I Was 10 Years Old the First Time I Got Drunk. Now I’m Sober Helping Others Quit.

AS IT SHOULD BE –

Sept. 27, 2023 – I certainly didn’t make things easy for my parents. By the time adolescence struck, my status as a difficult child was well-established. I rebelled at every turn. In time, I ran away from home and lived in Long Beach for a year and half, at which point I got picked up and placed in a correctional school for girls. Even at the correctional school I found the ways and means to drink — we made our own hooch.

Eventually, I returned home and went to high school, where I promptly met a boy, got married and then pregnant at the age of 16. I loved my daughter wholeheartedly and tried with every ounce of that love and self-will to be a good mother. While I was always there for her, alcohol was still my constant companion. My marriage didn’t last long, as my addiction led me down a dark road to even darker places, fueled by the fleeting of escape. There came a time when I couldn’t avoid the fact that the “party” wasn’t fun anymore. I went to my doctor and asked, “Do you think I drink too much, could I be an alcoholic?” And he said, “No, you’re too young to be an alcoholic.” Back then people knew so little about addiction.

At 24, my turning point arrived in an unlikely manner: romance. A man I wanted to date finally asked me out, only to take me to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. While there, I heard someone share and could relate to what was said. I wanted what they had! I have not had to have a drink or take a drug since.