✨ MY STORY. MY PURPOSE. CARRYING THE MESSAGE. ✨

✨ MY STORY. MY PURPOSE. CARRYING THE MESSAGE. ✨

Sometimes I wonder...

Maybe if we had not kept family secrets.

Maybe if we had not lived in denial.

Maybe if shame had not silenced the truth.

Maybe some of my family members would still be here today.

I do not know for certain.

But I do know there is a good possibility that if someone had carried the message to them, planted seeds of hope, educated them about this disease, and showed them another way to live, their story might have looked different.

That is why I do what I do today.

Because alcoholism is not simply a drinking problem.

It is a heartbreaking disease that destroys families, relationships, health, dreams, and lives.

When I first came into recovery, I was clueless.

Nobody handed me a roadmap.

Nobody explained what to expect.

Nobody told me that when the alcohol was removed, all the pain, fear, grief, shame, trauma, anger, and emotions I had spent years numbing would eventually rise to the surface.

I came in and out of recovery for years because I lacked understanding.

I did not fully understand the disease.

I did not understand myself.

I did not understand the solution.

And that lack of knowledge almost cost me everything.

That is why education has become one of my greatest passions.

Because it is not easy to stay sober.

When alcohol has been your best friend, your comfort, your escape, your coping mechanism, your relief, and your solution to life for years, what do you do when it is suddenly gone?

How do you sit with feelings you have spent decades avoiding?

How do you handle fear, grief, loneliness, shame, rejection, abandonment, resentment, anger, and uncertainty without reaching for a drink or a drug?

You get help.

You find people who have walked the path before you.

You find a sponsor.

A coach.

A mentor.

Someone with life experience.

Someone who understands this disease.

Someone armed with the facts.

Someone who can tell you what to expect when the emotions start resurfacing.

Someone who can help guide you through the storm, especially during that critical first year.

Because recovery requires all of you.

It requires honesty.

Willingness.

Humility.

Action.

Discipline.

Courage.

And above all, a desperate desire to change.

But I will tell you this:

Once you get to the other side, there is freedom.

There is peace.

I am living proof.

Today I am happy, joyous, and free.

I love myself today.

I am emotionally regulated.

No rage.

No self destruction.

No hangovers.

No waking up filled with shame and regret.

I sleep peacefully.

I nourish my body.

I exercise.

I serve others.

I show up for life.

I love others unconditionally. 

And I carry the message because I wish someone had carried it to the people I loved before this disease took them from me.

Alcoholism is cunning, baffling, and powerful.

It wants to keep people sick.

It wants to keep people isolated.

It wants to keep people miserable, afraid, and small.

It wants to steal lives, families, dreams, and futures.

But it does not have to win.

You have a choice.

You can continue down the path that leads to destruction.

Or you can choose recovery.

You can choose healing.

You can choose freedom.

You can choose life.

And if nobody has told you lately, recovery is possible.

I know because I am living it.

And that is why I will continue carrying the message to the person who still suffers.

Because someone once carried it to me.

❤️ 

She Chose Herself 2012 ~ The Healing Cheff

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