When I tried to do this on my own, I went round and round in circles, I even had a 1 year gap between joining SR and coming back with my tail between my legs, and guess what? the door wasn't locked and I was welcomed back with open arms.
The power of this place inspired me to make the changes necessary to finally turn my life around, that's the strength of SR, people all around trying to do better, turn their lives around and, those that have been there and done it, the wisdom confined within this virtual world is immense and I knew if I could somehow tap into it, achieve only a shred of what those who had gone before me, then my life would change for the better.
In the end I had to take a leap of faith, and guess what? everything I had read in numerous threads came true!!