29/04/2024
My name is Brett and I am an alcoholic. I have been sober since June 10, 2021, the same day I waved the caution flag on my own life and checked myself into rehab.
Living Sober in a Drunk World is a way for me to help spread awareness about alcohol addiction and help end the stigma against addicts. I want to voice my opinions from my own experiences in life as both an addict and a recovering addict to help others. I think it is important that people are aware of the dangers of alcohol both physically and mentally. I lived 15ish early years of my life as a full-fledged alcoholic. Today I am currently 31 but I feel as if I am just getting to experience life because I no longer resort to alcohol to live and have fun. Becoming sober has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. It has allowed me to view the world in a totally different way. I value being happy much more. I also value everyone and everything around me much more. While we all partake in this rat race, it is imperative that you find your own self-happiness. I found my happiness the second I walked myself into rehab. I hope that my voice can help you find your own self-happiness and give you hope if you need it.
I will be using this page to share my writings and somehow figure out a way to get a podcast up and running. My plan is to have conversations with many individuals in my life. I want to speak to fellow addicts, friends, friends of friends and my connections in the sales world about how alcohol has affected them in their personal or professional lives. After being in the 3pl freight industry for the past 7+ years now, I have run into many successful people who have shared their stories on how they got sober and made something out of themselves. I am in no way deeming myself successful professionally, but I think I can spread the message of sobriety and hope in a professional setting or conversation. I also want to have personal conversations with people who I know. I think it is important for people to see how someone else can view an addict, both during and after their addiction. Something that keeps me sober today is randomly being told by my friends and family how much more they enjoy my presence these days. While I want to hear the good things, I also want to hear the bad things. I think it’s important for people to see and hear about the dark side of what that nice cold beer you’re drinking can turn people into.
I am not doing this to brag about my own story or achievements in sobriety, but rather to be a voice. Over the past year or so I have struggled with this idea about being much more vocal about this topic and my story. I know in my own heart that being vocal is the best thing for me personally because I know I can help. I want and need to help. If all I get out of this is hearing I helped change one person’s life, then this will be considered a success.
Recently I was in Talladega, Alabama for the NASCAR race with my family. When we were tailgating before the Sunday race, someone from a few cars over came over to our little set up and started chatting. His name was Alan and started talking in a heavy southern accent, so I figured he was a local here with his family enjoying a nice Sunday at the track. Alan kept offering me beer and I eventually told him about my sobriety. I could tell it made him uncomfortable and he went back to his car and said something to his wife. I was nervous that I just pi**ed off this random dude because I didn't want his "ice cold lights!". He came back shortly after and thankfully wasn't pi**ed off. My new friend Alan started talking to me about his own struggles with addiction. To me he looked choked up but I'm not a body language reader. He was clean from alcohol for a substantial amount of time in his life but picked up drinking again recently. We never got into why he went back to drinking but he did randomly turn into a real life Dr. Phil and started telling me to live my life to the fullest in sobriety. So there I was starstruck by this guy because here he was giving me a life pep talk 2 hours before NASCAR's craziest race of the year. He kept referencing how fast life moves and how we can end up regretting so many things we wanted to do but never did. Before we all went into the racetrack, he said to me “You’re going to remember this weird old guy from Alabama because you’re going to do great things. Live your life, be vocal, be nice and chase your dreams.”
So, to that weird old guy in Alabama, thank you for the motivation.
Disclaimer: I have the mouth of a sailor after almost a decade as a freight broker. I am trying to clean it up but please do not kill me if I let a couple two tree swear words fly out.
My goal in my life is to help spread awareness about alcohol addiction and the affects it has on individuals and their loved ones.
