I am a sober, early 40-something, happily married, yankee-transplant now living in the Southeast. I have two pain-in-the-butt dogs that I adore and a trouble maker cat. I spent my 20s and 30s as a high-functioning drinker. Most people would never have questioned or thought of me when thinking of a problem drinker. In fact, I wouldn’t call me a problem drinker. I had no problem drinking! I drank to have fun. I drank to socialize. I drank to relax. I drank to drink. Over those twenty years, I somehow became a 1-2 bottles-a-day kind of drinker. And when I decided to try and cut back on the wine, I realized just how much harder it was than I thought it would be. I tried to cut back. I tried making up rules about when to drink and not drink, what to drink, how much to drink. I’ll only drink on weekends! (Then Thursdays and Sundays started becoming weekend days too)! I’ll only drink beer and wine. (Then martinis were “basically” the same as beer and wine). You name the rule, I made it and broke it.
In spring of 2017, I woke up one-too-many times in the middle of the night – miserable, exhausted, partially hung-over. I had googled one-too-many times “am I an alcoholic”, and I “drunk signed-up” for a sobriety school wait list. Months went by and I had forgotten all about my middle of the night sign-up. Then one night, I got the email reminder about the upcoming sobriety school. I was up in the middle of the night again – room spinning – and at that moment, I decided to cut alcohol out of my life. I joined a sobriety coaching class called Hip Sobriety School in September of 2017, and my new and shiny life began to unfold.
New and Shiny Me 