I pray that I may keep progressing in the better life. I pray that I may be a part of the forces for good in the world.

I went to my first AA meeting after some friends/therapist pressure. However ive been sober since June 2023.

I decided to go because im 21 in college and miss the social aspects of drinking, like a lot. I got sober after a college dropout (ive gone back now for a couple years and transferred) and feeling like im missing out. I really miss the social lubricant and not feeling awkward and meeting able to hide under a fun drunk persona.

It was small, supposed to be young oriented but I was the youngest by like a decade and just felt awkward and out of place. Everyone was very welcoming, thats not on them.

Only thing i didnt like is asking for my contact info at the end. Id kinda rather die than talk to people at AA outside of AA. Im embarrassed to even go. Only my best friend ive known before I got sober knows I even went.

Is this is a normal thing? Should I indulge?

This and many more on YouTube @RecoverRaw

75 more videos on YouTube @RecoveryRaw

I don’t have a lot of addict friends so I feel weird bringing this up to people in my life because I feel like they don’t really understand. If you’re not religious that’s fine but I thank god for everything I have right now , I didn’t plan on living this long and here I am , a beautiful wife, wonderful kids, a good job , and I was just accepted into college . So if anyone reads this and is still working on sobriety just understand it can work if you let it work . Thank you 🙏

I pray that I may do the things that make for peace. I pray that I may have a mission of conciliation.

👍

I have been completely sober for 10 years, but recently I find myself struggling and thinking ALOT about weed. I live in Michigan and these dispensaries are literally everywhere. I find myself rationalizing insanity in my head. I never took edibles back when I was in active addiction, just smoked but I’ve been telling myself lately that ‘maybe I’d be alright if I took a gummy to sleep. Members of my family take gummies for sleep, people I work with talk about it. I 100% realize that this is not a good idea, and I wouldn’t be able to just have one and stop like everyone else, I’d be off the rails in a month but damn, Has anyone else struggled like this 10 years into recovery?

I recently had the honor of sharing a poem I wrote about the impact of art on my journey to sobriety.

I contributed a piece to the "Shadow to Light: Breaking the Stigma Against Addiction" exhibition at the Franklin County coroner's office in Ohio, where I had the opportunity to read my work. Let me know what you think

I am an addict. In order of magnitude: Weed, porn, nicotine, alchohol. I can handle drinking without addiction, but at this time, refuse to allow any habitual intoxication into my life. I quit everything cold turkey except for porn several months ago and maintained sobriety for two months, relapsed around friends, tried to moderate, etc etc. The reintroduction of intoxication to my life left me depressed, low motivation, low energy, socially inverted and self-isolated, and worst of all - dependent. I will no longer tolerate external dependencies, false need, or self-deception. I know plainly what the best life for me is. I know clearly what the best choices are and I will make them.

Last night was hell but that's the first stint done. Now my brain resets with vivid night terrors (in the past, this made me not want to quit weed). But already my sleep (the few hours of it) is restoring me properly again.

Boredom and discomfort are the real bears & I'm taking their teeth out. Hang out for a while guys, it's alright. Meaningless physiological sensations.

I'm posting to receive more vibes & put more power into this. I'm totally confident that I can remain sober, because I've done it before, and it's night and day in terms of quality of life. Yes this is hubris but I'm using it.

Weed and porn don't get enough credit for how addictive and destabilizing they are. Over time I became completely dependent on them. Porn is insidious because it finds you everywhere, triggers and viable content are all over social media & algorithms use whatever draws your attention to addict you. It's hard to disentangle as it finds you in sobriety, on breaks, can give you a dopamine hit just from watching for a second.

Weed I find is deceptive as it has measured benefits that are quickly made irrelevant by the negatives of habitual/daily use (I haven't been a 24/7 smoking in a while but I still have "days"). I have insomnia - it helps with insomnia - kind of - but then it also dramatically reduces the quality of your sleep and leaves your brain lurching. Anxiety - it helps a bit - but then leads to a lot of psychosis & delusion - for someone who's naturally self-isolating this is an issue.

Sobriety reminds me who I actually am. Going through boredom and discomfort mean that you have to re-evaluate what you actually want to do & who you want to be. Yeah, being pinned to one video game for 8+ hours isn't going to be entertaining when you're sober. Go figure - it shouldn't be!

All these pathways we learn in early childhood, exacerbated by the need for your brain to make sense of things, make them consistent - then we learn how to make things consistent for a while - and then we chase consistency forever.

Needless to say I’m in recovery. The issue is I don’t do bars and clubs. I’m not going to give a long in depth story of my life. I just want to find the woman I love. Or at the very least get laid once in a while. But when you aren’t actively living a social life on the scene it’s so hard to even meet friends. I don’t wanna return to drinking and drugging. I’m glad that I turned things in my life around. I just feel as though the social aspect of my life absolutely sucks and I have no idea how to fix it. Especially nowadays with so many people on social media and not as accessible(at least it seems that way) it’s just hard and I’m frustrated and don’t want those feelings to linger.

I pray that I may rest and abide in the presence of the unseen God. I pray that I may leave my burdens in His care.

Hear me out y’all. I started thinking about my cravings in a certain way and it’s helped a bunch. Y’all know the trope of a loitering teenager outside the liquor store pestering you to go in and buy them some White Claws and how annoying they are? That’s what I picture my cravings as and helps me to talk myself out of buying more.

i.e., driving past the dispensary and I feel like I want to stop in. I imagine my cravings as some whiny teen being like “C’mon man, just buy me one preroll man, you got any money?” and it’s annoying as fuck. And then I skip the dispo.

