.
