by Anonymous
If you are one of the many women currently suffering with alcohol use disorder, I am not here to tell you to stop drinking. You might expect a piece on sobriety to do just that, but those of us who have been through recovery know it’s not what you need to hear. (And if you did, would you listen?) Most alcoholics already know that they need to stop drinking; the problem is they can’t. What we need to know is how. “What would I do without booze?” Living a life without alcohol in a culture built around drinking seems like no life at all. And yet, this could not be farther from the truth. The reality of sober living is that when a person puts down the thing they are addicted to, what that leaves them to do is everything else . Those of us in recovery have learned that alcohol is the very thing that has kept us from living, that keeps us from connecting with people, places, and things. It is not the emotional crutch it is held up to be, but an emotional prison. “Am I an alcoholic?” The first step to getting sober is getting honest about your drinking. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence has put together a quiz to assess where you are on the scale. “I can control my drinking” Even if you are in the early stages of alcoholism, it is important to understand that addictions snowball. They
“I’ll stop after___” Alcoholics often believe that “now” is never the right time to stop, because there is always some celebration or crisis they can’t manage sober. “I’ll stop when my kids leave for college...,” “...when I leave this marriage...,” “... after my daughter’s wedding...,” “...when work calms down…” In reality, being an alcoholic is making dealing with those circumstances unmanageable. Getting sober means learning how to manage stress without numbing your feelings. Gray Area Drinking An issue that needs more attention is the range of drinking habits. “I didn’t understand what gray area drinking was,”
cannot be controlled with time or behavior. They cannot be controlled. The only solution is abstinence. In a room filled with women in recovery, some who walked in on their own, and some who were court-appointed to be there after multiple DUIs
said Jessica Ward, founder of the Facebook group Maryland Sober Girl Gang. “I thought a person either is an alcoholic or is not, and that kept me drinking problematically for years.” Gray area drinking is a warning zone that you may be
…addictions snowball. They cannot be controlled with time or behavior.
and jail time, a common word used to compare our stories is yet. “I never got a DUI from driving drunk…YET!”
heading towards alcoholism, since it is difficult to know exactly when a person’s problematic drinking behavior turns into alcoholic drinking.
SUMMER 2024 | 55
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