My Last Rock Bottom

Sara liked to drink.

Sara was a writer, and drinking seemed to be an element of the identity. As a writer, she searched for the story that would define who she was, and her drinking was a part of her. She drank socially at first, with friends or family, at parties, or festivals. She drank at home sometimes, a glass of wine or two. It was when the two glasses of wine turned into two bottles of wine, when her blacked-out drunken behavior began destroying her marriage, when she began combining her drinking with pills – prescribed or otherwise – this is when Sara began to realize she had a problem.

It wasn’t until she hit her last rock bottom that she understood her story. If she were to continue drinking, her marriage would be over. She knew she had to quit.

So she did.

Sara quickly learned that sobriety wasn’t easy. She had never realized before what a focal point alcohol had been in her life. This new world she was in felt strange and unnatural. Sometimes the daily battle felt impossible.

But inside the struggle she found words. One day, she threw on her husband’s oversized Nike sweatshirt, drove her daughter to school, and came home to write. The words just poured out of her.

Now she had a story.

Despite the struggles she faced and still faces, Sara has remained sober.

This is her story.