When Chantal was in the 9th grade she had her first drink: her father’s peppermint schnapps. For her, it was the response to the turmoil brewing within her family, her father’s controlling and suffocating strictness and his drinking. She would move onto smoking when...
It was several decades ago while sitting around a campfire as a teenager when Jon realized what alcohol could do for him. After a few beers, he could become someone else — someone funny, good with girls, charming, self-confident — the type of person he had always...
It was after Jill graduated from nursing school and began working night shifts when it all started. She was having trouble sleeping and so she started taking NyQuil. It helped, but it came at a cost. “One day I looked under my bed and there were hundreds of bottles of...
Emily started experimenting with marijuana and alcohol when she was only 12 years old. This led her into trouble with the police and, eventually, juvenile detention. Yet, as punishment, she was forced to do community service and ended up doing it at a Catholic Church....
For Joe, alcoholism had always been a part of his life since both of his parents were alcoholics. “I grew up with an alcoholic family,” Joe said. “Growing up was chaotic and as a kid, it gave me a predisposition to the disease of alcoholism.” Joe grew up a Catholic,...
It was a catastrophic personal event that plunged me into three years of intense habitual and addictive behavior that needed to be addressed. It was then that I finally recognized my addiction needed to be stopped. Downloading porn videos and images as well as...
Ever since Ben was young, he always wanted to be the best at what he did. And so it’s not surprising that when he started to drink in high school, he applied that very same mindset. “I wanted to be the best drinker and drink only the strongest drinks, to drink faster...
Ann Marie’s eating disorder of anorexia first reared its head when she was in high school. This unhealthy relationship with food caused her to lose so much weight before her senior year that she ended up at an outpatient treatment center. However, since this was back...
After I first became sober I thought that I’m better now. I can handle it. I had been in AA for years and attended hundreds, maybe thousands, of meetings. I had volunteered, read the Big Book, and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and worked through the Twelve...
I had the privilege of being born and raised as Catholic, where the Irish nuns during my schooling emphasized that Jesus is our very best friend. That has made all the difference in my life. After discerning my vocation, I married my college sweetheart. We shared...