Drug and Alcohol Addiction: Before and After Photos and Stories

Acknowledging and celebrating the hard work of recovery is helpful for keeping you motivated and reminding you why you took this brave step toward sobriety in the first place. Just be sure that your rewards don’t involve drugs or alcohol.

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Twin Falls Outpatient Drug & Alcohol Treatment

There’s little more challenging than fighting cravings for drugs or alcohol while you’re clinging to sobriety. 2012 to 2013 were my hardest drinking days. My son would leave Friday night and spend the weekend with his grandparents. I took this as the time to drink until I threw up or blacked out.

All that’s left is pain and a compulsion to keep using — this is how all addiction works. Once I quit drinking on April 12th, it wasn’t like it was all smooth sailing from there. It’s challenging, it’s beautiful, it’s mind-blowing, and it’s excruciating — all rolled into one. The best way I can describe the intensity of it is to say that it’s like having a 20-year mental & emotional growth spurt condensed into one year. Real Recovery is Florida’s best rated and largest sober living community committed to you and your loved one’s success in long-term sobriety. Real Recovery is Florida’s best rated and largest sober living community committed to you and your loved one’s success in achieving long-term sobriety. I recently moved into Real Recovery and I have been very impressed!

Persevering Through Recovery

The therapeutic journey of confronting the adverse childhood experiences that permeated his daily life helped him to reduce their significance in his mind. That way, these ACEs no longer pervaded his negative thought patterns. To anyone out there struggling with alcohol or drug abuse, just know that you are not alone. And that help is out there where ever you turn. And life is so much more beautiful than the darkness in which you have been living. In 2013, my boyfriend, myself and my son could no longer afford our apartment so we moved in with his mom. She made it clear that we needed to stop drinking.

In addition to being able to recognize them, it’s important to know when to seek help. Some definitions of sobriety call for complete lifelong abstinence while others focus on developing coping mechanisms that can reduce harm with the understanding that setbacks are common. However, research suggests that while 12-step groups are effective, people often don’t continue their involvement at beneficial levels over the long term. There are also resources such as 12-step groups and recovery groups. It is estimated that up to 80% of those who find long-term sobriety had at least one relapse along the way.

Commonly Abused Drugs

As a woman, part of my journey is about finding my voice and figuring out who I am. After nearly a decade of living in recovery, I can tell you that long-term sobriety is not for the faint of heart. A lot has happened in these nine and a half years. At three years of sobriety, I buried my best friend in the world. It broke my heart and healed me in innumerable ways at the same time. I sought spirituality and a connection with my higher power with a desperation that I never had before. One of the things that breaks my heart is that I was not always there for my family as much as I feel I should have been.

Chris motivated me to make those sobriety success storiess. I’m also very lucky because the support I get from my family and my siblings has been amazing. People show up, and I’m trying to show up for people too, and be a good person. I needed to be around people that were doing it every day. My whole goal right now is to be a good husband, a good father, and to help other alcoholics and addicts who are going through the same thing that I have.