9 Things That Changed Since I Quit Drinking

I was tired. I found myself waking up at 4am too many times with anxiety and embarrassment for my words and actions. I was tired of not feeling a thing. I would numb my pain with poison, and I put up a wall from feeling genuine emotion, joy, sadness, and led me down a dark road where I was broken and alone.

Most everyone around me saw me as a happy, free-spirited, funny young lady who had a lot of experience but what they didn’t see was everything I kept inside. Those were my fears, pain, insecurities, the battles I fought with myself, and the disapproval I felt for who I had become.

The truth is that I was scared of dying without truly living.

Throughout some extremely unbearable situations and challenging times, alcohol was there; it was my shiny black knight for about 10 years. It was wine, whiskey, and beer. It was weekend day-drinking and weeknights having one too many glasses of pain-numbing substances that distracted me from resolving my real issues and clouding my mind and body with delusions and misconceptions. Alcohol was destroying my life, and it took me 10 years to not only realize it but to make a choice to walk away from it and live a more authentic, healthy, and fulfilling life.

Not everyone was on board at first. Those I used to party with faded away. My weekends changed. How…