Hope this can help someone else!

34m, when I was 19-21 I was addicted to opioids almost OD'd and quit.

28 came along and I got my first DUI on Valentine's Day, blew a .28 after a half a bottle of whiskey. (No one got hurt, just my 02 Civic SI) Quit drinking.

The problem is that I for the life of me cannot quit smoking weed and doing other psychedelics. Last night I took an 8th of shrooms and had an existential crisis that almost took me out.

Today, I have made it this far without smoking weed.

Hit me with your best advice, I know the whole "working out, distract yourself yada yada" but it just doesn't cut it.

For me, it's huge. I hit rock bottom in May and have stayed sober through all the horrible results (friend loss, marriage issues, and legal problems, to name a few). It's been tough going, but I've made it so far with patience and a lot of sparkling water.

I pray that I may not interfere with the working of God’s spirit in me and through me. I pray that I may give it full rein.

Hello everyone!

My name is Deja, I have been sober from heroin and meth for 6 years. I really found a connection within discord community groups during COVID. I wanted to share a discord server I helped build and currently lead as admin.

Recovery: Reborn from the Ashes
https://discord.gg/4NjT5cESee

We are an 18+ community

At this time, we do not support pornography addiction

We strive to help all walks of life share in the journey of recovery. We are not exclusive to only AA / NA, all recovery styles are welcome.

Come on in and say hello!

I'm so incredibly proud of myself. Just wanted to share!

I pray that I may feel that God’s love will never fail. I pray that I may have confidence in His unfailing power.

My Sobriety Story

💔 A little over three years ago, you wouldn’t have recognized me. I was broken. Addiction had me by the throat. I overdosed more times than I can count, and every time I opened my eyes, I wondered why I was still here. The worst part wasn’t just what I was doing to myself—it was the pain I caused the people I loved. My daughter. My parents. My brothers. My sister. My wife. They all had to watch me throw my life away piece by piece.

It started when I was just 16. At first, it was Percs—I thought I was just having fun. But that “fun” turned into heroin. Then crack. Then meth. Every step down was another piece of me gone. I lied, I stole, I begged, I betrayed people who loved me. My whole world became about the next high, no matter the cost.

😔 The memory that still breaks me is overdosing in front of my daughter. I’ll never forgive myself for that moment. No child should have to see their parent dying in front of them. That was my rock bottom. That was the man I hated—the man I refused to be anymore.

On December 12, 2022, I took my last hit. That was the day I said enough was enough. That was the day I chose to fight for my life.

Sobriety hasn’t been easy—it’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There were nights I cried, nights I wanted to use again, nights I thought I couldn’t do it. But I kept showing up. I kept fighting. And with God’s grace and my wife by my side, I found the strength to keep going.

✨ Today, I’m proud to say I am sober. I am alive. I am a father my daughter can be proud of. I am a cycling artist. A grower who puts care into his craft. A creator who has walked in fashion shows and has work in stores. And now, instead of destroying myself, I get to travel the world, meet new people, and live with purpose.

Addiction didn’t win. I did. And I’ll keep winning—one day at a time.

⚠️ To anyone still struggling: I know how dark it gets. I know how heavy it feels. I know how much you think you can’t escape it. But you can. I’m living proof that you can crawl out of the deepest hole and build a life worth living. Don’t give up on yourself. You deserve better.

🌴✈️ From overdosing in front of my daughter… to walking runways… to flying to Puerto Rico with my wife—I am grateful for this second chance at life. I’ll never take it for granted.

I pray that I may try to avoid judgment and criticism. I pray that I may always try to build up others instead of tearing them down.

Hey everyone, I’m a 22M and ever since the age of 16 I have had an issue with alcohol, never understood if it was an addiction, or just simple abuse of it. I suffer/ed from major depressive disorder and severe anxiety. Luckily ive overcomed the worst parts of it, but still have depression and anxiety, just not as bad.

When I would get waves, episodes of my depression, I would drink to make me feel better, and when I felt like it wasn’t working, I’d drink more until it landed me with light alcohol poisoning. And, the more I drank the worse the waves got at times, and that would trigger the response to drink more. But I never felt like I had a tolerance or I needed to have it to feel normal, which is my understanding of addiction.

I drank for all the wrong reasons at my worst, so even when I want to have a fun drink, kick back and relax. It’s like it reawakens every ounce of pain I went through and I have a new wave of depression that only lasts while I’m intoxicated. Happened most recently a couple days ago and I haven’t been feeling myself because of it, I drank for a birthday celebration, wanting to have fun and I ruined the moment because I never found a effective way to cope.

Typing this tonight I honestly want help, I don’t want pure sobriety because i believe I can reach a point where I can do just that, have a couple drinks, hell, get drunk, and not bring everyone down. I’m a collage student, I want to have that collage student experience where you can have fun, have a drink without the weight of the world sinking in me. My depression and anxiety are hurdles I have given all my energy to overcoming, and understanding I have a problem with alcohol has been rough.

Understanding that messy context, I guess what I’m trying to ask is, is that possible for someone like me..? To have a drink, have a good time and feel genuinely weightless in the world for once? Or am I better off never touching a drink again. If so.. am I an addict, or do I just have a problem with abusing alcohol. Because when I don’t have waves, I’m sober, I’m good, I never have urges to drink, until I have a wave come in, but I’ve been good at resisting it.

Thank for you for reading, and any help that gets sent my way. I appreciate it all.