18 Days of Sober Takeaways: Day 1
Why I Write About Addiction
I didn't set out to spend the second half of my life writing about addiction. When I first sobered up, I was much more interested in putting drinking behind me.
I wanted to move forward, get on with things, and stop thinking about what I’d done while I was drinking.
And for a while, that worked.
But somewhere along the way, I became curious about the person I’d been before sobriety… and the person I’d become afterward.
As the years passed, I also began realizing that stopping drinking had solved only the most obvious problem – that drinking too much alcohol was what was wrong with me.
But it had not helped with a bigger challenge
And it was this:
Alcohol was something I’d been using all those years to manage everything I didn't know how to manage on my own.
I’ve now been sober for over 27 years. That’s enough distance for me to remember the drinking without romanticizing it… and enough experience to know that getting sober is not the end of the story.
Nor is it the start.
The story starts with why I began drinking in the first place - why does anyone? - and what I had to learn to stop the destructive self-soothing and replace it with something else.
You can find more on that in my 18 Days of Sober Takeaways - Day 2
To further explore any of the topics raised in my 18 Days of Sober Takeaways, or if you’d like support in stopping drinking, please visit:
Substack: Sally Cardy - Transformative Recovery Solutions
