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.

Gene Caraker 36 3 / 27 / 2011
Age 36

Gene Caraker

Sober since

Like being a prisoner in my own mind. Every day was darkness. Tired of living, tired of being a husband and father. Couldn't function each day without my poison.

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Ralf Friedrichs, ABOC 54 6 / 22 / 2013
Age 54

Ralf Friedrichs, ABOC

Sober since

Life as a drunk was like living at the bottom of a bottle, always looking up and never finding a way out. That was up until June 22, 2013 when I looked up and saw light shining through the n...

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Emily Copps 46 8 / 28 / 2007
Age 46

Emily Copps

Sober since

It was bewildering, humiliating, paralyzing. It was ugly and painful and disgusting. It was ultimately too big a burden - the lying and cheating and stealing, eventually the sweating and vom...

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Richie 47 9 / 5 / 2016
Age 47

Richie

Sober since

Selfish and self-centered to the extreme, driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity.

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Charlie Radiola 63 3 / 27 / 1987
Age 63

Charlie Radiola

Sober since

Started out in typical fashion, trying booze at the age of 11. Liked what it did for me as far as feeling confident and the coolest guy in the world

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Teddie 53 10 / 11 / 1990
Age 53

Teddie

Sober since

Drinking since I was 12 years old put me in a tail spin for many years. Black-outs and waking up in scared places with scary people put my life in danger in so many ways.

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Maggie H. 22 4 / 10 / 2014
Age 22

Maggie H.

Sober since

I was a big party girl and social butterfly. My drinking got bad my senior year of high school. By the time college rolled around, I was drinking almost every day, blacking out every night,...

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Stephanie 33 5 / 15 / 2016
Age 33

Stephanie

Sober since

I had so much fun in the early days, but I started to rely on alcohol for comfort and to get away from feeling. I drank to be social. I used it to hide my loneliness, low self esteem, and ba...

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Josh 34 12 / 22 / 2012
Age 34

Josh

Sober since

The best depression of my life.

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