I got the most gorgeous email from DZ a couple of weeks ago. Gorgeous because the voice was so raw. And the picture she painted so vivid I could actually taste cheap white wine. DZ was in the middle of a craving that was “surging up and down her solar plexus and choking her out”. She […]
Category Archives: Successful Recovery
I think it makes sense that 50% of people who have eating disorders also have a co-occurring substance use disorder. I used to fall asleep with the remains of my wine glass on my night stand. Now, it’s often a cute little bin of ICE CUBES gum, or the remains of my soupçon of TV […]
I bought a new pot of face cream. The package promised to “erase fine lines in a week,” which is great because it’s my birthday today and I wanted to have a wrinkle-free face by that milestone… The Quick Fix… I mean, I actually bought the cream – $37.99 – because the box said it […]
I keep thinking about an email I got from a reader last week. Let’s call her Sharon. Her spouse is a (problem) drinker and has no intention of quitting. And the guy insists she doesn’t have a problem either. What to do when it seems like everyone around you drinks? Sharon has been trying for […]
I heard from another long lost friend this week. Whenever someone from my past contacts me they say, “You just popped up on my computer.” As if my details appear randomly in their ad column on Facebook. (Like the pair of suede boots you were checking out on Zappos that materialize in your feed for weeks […]
My four year sober anniversary came in like a lamb. I only remembered it, because Lauren sent me a text to congratulate me. And other than being a mother (and for a while a wife) I haven’t maintained interest in many things for four years straight, so I should have been jazzed. Maybe the milestone fizzled […]
I was driving around yesterday, picking up obscure items like those things you stick to the floor of slippery tubs so you don’t fall while taking a shower and knock yourself out and drown. I saw a sign on a billboard on 28th Street. The sign read, “I Forget the Last Time I Forgot”. Brain […]
I told Christine that I had just experienced the “move from hell.” She said, “Your last move was ‘the move from hell’ wasn’t it?” Which is kind of true, but also made me feel like my horrible moves are somehow my fault. As if I don’t have the moxie to pack my own belongings, or the […]
In the end, the reason I decided to move was because of a shower curtain rod. There were lots of reasons I can list, now that the decision is made, for leaving my apartment. It was expensive. Especially given its (admittedly groovy) industrial, proletariat vibe. I never saw anyone in the halls and isolation is not good for my […]
I went to a free concert at Meijer Gardens on the 4th of July with Cindy. She seems to be witnessing a few of my sober “firsts”. This time, it was at an outdoor, camp-chair, picnic basket kind of concert. I haven’t been to one of those sober before. In fact, an outdoor concert (once I recced the […]