I had “dressed” myself before driving drunk to my mother’s home. I had taken a shower thinking that water would take away the smell; that putting on leggings instead of leggings-that-I-slept-and-drank-in, would make me look like I was wearing clothes; that if I put on mascara I’d look like I had slept through the night and not spent the whole day drinking.
“No one knows, including me, that my overindulgence and competitive drinking is an attempt to assert the only masculinity I know. Toxic.”
“I knew that somewhere along the way, I stopped being sober for her and had started doing it for me — and that realization hit me harder than my own fist.”
About eight months sober at that point, I had two thoughts scream through my mind at nearly the same time – first, “Oh hell yeah, all the whiskey at my fingertips” quickly followed by, “Oh hell no, this is cruel.”
Perhaps Demi Lovato would like to take you down into her paradise; she is not scared that you’re her body tyyyyyyyyype.
I have to take a course of antibiotics for 28 FUCKING DAYS. And that means NO DAIRY OR ALCOHOL FOR 28 WHOLE GODDANG DAYS.
The women I kiss like to drink red wine, and I drink them in. I taste red wine and I move past it; my deliverance lies elsewhere.
I refuse to make a New Year’s resolution. I can’t buy into that idea anymore, because I know it only sets me up for failure.
ANTM contestants Jael Strauss and Renee Alway have been in the closet all this time, says Jael.
An epically organized guide to some of our best work on topics including depression, anxiety, grief, eating disorders, substance abuse and other legitimately important topics.
I say, “Hear, hear!” to iced tea and present to the National Iced Tea Month goddesses 10 delightfully delicious iced teas to try.
“I could not wrap my head around having to jump back into the dating scene – sober no less. Where would I find suitable dating candidates? How do I “come out” as sober? It’s bad enough that the queer dating pool is incredibly small. Now, I had to contend with the fact that some people would be averse to dating a sober recovering addict.”
I relish that I am out in the streets with my community protesting inequality, instead of hiding from it under my sheets with a hangover.
I no longer default to the routine pairing of food with wine. Instead, I can really think about complex food and drink pairings that are layered and interesting.
The holiday season is the perfect time to indulge in decedent non-alcoholic hot chocolate concoctions that will put your co-workers’ spiked eggnog to shame.
“If a group I was attending was still printing, distributing, and teaching from a book that was blatantly racist or homophobic, I would get up and leave and/or advocate for change. I do not give special passes for misogyny and sexism, especially in my sobriety, because my self-worth is so integral to my complete recovery.”
The party starts at 6:30 am and ends at 10:30 am.
“The fellowship said I was thinking too hard about it, that I was stubborn, and that I was not willing to admit that there were forces bigger than me. What they didn’t get was that I did believe there were forces beyond my control, powers bigger than me. Let’s just take gravity as one of many examples. I just don’t believe that praying to gravity or the radiator or the ocean would cure me of my alcoholism.”
It also turns out that I’m a foodie and love brunching sober because I get to focus and spend more money on the actual food! (Pizza and Oreos are NOT theeeeee best combination of food I’ve eeeeeeever eaten. That was the vodka talking.)
“On one hand, she said she fully supported my path to recovery, but in the same breath she would ask me provoking questions like ‘When is fun Ginger going to come back?’ in response to me choosing not to drink.”
