I think it’s important for people to know that just because I’m sober doesn’t mean I’m dead. I go out dancing, I’m 100% me, I can literally do everything I did before except I just don’t drink. In sobriety I’ve been around all this stuff and I think that’s one of the things people cast a stigma on. By this time, I could not go for more than a couple of hours without feeling withdrawal symptoms including hot flashes, sweats, palpitations, and the shakes. I would awaken during the night in withdrawal needing to take some alcohol to be able to get back to sleep.

I was offered a scholarship opportunity to go on to PhD studies in chemistry, but chose to continue on to med school instead. Again, in med school, I sought out and found friends who partied just like me. Today in recovery, I have made many new friends that I can talk to for support. I can spend more time with my kids, grandkids, family and have enough energy and patience to enjoy them.

Sobriety Stories: Brittany finally knows peace after years of despair

There weren’t as many young people in recovery as there are today. Everything that I believed in, everything that I was about, and my perception on life had to change. I got sober two months after my mom died very suddenly. I’ve dealt with a lot of grief in my sobriety but I haven’t picked up a drink, and I think it’s because for some weird reason it feels better walking through it and feeling everything. And thank god I have this foundation and structure that’s keeping me afloat.

There is a simplification in this appealing story that dismisses the fact that drinking was not responsible for every bad thing in our past nor is sobriety for every good thing in our future. Heading into my second year of sobriety, I want to do more to break the stigma. Plus, life feels a heck of a lot better without alcohol. Coming home at midnight from a party, doing my skincare routine, and waking up at 8 am feeling fresh while everyone else is in bed hungover until 11? Being able to go out dancing and have an amazing time, without needing alcohol to feel confident? There’s no way to describe how good that is.

The real point that turns a quit alcohol fad into a lifestyle change

I’m in the yacht club for the sunrise meeting. I remember nothing but the window and the messy surface of the lake, a view I thought was going to feel profound. Though we were married, I do not believe that we were ever really intimate. If we got into an argument, the resolution typically inspirational stories of sobriety came after weeks of not speaking to each other. I do not remember ever experiencing feelings as I do today. I recollect, even as a preteen, prior to my drinking career, not being able to feel sorrow at my Grandmother’s funeral, forcing myself to cry just to fit in with the family.

Is sobriety healthier?

Aside from the obvious reasons that come with breaking bad habits to live a better life, the benefits of sobriety include improved overall health–both mental and physical.

Sobriety had become a trapdoor to feeling offended. I viewed this incident and so many others like it as a personal affront to my recovery. This story had become so essential to my identity that I believed it needed to take up room in other people’s lives too. I also couldn’t stop writing about drinking, even six years after I had stopped.

My Biggest Lie: “I’ll Quit Drinking Tomorrow”

I learned so many valuable lessons in my 28 days, and I learned that God had not deserted me, He was patiently waiting on me the entire time. Valley Hope is an amazing gift to so many of us who want a chance at recovery from the devastating, https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-to-write-a-goodbye-letter-to-addiction/ debilitating, deadly disease of alcoholism. Valley Hope helped save my life, and gave a grateful, sober man back to his family. May God continue to Bless Valley Hope, Birds of a Feather, and the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Lynch explained that after going to AA for years, having a successful career and doing therapy, she began drinking again — and quickly learned she couldn’t just have one drink. My family and friends are very supportive of my sobriety. They ask about my recovery and cheer me on. Alongside these important relationships, I’m also a part of a sober community.

Now with a new life, she has her confidence back. One of addiction’s stereotypes is that it only affects those with dysfunctional families or a history of abuse. But when we spoke with Jules, we learned her story defied those ideas conclusively. One of the things that breaks my heart is that I was not always there for my family as much as I feel I should have been. They supported me through my entire journey.

And I spent so much of my life wanting to recreate that feeling, even though I was never able to achieve it exactly as it was that first time. Every time I consider the sobriety narrative I think of Jorie Graham’s poem, “Prayer.” She writes, “Nobody gets/ what they want. It is because of this power that it can narrow years of your life to a pinprick and eschew any evidence that the past was perhaps not wholly one way and the present wholly another.