Stories
14 stories of how stigma became strength
I was the parent who needed recovery. My kids were watching the whole time.
My daughter asked me why I always had a glass of wine. I was too drunk to hear what she was really asking.…
Read this story free →I relapsed on day 274. Here's what nobody in recovery talks about
Day 274. Nine months clean. And then I made the worst decision of my recovery — and found my way back.
The labels they put on my drinking — and what I finally put on them
Normal drinking. That's what everyone called it. Until the math got undeniable — and the labels started to shift.
Recovery after divorce taught me who I was without the bottle
My marriage and my drinking ended in the same year. Not because my wife gave me an ultimatum — though she probably should have. They ended because I finally connected the two things I'd been...
Sober dating is harder than getting sober — and twice as worth it
The first thing everyone in recovery learns about dating is: don't do it in the first year. The second thing is that almost everyone does it anyway. I lasted eight months before I downloaded the app....
Getting sober at 21 when everyone around you is just starting to drink
I got sober at twenty-one. Which, in the cultural timeline of young adult drinking, is almost exactly when everyone around me was starting. My friends were celebrating legal drinking age, buying...
The CEO's Reckoning: Rebuilding a Career, One Day at a Time
I had everything. The corner office, the six-figure salary, the respect of my peers. I was the guy people called when they needed to get things done. What I also had was a drinking problem that I'd...
From A Mother's Worst Fear to Her Greatest Pride
My daughter was 16 when I found the empty bottles under her bed. In that moment, everything I thought I knew about parenting shattered. I blamed myself for every missed sign, every late night I...
Finding Faith Again After Addiction Stole My Spirituality
I grew up deeply faithful. My church was my community, my spirituality was my anchor, and God was the lens through which I saw everything. Then I got hurt—a betrayal I couldn't reconcile with the God...
The blacklist that built my business
I got fired on a Tuesday. Not for performance — I was the top closer on the sales floor three quarters running. I got fired because someone from my old neighborhood recognized me at a client dinner...
I found God in a folding chair
I didn't find God in a church. I found God in a basement that smelled like burnt coffee and regret, sitting in a metal folding chair with a Styrofoam cup, listening to a man with prison tattoos talk...
Seventeen and already written off
I got suspended from high school junior year for being high in class. Not a huge shock — half the school was using something. The difference was that my mom's arrest record was public knowledge in...