Recovery, in their own words

Sober Stories

Real people, real recovery. Honest accounts of what it was like, what happened, and what life looks like now — shared to remind anyone still struggling that they are not alone.

Lyss 27 4 / 24 / 2020 Featured story
Age 27

Lyss

Sober since

From a really young age, I turned to drugs as a way to escape. I started using at 13, and for years it felt like that lifestyle was all I knew. I lost sight of who I was, and I was stuck in...

Read Lyss’s story
Jay Birks 72 7 / 25 / 1988
Age 72

Jay Birks

Sober since

I drank and used when I didn’t want to. I sunk below my values quicker than I could lower them.

Read story
Sue 63 10 / 6 / 2018
Age 63

Sue

Sober since

My first drink I was 9, my last I was 56. I had a 20 year dry period too. I blacked out from the beginning. But the numbing of feelings and the ability to talk to males was what really kept...

Read story
Kevin Forsberg 45 2 / 29 / 2013
Age 45

Kevin Forsberg

Sober since

Awful and just terrible. Sickly and out of my mind. Drinking 7 nights a Week sometimes all day until was blacked out. Was losing my family and possessions cause of it.

Read story
Jeff Kaser 54 4 / 18 / 2018
Age 54

Jeff Kaser

Sober since

"Living in addiction was easy—no responsibility, no accountability, just a hollow existence, like my soul had checked out. My addiction was born on November 20, 1991—my 21st birthday—the sam...

Read story
Brenda Mattson 60 7 / 15 / 2015
Age 60

Brenda Mattson

Sober since

Excruciating. I did damage to every relationship I had. I would sit on the toilet every morning, for the better part of four years wondering how my life had become that. It hurt, but I could...

Read story
Justin Hobson 41 7 / 24 / 2019
Age 41

Justin Hobson

Sober since

I spent over two decades caught in the chaos of addiction. Heroin and meth stole everything from me — my family, my identity, my health, and my future. I was in and out of jail, homeless in...

Read story
Jordan Beavers 34 11 / 27 / 2018
Age 34

Jordan Beavers

Sober since

Heroin didn’t show up in my life as a monster. No, that would’ve been too easy to resist.It came as a whisper. A tender voice that curled around my ear and said, “Come here, baby. Let me hel...

Read story
Morgan Smith 31 3 / 17 / 2022
Age 31

Morgan Smith

Sober since

It was pure hell. I was a slave to meth from the age of 19. I had experimented with other drugs as well and by the end of my last (and hopefully my last ever) relapse I was IV using both met...

Read story
April Richards 32 8 / 28 / 2023
Age 32

April Richards

Sober since

I was an alcoholic. I was depressed. Struggling daily to just get through my day. Struggling in my marriage and friendships. Struggling in my relationship with God.

Read story
Cat 39 9 / 11 / 2023
Age 39

Cat

Sober since

Hell but at the time it’s all I knew.

Read story
Andrew Ianniello 63 6 / 25 / 2006
Age 63

Andrew Ianniello

Sober since

In the end it was a living hell. Convinced my family was better off without me, but, didn't have the guts to kill myself. Had no where else to go.

Read story