One Year Sober: Why I Quit Drinking and How Sobriety Has Changed My Life

Typically the follow-up comes from a place of kindness, but it puts the nondrinker in a situation where every time they’re offered, they have to decline and then also justify why. Valley Hope was, and will forever be, the place that taught me accountability, gave me my life and my dreams. As I write this, I have been given the opportunity to be a part of a facility that gave me hope.

As a child I was not responsible for what happened to me, but as an adult I most certainly am. Recovery has shown me how to take ownership of my life, my choices, and my perspective. Once I confided in another person about my shame and resentments, I was able to move forward in my sobriety. Instead of using alcohol to ignore the uncomfortable parts of my life, I am now able to face them.

Deal of the Day

And the more that I honor the value that I’m bringing to people’s lives, the easier it is for me to stop making bad decisions. It’s been very centering and very sobering — that’s the best word I can use. I can share my experience as much as I want, but it’s not normalized. And I think that’s what putting something out in the media does.

I didn’t have many friends and was very shy. But, I made friends with some older people. I got drunk for the first time when I was 15. A friend invited me and another girl over to his house where his parents bought us alcohol. Throughout my junior and senior years in high school, I continued to drink whenever I could, as much as I could. This led to me using weed and ecstasy as well.

My Story of Sobriety

As they say in recovery, “one is too many, and 1000 is not enough.”  I need to pick my battles, choose my events wisely. I am well aware that I am a work in progress, and sometimes I need to be reminded by my wife that I need to cut back the miles, or that I need a rest day or days. I’ll take this running addiction over the active addiction years 100% of the time. AA and NA are lifelong processes of friends helping friends get sober. Although it is sad to see some fall back, true light shines through and that’s why 90 days in recovery with as many meetings help so much.

I was the baby of the family and I was treated as such – with a lot of love. But in the process of getting sober, I was able to look back and realize I always felt a little different. I’m the youngest by 10 years, so once everyone https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/5-reasons-sobriety-tattoos-are-a-terrible-idea/ went to college and got jobs I essentially became an only child. I am 40 years old, I’m from Worcester Massachusetts, and I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve been battling addiction and alcoholism pretty much my whole adult life.

Steps to Making Your First $1000 on Instagram Without Having 10k Followers

Frankly, I can only write when my life is a bit boring. But the why doesn’t matter so much to me now. What matters, to me, is letting go of the things that do not serve me.

And life is so much more beautiful than the darkness in which you have been living. “I’ve had a really hard time getting my recovery back. I wasn’t sponsoring anybody; wasn’t helping anybody. “My father passed away with inspirational stories of sobriety 35 years of continuous sobriety. Even when he was in recovery, we didn’t talk about it. Jules’ recovery has been as much about finding herself and living her truth but rather about reclaiming her life from alcoholism.

days sober

I had 6 or 7 months sober, maybe even a little bit longer. Facing a potential problem and getting sober is not an easy choice, but for millions of people each year it’s a necessary one. I reached out to people who were recovering from addiction and asked them to be involved in a piece about their experiences with finding strength in sobriety. Addiction does not have to be the end of the road — it can actually be a life-changing beginning. Initially, I had lots of fear about returning to work. I worried about what people would think, what kind of criticism I would receive.

Coaching and therapy were and continue to be extremely helpful. I was terrified that I was really an alcoholic in denial. As an actual doctor, I would Google, “How do I know if I’m an alcoholic?

The Valley Hope Coffee Cup A Symbol of Recovery

Addiction takes a sledge hammer to your confidence because you lose all control and constantly break promises to yourself. My confidence took longer to build back (and I still have work to do on it), but it’s one of the more noticeable changes I see in myself. I’ll break down my experience for anyone who wants to know what to expect, like I did in those early days. Though, of course, everyone’s experience is different. I would wake up hungover daily, telling myself I wouldn’t drink that night.

Every social engagement with my high-achieving, workaholic friends was lubricated with cocktails. When I was intermittently sober, I was the exception to the rule of social engagement. Of note, 12.9 percent of male physicians and 21.4 percent of female physicians struggle with alcohol use disorder or dependence. In our first two episodes, you can hear the stories of two alumni who share how their experiences at MARR completely changed their lives and their relationships. If you have comments, questions, or if you are interested in being interviewed for a future episode of “The MARR Experience,” send us an email at

Crucial First Steps in Recovery: Overcoming Withdrawal

I began drinking again thinking I had it whipped. I did great for quite some time, it seemed. The disease only progressed slowly, daily deceiving me into thinking I was in control (NOT!).

At first, everything about it was difficult and counterintuitive because we live in a society obsessed with alcohol. Alcohol helped me socialize, it made me feel more confident, it allowed me to “check out,” it was part of almost everything I did for leisure. In my experience, quitting alcohol cold turkey rather than cutting back or limiting intake made everything much easier, odd as that may seem. When I’m at a bar (yes, I still go to bars) or at the grocery store, there is no decision to be made, no internal dialogue. I’m not tempted, there’s nothing to consider, because it’s a tenet of my lifestyle that I don’t negotiate.

Lifestyle

I don’t really miss it—after all, it’s hard to miss something that had negative effects! And I’m sure part of that is knowing that at any time I could choose to have a drink and the only penalty of that decision would be that I’d feel ill. I’m restricting myself to better my life in a positive way. Physically, I feel better without alcohol. Mentally, I feel better, too, but it has taken time.