Weird and refreshing

I've had two conversations in two days about addiction. I find that both weird and refreshing. Weird because talk of addiction is typically taboo and hush hush. Refreshing because both women revealed themselves with grace and raw vulnerability.

One conversation involved a woman's husband who landed himself in a forced treatment facility due to a hit and run where no one was hurt (thank goodness) and the other where the woman detoxed herself from pain killers after becoming addicted due to a chronic medical condition. Both conversations began innocently enough--the first talking about the dog that had become a lifeline of unconditional love for the now sober husband, and the second about ramping up to quit sugar and how that might bolster her fragile constitution.

These interactions have me thinking about my own addiction story. I wrote it once…in the ramp up to quitting alcohol, in an attempt to get it on paper while I still remembered it, in homage to the lost girl I was and the clarity I wanted so badly. I wrote it for me, not for public consumption. 

I don't often volunteer my "sober status" unless the situation warrants it. I tell people easily that I don't drink but I rarely tell them why. It took me over a month to tell my boyfriend why I don't drink, and when I did, I only scratched the surface telling him what pushed me over the edge towards sobriety and not the "nitty gritty" of what led me there in the first place. 

There two brave women gave me the courage to find my addiction story again. It was filed under "drafts" among a massive amount of musings I have already written and not ever shared.

It’s time to share.