- Alcohol
- Friends & Family
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
Emily has been in recovery from alcoholism for 23 months. She started her drinking at the age of 15 and today she is 25 years of age. Initially it was not her, but rather, the people around her that wanted her to change and get into recovery. At first, she tried for several months to live without alcohol and stopped numerous times. There was no success at first; she kept drinking and drinking until one morning she got up and the awareness hit her that she could not go on with her life the way it was. She was tired of this way of living and discovered a motivation to change.
On multiple occasions prior to that day, her parents strongly suggested that she should get into recovery, to enter treatment or do whatever it takes to change. It took a long time until she found the willingness in herself. She finally saw her friends get sober, she saw them getting jobs, she watched as many stopped drinking and started going to school or similar things. Eventually, she found herself surrounded by positive role models while she saw that she was going nowhere the way she was living.
Fortunately, Emily never faced any legal consequences of her actions or addiction. In order to have support while finding sobriety, Emily entered an intensive outpatient program. It lasted just two weeks and while it did help a little, she knew it will not be enough to stop her from drinking. She checked into a residential treatment facility for a month. She stayed clean and sober for over two years and then she stopped doing things she was supposed to do and relapsed right away.
“I stopped doing the things that make me feel good, that make me better and happy.”, she says, “and this led me to drinking again.” She got back into recovery after a 4-month period of relapse and has now again 20 months of continuous sobriety.
The four months of relapse drinking were full of feelings of shame and guilt for Emily. She is now grateful that she knew what she had to do and knew how to do it and made it back into sobriety by herself. Today, she attends regular meetings, lives in New Orleans and goes to school there. She is working a full-time job, which is hard but doable. Her college in New Orleans does not have a collegiate recovery community or provide any resources for people in recovery. Emily does not live on campus and that makes it a little bit easier to avoid alcohol and the party scene. It is difficult for her to socialize at school since the social life at the college is often defined by drinking. She lives differently, just attends school, leaves, goes to work and study and does not connect much with people at her school.
Emily signed up for the 2015 Recovery Run Baton Rouge 5K, despite not being a runner. She took a long time to finish the course, but she is happy that she crossed the finish line. For her, it was not about winning it was about the progress she has made and showing a bit of improvement from her last 5k. She gave her all and was physically spent when she finished, but happy and proud of herself because of her accomplishment. She wants to implement more exercise in her recovery life in the future.