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.

Josh Abel 63 4 / 31 / 4 Featured story
Age 63

Josh Abel

It was hard on me to watch a good friend to go through the addiction with not much help.

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Lyss 27 4 / 24 / 2020
Age 27Since 04 / 24 / 2020

Lyss

From a really young age, I turned to drugs as a way to escape. I started using at 13, and for years it felt like that lifestyle was all I knew. I lost sight of who I was, and I was stuck in...

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Jay Birks 72 7 / 25 / 1988
Age 72Since 07 / 25 / 1988

Jay Birks

I drank and used when I didn’t want to. I sunk below my values quicker than I could lower them.

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Sue 63 10 / 6 / 2018
Age 63Since 10 / 06 / 2018

Sue

My first drink I was 9, my last I was 56. I had a 20 year dry period too. I blacked out from the beginning. But the numbing of feelings and the ability to talk to males was what really kept...

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Kevin Forsberg 45 2 / 29 / 2013
Age 45Since 03 / 01 / 2013

Kevin Forsberg

Awful and just terrible. Sickly and out of my mind. Drinking 7 nights a Week sometimes all day until was blacked out. Was losing my family and possessions cause of it.

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Jeff Kaser 54 4 / 18 / 2018
Age 54Since 04 / 18 / 2018

Jeff Kaser

"Living in addiction was easy—no responsibility, no accountability, just a hollow existence, like my soul had checked out. My addiction was born on November 20, 1991—my 21st birthday—the sam...

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Brenda Mattson 60 7 / 15 / 2015
Age 60Since 07 / 15 / 2015

Brenda Mattson

Excruciating. I did damage to every relationship I had. I would sit on the toilet every morning, for the better part of four years wondering how my life had become that. It hurt, but I could...

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Justin Hobson 41 7 / 24 / 2019
Age 41Since 07 / 24 / 2019

Justin Hobson

I spent over two decades caught in the chaos of addiction. Heroin and meth stole everything from me — my family, my identity, my health, and my future. I was in and out of jail, homeless in...

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Jordan Beavers 34 11 / 27 / 2018
Age 34Since 11 / 27 / 2018

Jordan Beavers

Heroin didn’t show up in my life as a monster. No, that would’ve been too easy to resist.It came as a whisper. A tender voice that curled around my ear and said, “Come here, baby. Let me hel...

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Morgan Smith 31 3 / 17 / 2022
Age 31Since 03 / 17 / 2022

Morgan Smith

It was pure hell. I was a slave to meth from the age of 19. I had experimented with other drugs as well and by the end of my last (and hopefully my last ever) relapse I was IV using both met...

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April Richards 32 8 / 28 / 2023
Age 32Since 08 / 28 / 2023

April Richards

I was an alcoholic. I was depressed. Struggling daily to just get through my day. Struggling in my marriage and friendships. Struggling in my relationship with God.

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Cat 39 9 / 11 / 2023
Age 39Since 09 / 10 / 2023

Cat

Hell but at the time it’s all I knew.

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