12/21/2025
Hi everyone! I don’t normally share much on Facebook about my personal life but today is a milestone day for me. Today I am 5 years sober from alcohol. 5 years ago I chose myself over my addiction. Depression and anxiety were constant, overwhelming feelings most of my adulthood. I spent years using alcohol as a way to cope, to shut out the negative voices in my head, to make the world just a little more manageable. I was successful in school, held great jobs, was very social and involved. But below the surface I was drowning. I felt dead inside and really didn’t care if I died. I fooled myself that I was holding it together and thought I had everyone else fooled too, until the night I could no longer pretend there wasn’t a problem. The night I blacked out and drove head first into another car (thankfully no one was hurt but me). The night I was handcuffed at the hospital as soon as I regained consciousness. The night I spent laying in a jail cell wondering how I had fu**ed up so badly. The night I had to call my parents and ask them to bail me out. When I got out of jail the morning of December 20, 2020 I decided then and there that I needed and deserved to live better than how I was treating myself. I needed to stop drinking. It has been 5 years without a drop of alcohol and I cannot express how much better my life became once I quit booze. I was able to work on my physical and mental health in a productive way, I met my husband, I started a business. I took back my life from the pit of hopelessness I felt suffocated in. I could not have done this without the support of so many family and friends. Some days I still struggle, some days are not the best, but I have so many more good than bad days. It feels so much better to be fully engaged in my life, one day at a time.
Joe, RN
