Everything Is Fine: 21 Months Sober
[Contains spoilers for the film Another Round]
Twenty-one months ago, I had my last drink ever. It started out as an experiment and by the end of the first month had become a deliberate and permanent choice. I committed to writing one article a month for the first year of my sobriety, documenting my experiences and sharing the discoveries I made along the way. And I discovered a lot. Seven months in, I came to terms with the fact that I really had been an alcoholic, and that I really wouldn’t ever be able to drink again. I read a lot of books and articles about sobriety, listened to podcasts and albums about drinking and alcohol, learned that many of my favourite celebrities have been sober for years (Max Greenfield! Who knew?). I wrote about things I remembered from when I abused alcohol, times I nearly died or ruined someone else’s night or ended up in some messy fucked-up situation I never would have found myself in had I not put myself there in an inebriated state. I worked through a lot of shame and hurt and trauma, and after nine months I stopped writing. I didn’t explain that I’d changed my mind about the monthly articles, or offer any explanation as to why I stopped three months short. I knew of people who’d been following the journey and who might be wondering if I’d started drinking again but felt too ashamed to say, and I knew of people…
