Celebrate Recovery –
August 11, 2019 – “A lot of people through the AA/NA/CA communities have it recognized at their local chapter meeting, with a cake,” she tells Bustle. “Sometimes a medal. Sometimes there are presents involved. I have seen its recognition as varied as any approach to a birthday.” Soberversaries are testaments to how far a person has come, and how far they have yet to go. In this way, soberversaries — particularly early markers of days, weeks, or months — can be complicated emotional processes. They can celebrate the forging of new identities and life adventures, but soberversaries can also be experienced as a form of mourning an former identity. Observing a soberversary is an immensely personal process, so of course, there is no right way to be with yourself on those days — if you even choose to keep note of them at all. To observe her 300 day soberversary, writer Danielle Dayney reflected that on the idea of freedom and the future on the mental health community website The Mighty. “I’m hesitant to say I am free because I know I’m not,” she wrote, “The days ahead of me will be long and filled with uniquely challenging pressures that I haven’t yet prepared myself for. Yet, I will figure them out, one by one.”
