10 Inspiring Stories Of Finding Strength In Sobriety

“All John can see is the loss in his life,” the episode summary reads. “His mother died when he was 12. Recently, he lost his sister, cousin, and best friend.” In addition, his ex-girlfriend had miscarried their baby when he was in his 20s. Cooper has been open about some of the lower points in his addiction, one being an instance where he was so drunk that was admitted to the hospital after smashing his head on concrete. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ Luckily, he did not sink as deep into addiction as some of his celebrity colleagues. When celebrities addicts are high functioning addicts, they often use their fame and their success as excuses to justify their addiction. Because they are still landing roles, they feel as though their addiction “isn’t that bad” or something that they need to worry about. Addiction is a chronic disorder, not a personal failure.

Tawny also hosts the Recovery Rocks podcast series with Lisa Smith, a Gen-X lawyer in 12-step recovery. They discuss issues like substance use, mental health challenges, and trauma. Admittedly, there are a lot of lists there about the best recovery memoirs, which is why ours is a little different. We were inspired by the diverse experiences of our own community members. Since we care about all kinds of recovery, we wanted to emphasize that drugs and alcohol are not the only ways that women suffer and not everyone recovers through a 12-Step program.

I Know That My Life Today

I have learned to just stop and breathe; to enjoy the little things and be grateful for what is right in front of me and where I am at that moment. I am working the steps and soon I will live by Step 12. That life can actually be more fun sober than not sober. Over half my life I’ve been getting either high or drunk, or both. I never knew how happy I could be and how much more productive I could be.

• After promising to never follow the same path, a traumatic event lead her to substance abuse.
• I was happy and proud that I had made it one year sober.
• We talked about our discontent with our marriages, among other things.
• Per Billboard, the group was blowing up after being nominated for a Grammy.
• Even someone my age , can reshape themselves and become a better person and live life more fully.
• And that truly is needed for individuals with addiction.

We both knew something had to change, so I went to Valley Hope for treatment. I didn’t know what to expect, but after a few days, I knew it was where I needed to be. The people I met had the same problems and we managed to get through them together. The year of sobriety has gone by so fast, it was amazing. My health has improved 100% and I will always be grateful for the staff at Valley Hope for saving my life.

Some Say That Our Lives Change In A Moment, But Really, If We Think About It, The Actual Change Happened In A Heartbeat

I get to live with both sides of me, the ugly and the good. I can maneuver things and figure out what’s a good decision for me. The gray area just kind of becomes a little less. There’s a whole world that is so celebratory and celebrates you finding your truth. It’s a thing where you’ll say, “I’m a month sober,” and people will be like, Congratulations! As I sit here writing this story, a counter on my computer desktop indicates that I have been sober 2,105 days, one day at a time.

I can share my experiences with others now and hope to help them in their journey as well. I can socialize with others when before I didn’t want to go anywhere unless I could drink. I have lost a lot of weight and no longer some medications that I don’t need anymore. Once I started to have some success in my running I realized that running could give me a platform to share my story of hope.

Go Sober Helped Save My Marriage

After nearly a decade of living in recovery, I can tell you that long-term sobriety is not for the faint of heart. A lot has happened in these nine and a half years. At three years of sobriety, I buried my best friend in the world. It broke my heart and healed me in innumerable ways at the same time. I sought spirituality and a connection with my higher power with a desperation that I never had before. “I got in a fight with a cop at 16 years old.

• My life since entering into long term recovery has been filled with many blessings that I never thought were possible.
• I quickly realized that I really enjoyed pushing myself to go further, and knew early on that I could be a distance runner.
• After destroying my kids’ lives and losing our home, car and my job, I became temporarily sober for periods of 6 months or so—never lasting more than a year on the wagon.
• It made me feel so powerful and in control.
• My drinking started at an early age of 12.

And most recovery stories are through the lens of rehab, where you might not get to see the beautiful life that you find in sobriety. And the fact of the matter is that now I don’t have the option to run away or not pay attention to something that’s bothering me. I have to be present and I have to self-reflect and commit to being a better person for the people around me. Alcoholism is a disease that affects relationships, not just the person suffering. It’s about you learning how to regrow relationships and care for other people, including yourself.

Alcohol Treatment That Works

This disease of alcoholism is too cunning baffling and powerful to let me ever take a rest or sit on my laurels for too long. I am so disappointed in myself because I drank yesterday. Buckshot was just a man no hero just an Alcoholic with a love for the program and for his fellow man. Believe me, I tried to blame everyone and everything I knew for my drinking; the death of my child, the ex-husbands, etc. Everyone was responsible for my drinking except me. Verywell Mind content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness.

• Our outpatient alcohol treatment program uses the latest research in neurochemistry and the most-effective, long-term, and lifestyle-changing therapies.
• Now with a new life, she has her confidence back.
• Josh Hersh started Queeret as an Instagram account.
• Cupcake survives thanks to a furious wit and an unyielding determination and you’ll want to read her inspiring tale.
• When Coley was 8, his mom began using speed, and his parents divorced.

Long-term constant sobriety has changed my life in so many ways. I’ve learned how to be an excellent daughter, a caring wife, and a nurturing mother. My sobriety means the world to me because without sobriety I wouldn’t have any of those relationships today. Psychoactive drugs change the chemistry of the brain. One of the consequences of active addiction is lower levels of dopamine in the brain.

Drew Barrymore Living A Sober Life

At this time we had three children, and then she got pregnant with twins so we had five kids under the age of seven. A lot of my friends were able to use drugs and go to school and still succeed, but it became my every thought. Every second of the day, all I wanted was to have that feeling again.

Here I was in an expensive treatment center insurance wouldn’t cover, and I was not earning an income, but rather accumulating expenses as a partner in our corporation. I couldn’t see how important it was for me to separate myself from outside stresses so I could focus on me. I needed to concentrate not so much on what needed to be changed in the world as on what needed to be changed in me.

Amandas Story

Again, I excelled in my training program, becoming the chief resident in my final year. However, I had few friends, and none of the friends I had drank as I did. I began to drink at home, frequently wondering the next morning how there could be so many empty beer cans on the counter. During residency, we had the first of four children. My son, I thought, would solve our problems and bring us closer. With incredible wit and skill, Sacha Scobie manages to tell you both what alcohol used to mean for her and how her sober life is going now. She relied on alcohol, so now that this is no longer an option she has to re-evaluate everything in her life, which leads to some great and very witty observations on her newfound life.

Served Up Sober

The second night, I began to have diarrhea with old, digested blood in it. The next morning I awoke sober success stories with my heart racing, unable to get up off the floor, realizing that this was the end of the run.

And my relationship with myself has gotten so much deeper, there’s so much more to me. The fact that I’m still breathing, that I’m still here… It’s really easy to write off the big things and focus on the small things. 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.

I’ve heard stories that make my life sound like Disneyland. Fortunately, he was ordered to enroll in a rehab program which helped him achieve sobriety.

At the end of the extensive five-day evaluation, it was suggested that I stay for an extended period of time. I was told that if I did not follow the suggestions, it was likely that I would not be able to retain my license to practice medicine. At the beginning of treatment, I was angry.