Whether you're on it, off it, or somewhere in between
Five years ago, a medical scare got me sober from alcohol and on my 150th day alcohol-free, I relapsed. I had a family trip to Ireland on the horizon which I was anxious about, and I decided I couldn’t be sober during that trip. So three weeks ahead of it, I drank. After that relapse, […]
The thought of getting sober petrified me, so I continued drinking for a long time to avoid a horrifying unknown. How would I live without alcohol? I couldn’t imagine life without it and I was convinced that my life would be over if I gave it up. But that’s what being addicted to a substance […]
At the end of my drinking, there was no longer anything fun about being a functioning alcoholic. I had crossed over the threshold of functioning into complete alcoholic dysfunction quite quickly. Yet, I continued to fool myself into thinking I was “functioning” because I could pay my mortgage on time, look put together (at least some of the time), and hold down a job.
When it comes to my struggles with addiction, alcohol was king. From the second I caught my first buzz, alcohol became my master and I was its sloppy, drunken servant. Since I preferred to drink, drugs were never really my thing and I seldom ever sought them out for recreational use. However, if the opportunity […]
I hate winter. Especially once January hits, and we’ve got three long months ahead and nothing but freezing forecasts and deceptive wind chills. I get blue. Really blue. Like a lot of us do: Seasonal Affective Disorder is in the DSM and while I may suffer from a touch of it, I think most of […]
Marijuana has a reputation as being a chilled-out, mellow drug that results in goofy laughter and eating lots of snacks. But for some people, being too high can be anything but chill. I once got so high, I thought I was dead — no joke. Amidst my dazed and confused panic, I started searching for […]
What’s worse than recalling an embarrassing thing you did while you were drinking? Not remembering anything at all. Coming to the realization that you were in a blackout can be a scary way to wake up. You may ask yourself a variety of horrifying questions, including, “What did I do? What happened? How did I […]