- Alcohol
A Facebook post by a friend brought Julie to her first Heroes in Recovery 6k race. What better way to be grateful for 10 years in recovery than to share it with friends on the race course and to tell your story so you might help another?
Today Julie has a successful career in HR, a college degree, a spiritual life, lifelong friends and the desire to give back to others. Life was not always this way. She grew up with active alcoholism in her family, so the genes were there. After living with her own alcoholism for 15 years, she realized alcohol was running her life. The inability to manage her life and being just plain miserable led her to try another way.
An intensive outpatient program and a 12-step program put Julie on her path to recovery. After months of being involved in her programs, she knew surrendering is what she had to do to have the life she wanted. She also learned to say and believe, “I can do this.” She did this by accepting the advice of others: “Stay out of your heard, and do not give space in your thoughts to things you have no control over. No Isolating. Don’t worry over the past or project the future. Stay where your feet are and live in today.”
Living life on life’s terms can still be a struggle at times, so calling her sponsor helps her work through it. Her spiritual growth is the biggest positive change she has experienced through recovery. She sees people differently, is more tolerant and less judgmental and willingly prays for them.
How does she support what her recovery has given her? She surrounds herself with family and friends who work to share and support this journey. She works with a sponsor, sponsors others and continues to do service work. Her spiritual growth both supports and is supported by the program she works. Taking this journey gave Julie the life she always knew she wanted.
What she wants those just starting this journey to recovery to know is to take it one day at a time, call your sponsor that you can do it. She is a living example it can be done.