After 4186 days (11 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 3
days)
I ended my sobriety on Father's Day 2022 when I drank
I also drank
To reach the 4186 days milestone again, I will need to not drink until Monday, December 12, 2033.
I am happy that I can add Max Cavalera to the list of well-known famous people who are sober. Cavalera played in Sepultura for many years and while Sepultura is not at the top of my list of "Bands I Listen to Very Often," I do like their Beneath the Remains release as well as Roots, which were released prior to Cavalera leaving Sepultura. Max Cavalera Reveals the Moment He Decided to Get Sober
"One of the most counterintuitive things about sobriety, for me, has been how much effort it takes and how it truly takes no effort at all. How easy it is to try harder and how truly impossible it feels to not try at all. And how, when all is said and done, the 'forever' we're so desperate to achieve is possible only through the quiet surrender of right now."
Meanwhile, in other news, I am now 10 years sober.
I went for my yearly checkup - my first in a very long time - and it was with a new doctor. As we're talking about my history, he asks if I drink alcohol. I said no, that I have been sober for 10 years. I went on to say something similar that I've said here, which is that I didn't like who I was when I drank booze. Furthermore, I said that I grew tired of hurting the people I love - and to clarify, emotionally, not physically - and that I was not the best version of who I am when I drink booze. Not only that, but I said I was never a case of beer a day or fifth of vodka a day drinker and I didn't go to AA - I had just decided to quit so that's what I did. The doctor was supportive of what I told him, adding only that it was good that I had reached the conclusions I had and done something about it.
That's how I feel - I did something about it. I have many vices in my life - too much Mountain Dew, donuts, hot dogs, pizza, breads, that are not counterbalanced by veggies and fruits. I eat a lot of things that "healthy" people don't eat. In fact, I saw online a priest I know is on a 90-day cleanse where he stays off of social media, doesn't drink caffeine -- and that's the dealbreaker for me right there -- and takes cold showers, all to re-dedicate himself to God. I know Alex's small group at St. Stephen's on the UNI campus did something similar, and I commend everyone that does that re-dedication journey. I am not doing it this year and probably will not next year.
"Overall, the most important thing to me, and it's shaped the way I am, it's come at a pretty high price, is the clarity that comes with sobriety, and that didn't happen overnight. I drank and partied for a long, long time. But it's been a hot minute since I've had any sort of mind-altering substance outside of coffee or e-cigarettes even. I even quit regular cigarettes. And that just has provided a great deal of clarity, to me, about what's important in my life, what's really truly important, and I'm super grateful for that. I'm super grateful that I came to that clarity before all my shenanigans killed me, because every year I lose friends, particularly in this business, in the music industry, I lose friends to drugs and alcohol. It's needless and it's foolish and [there's] nothing romantic about it.
"I hear about people that die young from drug overdoses or alcoholism or whatever and then they enter this sort of romantic mythos, and it's a sad, sad way to die," he continued. "And those people would be a lot better off if they had lived, 'cause who knows what else amazing art they would have created. And that very easily could have been me. It should have been me many, many, many times, but somehow fate decided it was not my time yet.
"So now here I am. I'm just grateful that I'm still alive and able to do a few different things in an artistic way and it puts a roof over my head and provides me a pretty satisfying life. So I'm grateful."
“I went with my family and Rand’s family to Disney World and I was drunk four days straight from morning until night,” Kent, 29, told Cohen. “I get on the plane. I’m face-chugging out of a bottle, and the next morning I woke up and said, ‘I will never live this way again,’ and I reached out and got help.”
In March, Kent revealed that she had problems with substance abuse, and said she enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-step program.
A boy went to his father and said he wanted to get married. The father said, "Say I'm sorry." The boy said, "For what?" The father said, "Just say it." The boy said, "But what did I do?" Again, the father insisted, "Say I'm sorry." Confused, the boy finally said, "Okay. I'm sorry." The father smiled. "Good. Now you're ready to get married. While you don't always have to know exactly what you did, you have to be able to ask for forgiveness from your spouse if you have hurt her."
