- Alcohol
On October 22, 2014, Bethany celebrated her second year of sobriety. She attended the Heroes in Recovery 6K race in Leiper’s Fork, TN, working in her profession as a massage therapist. She is in recovery from alcoholism and a sex addiction. At age 21 Bethany started drinking, actually at a late age for most alcoholics, but it went downhill fast and steady. Her coping mechanisms were one-night-stands where she was trying to get relief.
Before that, she had left her home at age 16 and had no choice but to cut her family completely out of her life. Drug addiction, alcoholism and sex addiction was present there. At age 17, she moved in with her now adopted family and describes her relationship with them today as much improved and really good.
In 2012 a DUI was her eye-opener that something had to change. She was 31 at that time and decided that she didn’t want to live like that anymore. Looking back, she describes that time as if she was cycling, she kept going faster and faster and nothing was working anymore. After the DUI she noticed, that she could lose everything and that she matters. She entered an intensive outpatient treatment for two weeks, where she learned a lot about the disease and about herself. She got lots of therapy to work on topics going all the way back into her childhood and learned that this problem began from complicated origins. She eventually improved her faith and learned how to keep healthy boundaries in relationships.
Bethany points out the learning process of understanding, and that if people take things she says personally or they have issues with what she says, it’s their issue and not hers. She learned how to deal with intimacy and vulnerability that comes with it and feels today much better about any relationships and problems that occur in life.
“I had to be really mindful every single day”, Bethany says about the beginning of her recovery. She described it like an intense workout program, where every morning your muscles are sore, you are tired and you are not sure if you can do it again, but you force yourself. She went on her knees every morning and asked God to keep her sober for each day.
Not drinking at gatherings, even being able to go to Vegas without drinking, and actually not wanting to drink are all things that Bethany is totally proud of today. She is happy today that she doesn’t have to wake up with hangovers or not remembering what happened the night before anymore.
“Recovery is a journey”, Bethany states, “It took me a long time to get to where I am today and it will take me a long time to where I want to be. It is a process.”