First: I love your writing style, content and can’t wait to see more.

Can we start a mocktail drink thread? Because when I was getting sober on the DL, bitters + soda + lime changed my life. Friends never noticed that I wasn’t drinking drinking and bartenders didn’t hate me.

I’d love to hear others’ go-to substitutes...

The biggest thing I learned is that the type of people, family or friends, who get angry or who don’t understand why you aren’t drinking anymore have a tendency to make someone else’s struggles about themselves and fail to properly show any self awareness about the situation. Granted, a lot of really good friends and…

I’m stoked to read this. How do you send questions?! I have such a similar story and was a problematic , black out drinker. I have 465 days today. i could have dreamed up my life right now, i never imagined I would actually get out of that messy time. stopping was the most difficult, worthwhile thing I’ve ever done. I…

Maye Musk. The darker blue lining inside her dress. It’s killing me. I want it so badly. Such a gorgeous gown!

I can’t even read it all the way through. I am panicking. I am yelling in my head. I’ve been sober for 48 days. This isn’t my first try but I didn’t even try until I was 38. The most I had was 11 months and 22 days. This shit is hard.

Whoa I’ve never seen all three Olsens in one photo.

Congrats to you both for getting sober at such a young age. I didn’t until I was 41 (and should have when I was 26!) and am always in such awe of young people coming into the rooms of AA. I drank alcoholically for about 20 years too long. I was first told I needed rehab in 2008. I finally went in 2015.

You should be fine if you know that they’re OK with alcohol. I was just annoyed because one girl knew I was trying to not drink and she got me the flask. Another girl and I had gotten into a fight previously when I tried to drive drunk and she didn’t think I should - she got me the personalized wine glass and bottle…

No, it was the sweet potato he was eating like an apple

Alek Wek is the most gracious, fun woman in person. I met her one London Fashion Week as she was modelling for a client, and she was just so lovely. I like to think we ~bonded~ over our Sarf Landan roots.

YES. Thank you. It really is and generally when I come across extremely aggressive people in life, I can just avoid them, I feel like I completely trapped myself with these people who think it’s okay to make fun of people who would dare to refuse a drink. Also we are in our late 20s, I’m not 18 or something, so it’s…

Thank you, I needed to hear that. :)

It can be hard to be the person who isn’t drinking when everyone else wants you to, but just remember that you owe more to yourself than you owe to any one of those people. Don’t let them make you feel bad about wanting something good for yourself.

Thank you, it means a lot to me. They’re extremely difficult and I just knew that I was going to lapse to try to make things easier with them. I just didn’t think it would get this bad, and knowing I have to see them the next two weekends in a row for a family birthday and my shower just have me cringing all over. I’m…

Completely agree. LC’s lip is 90 days over for this set though, I think she could have taken it a step sideways with a great red - some trends aren’t really trends... (As a plebeian, I of course loovvvvve what she’s wearing, ha).

I felt a little emotional reading this thread, and the replies. I don’t necessarily blackout when I drink (certainly have but not every night) but I seem to do it to excess, and constantly go through a cycle of get drunk-do stupid things-suffer crippling fear and regret with the onset of a hangover-spiral into…

Thank you so much for this, Sarah.

I knew a guy who called his blackouts “time travel.”

Focusing everything around booze creates a huge barrier to recovering addicts, religious abstainers, and voluntary non-drinkers. If you’re so dependent on alcohol to socialize, you’re willing to alienate people for it, maybe you need to read this article a second time.