I'll tell you a little bit of my story, and you can see if there are any similarities.

I didn't start drinking until I was 21, not heavily at least. As soon as it was legal though, I was off and running. It started off social drinking, but I'd always get wasted when I social drank, though not every night. Then I had to have some wine to sleep, then before I knew it, I had to have a fridge stocked with beer. That was my poison. Or anything else with alcohol in the name on the bottle.

I never felt like I belonged. I always felt like people pretended to like me, never felt like I fit in. Never felt like I could cope with anything unless I was drunk.

In the end, I isolated. I drank at home because it was cheaper. I had my computer in my bedroom, and I moved my big tv in the bedroom and thats where I lived. I worked at the time, and I'd come home from work, grab 2 beers and jump on the internet. I eventually just filled a little cooler with beers to bring into the bedroom. I'd come here, to PC, and get drunk while chatting in the chatroom.

I'd limit it to 6 or 7 during the work week, wake up with shaking hands and go to work to draw people's blood....bad. On the weekends I can't even tell you how much I drank. I always waited until noon....for some reason I couldn't drink before noon or I was alcoholic. A beer was the only thing that would make me feel better. Towards the end, I'd stare at that bottle, the first beer of the day and dread it.....but eventually I'd drink it.

I used to think the next turn of the road would be my death. I knew I was dying. I thought for sure a semi truck was going to run into me. I used to say goodbye to my boyfriend in the mornings and cry, because I was sure I'd die that day.

Basically, I hated myself. I hated my life. I alienated friends and lost a relationship because of my drinking. The only one who stood by me was a girlfriend, who would bribe me to go out to karaoke with her if she bought me alcohol.

I never lost anything. I never lost a husband (well I did but that was my choice lol.) Never lost cars or homes or children. But I never had any of those things to loose. I lost my dignity. I ended up having an affair with a married man, who was my best friend's brother-in-law.

One night over drinks with him, out of no where I said, "Ya know, we should quit drinking and go to AA." He said we'd talk about it in the morning and we continued to drink. We woke up the next day, hungover as hell and he asked if I still wanted to go to a meeting. I thought sure, those AA people will teach me how to drink normally, they'll teach me how to drink socially again. We looked up meetings online and went to one at 1pm that day. He had been before, trying to get sober because his family told him he should. I had been years before I ever started drinking, so support some friends. But I didn't know what to expect.....within the first 5 minutes of the meeting, I realized I was alcoholic and that these people understood me. We went to 2 more meetings that day.

He stayed sober until we got our 30 days, then he drank again. He's been drinking ever since. I've stayed. I've been sober over 2 years now. It was hard in the beginning.....I learned how to change routines, how to find other things I liked to fill the void that alcohol had left. I always kept chocolate soy milk in my fridge.....lol don't ask my why, but it worked. I got tons of phone numbers for other women who were sober, some new like me, some with time. I called these women and hung out with other sober people. I went to a meeting every day, I did what they suggested because they were so happy, and sober!

Since getting sober, my life has been frought with hardship, but I've gotten through all of it without picking up a drink. I've gotten through all of it happy....happy......I can say I'm happy.......and freakin mean it. For the first time in my life I'm truly happy.

I used to never think I'd see the age of 30. I always knew I would die young. I got sober at 26. Now I'm 28, and I'm sooo gonna see 30!!! I can't wait to turn 30.....

Life today is incredible. I learned a new way of living so that I wouldn't have to escape to the bottle. Really all it is learning that I can't change anything around me. I can only change myself. Anytime I'm upset, I look at me and if I'm not the problem, there is no solution.

It's so simple lol. Change my attitutude and I'll stay happy. Wow. Instead of trying to change everything else.

So there's a snippet of my story. I can only share my own experience, and thats how it happened for me. It is quite possible to sober up and be happy. I'm living proof.