Clean and Sober reminders and keepsakes. From one Fellow to another
I came across this website I would like share with you. The site belongs to musician Brad Mersereau. He has devoted it to his sister Laura’s memory who sadly did not find her way to recovery and died at 46 from alcoholism. It is a very powerful reminder that addiction in itself is a form of insanity, it affects our loved ones profoundly, destroys lives and that some of us won’t make it to sobriety. The following is an excerpt from his site, one of a series of very poignant…
Read MoreThanksgiving is a special time but for me, it marks another year of sobriety. I now have eight years of continued sobriety. During those years, I have experienced the same disappointments and achievements in life as I always have but the difference is that I was able to handle life on life’s terms– just using my instincts, some common sense and I hope, good judgment. It’s been a tough yet wonderfully liberating experience. One thing that I found a bit of challenge is dealing with friends and family regarding sobriety. …
Read MoreWe are a prescription drug society. Not a day will pass when we will see an advertisement describing some medical condition and the pill that will help it. An astonishing amount of advertising about insomnia has surfaced within the last few years. It is estimated that one of out of six people over the age of 15 has problems falling or staying asleep. My co-worker has been taking as he describes a “tiny dose” of Clonazepam because he experiences “middle-of-the-night” insomnia. He wakes up every morning at 2 am and…
Read MoreWhen I was using, sometimes I felt like I was living in solitary confinement. My addiction was my incarceration–a lonely, frightening and lifeless jail of my own doing. Now that I’m clean and sober there is a whole dimension of solitude I’ve learned to embrace rather than fear. During my first year of sobriety, dealing with solitude was difficult. Like many others entering recovering, I had to let go of friends who used and using patterns I had developed that were social. Although I had developed other social networks with…
Read MoreIt’s a rainy, foggy day and although I like the rain, today’s rain is reflecting my dark and somber mood. I had all these plans to be productive today but somehow I let my mood take over, simply relenting to the dark side. The problems in life overshadowing my plans, poor me. In my using days, these kinds of days really lent themselves to being stoned. I felt crappy so I got high. It would make me feel better, an instant bliss until it wore off and I’d get high…
Read MoreWe’ve heard it before that people in recovery have it especially hard during the holidays. Everything from bad memories associated with drinking/using, to seeing loved ones out of control, to having to resist those urges to partake in a little holiday cheer like the rest of society. The holidays are the ultimate test of the addict/alcoholic’s commitment to sobriety. I personally don’t like the holidays much. I’m not a very christmasy person, not being traditional makes me feel bad, not giving in to the mass-consumerism makes me feel guilty and not…
Read MoreAs I approach my seven years of being clean, I ask myself what is the one true thing I’ve gained. That one thing would be freedom. Freedom from the isolation and secrecy of addiction. Freedom from not having to score my next stash. Freedom from my self-loathing and mood swings. Keeping that dirty little habit that spun so out of control from my husband, my family, my non-using friends, my co-workers and from society in general was a constant preoccupation. Like most addicts, I really tried hard to conceal my habit and for…
Read MoreThis blog entry is dedicated to all the women out there who suffer from uterine fibroid tumors. Approximately 40% of menstruating women suffer from fibroid tumors. Symptoms include heavy, long periods, cramping and pelvic pressure Left untreated, these fibroids can make you anemic and your life miserable. Up until recently, I was part of this statistic. Ladies, there is a treatment option out there that doesn’t involve a hysterectomy, a major surgical procedure with a recovery time of 6-8 weeks. Fortunately, there is a procedure called Uterine Artery Embolization. UAE…
Read MoreI am among the millions of people out there with occassional sleep issues. For the past few years, insomnia has come and gone. When I was using, getting sleep was really not much of a problem since I was self-medicating and in a state of perpetual buzz. I never seemed to get enough sleep and I almost slept too much. Today, I am clean and sober yet blissful, uninterrupted, deep sleep is sometimes a challenge. Is this an after-effect that many addicts/alcoholics experience in recovery? Was I too stoned at…
Read MoreIt seems not another day goes by that you hear about some famous person going to rehab. In this age of celebrity, being in recovery has almost become fashionable. Mind you, I am not usually into in celebrity gossip but when I hear about “so and so” going into rehab again, I can’t help but take an interest. Maybe it’s because I believe that celebrities in recovery are good publicity for recovery. To most people, stars seem to be these indivduals that are larger than life but when they wind…
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