A recently divorced 56 year-old discusses her addiction

Hi, I’m Mary Lou. I’m an alcoholic. I’m 56 years old and I’ve battled this for a little too long. I’ve tried to clean myself up on my own many times and it didn’t work. I even had a 10-year stretch of sobriety and after that, I’m back where I started. I did try AA, but I was still drinking while I went there and didn’t work it the way you’re supposed to. I got a sponsor, but I did it in haste, so that didn’t work. I ended up drinking again after a divorce.

When I came to Lakeview, which was on my own choosing, first thing I found out that really brought me a sense of peace was that I had a disease and that there were ways that I could learn to deal with the problems that I had that would keep the alcohol in check. So, primary group, we got together. I’ve had two groups while I’ve been here, each in a surrounding where I could trust the people that I was with and, with the direction from the therapist, work through a lot of the things that I just passed off as insignificant over the years. When I got really down to the details of the things that bothered me and how I allowed them to bother me and how I didn’t have the skills to tackle them, I started to grow. That’s what it took.

So, I feel very confident leaving here that what I need to stay sober is within my grasp. I also selected the Christian track while I was here, that was an option for us, and all the people in the group were Christian. So, we could grow in that area and openly talk about our past experiences. It all totaled up to be something that is life changing and I am looking forward to going back and picking up and regaining the time that I lost through drinking.