The best way I can describe the intensity of it is to say that it’s like having a 20-year mental & emotional growth spurt condensed into one year. Random breathalyzers, drug tests, and curfew checks ensures our sober living program provides a clean environment, where everyone is accountable for their recovery. I honestly wouldn’t consider this residency a halfway house. It’s much too clean, the appliances and units are brand new. The property itself is maintained multiple times a week. The staff and owners lookout for not just the resident’s well-being but their best interests as well.

• I often say to sober friends that I wouldn’t wish a relapse on my worst enemy, which is certainly true.
• One of the things that breaks my heart is that I was not always there for my family as much as I feel I should have been.
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• Cooper has been open about some of the lower points in his addiction, one being an instance where he was so drunk that was admitted to the hospital after smashing his head on concrete.
• “I was so humiliated. I felt so tiny. I couldn’t say anything, I was just shrinking in my chair,” she said.

After getting caught taking Vicodin pills with wine and admitting to stealing Vicodin from her sister, she sought help. Downey eventually became addicted to heroin and he was arrested multiple times. He was also jailed for six months after failing to take a court-ordered drug test. Brent realized it was going to take commitment and time to change his life. Progress Valley taught him patience and tools to put things back together. What I missed most, during this relapse, was my writing practice—a pursuit that has become an integral part of my life, my identity, my joy.

Living Recovery: True Stories of Addiction Recovery

I can’t think of anything in our society that is stigmatized sober success storiese like addiction. Typing that sentence feels absolutely surreal because 365 days ago, the idea of not drinking alcohol for just one week was totally unfathomable, let alone one entire year. Jodi shares her story of being a mother of four and battling drug addiction.

Real Recovery is Florida’s best rated and largest sober living community committed to you and your loved one’s success in achieving long-term sobriety. Real Recovery is a nationally recognized and certified sober living residence with onsite certified recovery specialists that are active members of a 12-step program. Real Recovery is a growing community of sober living homes located in the Tampa Bay area. Our properties are located throughout Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota County). They’re about growing along spiritual lines, and sobriety is a by-product of that.

Jodi’s Story

Patient care and engagement are always top notch, and I know that I can always trust that the patient and their families will be in the best position to recover. Solid clinically, and more importantly these are good and genuinely caring people. I cannot recommend JourneyPure at the River enough for those struggling with addiction. I don’t think I even really liked drinking — it just seemed to make things a lot easier.

And the property maintains a safe place for men of all afflictions to recover in a safe and sober environment. I would highly recommend this for anyone serious about their recovery. Today, he’s two years sober, and stays in the middle of the recovery boat. He loves to stay active in biking, hiking, and doing activities sober with his friends and family. Addiction is a chronic disorder, not a personal failure. There is a human face behind every example, and there is real hope that addiction recovery can change your life.

Sober Celebrities Share Recovery Stories to Inspire Others

I stay as close as I can with the people in my circle. I keep it tight and talk to somebody in recovery every day. I don’t go to bed with an issue; if I have something going on, I let people know. Thank God I had the opportunity to go to Herren Wellness and slowly they made me feel like I could do this. I had tried so many times I really didn’t think it was possible. I thought I was one of those hopeless people that would never get it, and that I was destined to die from this.

If you feel you have a problem with drink or drugs and that the time is ripe to follow in the footsteps of these stories of sobriety, you don’t need to make the journey alone. In the summer of 2014, my boyfriend gave me an ultimatum; either I stop drinking or he would take my son and I could leave. I woke up on August 10, 2014, and went to a treatment center for an intake appointment. The next week, I started outpatient treatment. My boyfriend and I go to AA meetings together to this day and I met my sponsor at a speaker’s meeting. I spent over a decade knowing that I was supposed to be someone else but constantly getting further and further away from that.

Recovery Success Stories: 4 Celebrities Who Overcame Addiction

And my poor roommates had no idea what to do with me. Most mornings, they’d look at me despondently, and I would offer my best full-toothed smile. I walked into my first https://ecosoberhouse.com/ meeting at age twenty-one. It was 2008, in Washington Heights in Manhattan—a city I didn’t live in—so I was certain I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew. Trent didn’t think that dabbling with marijuana would lead him to meth and other drugs. Watch his story of struggle, and his transition into recovery.

• Last year, Vex experienced a series of events that, in retrospect, were eye-opening.
• I, like most addicts, needed a stable environment and accountability and I am happily clean for the longest amount of time I ever have been.
• I had a very fixed idea of what a problem drinker looked like, and I wasn’t it.
• I had no hope of my life getting better than the next big score.
• Hoping to make her dreams a reality, Michelle Tea recounts her awkward attempts to gain literary fame as she smokes, drinks, and snorts her way through San Francisco.

Other students sometimes reminded me of that fact too. Once, a girl on my floor—a blond from Greenwich, Connecticut—stopped me in the laundry room to ask what I thought of affirmative action. I don’t remember what I told her, but I do remember it was the only time she ever spoke with me in the two years I lived in that dorm. Several of our alumni have willingly opened up to share theirs with you.