WHAT KEEPS ME SOBER
We asked these clean and sober individuals with various lengths of sobriety time, what keeps them sober today, and what their life is like right now as people living in recovery.
SUPPORT GROUPS
“I stay sober by attending sober support groups. I work with a sponsor, and I try to fill my time with productive things. My passions are playing tennis and I try to help others. Helping other people gets me out of my head. I also believe my faith in my Higher Power has kept me sober. I turn to him and pray a lot because I’m a very spiritual person. I’ve been clean since December 1st. I did 45 days of residential treatment and followed it up with aftercare. I recently got a job at a tech startup company that I really love, I joined groups, I’m reading the literature of my 12-step program, and I’m doing the work with my Sponsor. I’m living a new life. It’s like a rebirth in my recovery. I’m doing things I’ve never done before. It amazes me how far I can go.”
—Sean Brown, sober since December 1, 2021.
BEING OF SERVICE
“I stay sober by putting a wall between me and my disease, that’s what I do. I stay busy. I don’t go to parties where there is alcohol and drugs and crazy sex. I keep my distance from that and try to keep it as sane as possible. I did my time partying and now I sustain from it. I work as an overnight staff at a recovery house, and it is important that I stay sober. The wall that I put between me and using—are 12 step recovery and being of service. Getting rid of resentments is also big for me. I’m good today. I keep my life simple. I’m mellow. I have friends who are close to my 12-step program, and we go out to dinner. Before, I wanted to go to a psych ward. I was suicidal. I’d go to a bathhouse Friday night and leave Sunday morning. I was depressed, lonely, bitter, resentful, judgmental, and today all that is gone. Life is good.”
—Timothy Mack, sober since May 29, 2020.
HAVING FAITH
“What keeps me sober today are the same things that kept me sober almost nine years ago: meetings; sponsor; staying close to the program; not taking sobriety for granted; showing up; taking risks; having faith; all those things. I went through the Van Ness Recovery house and [the program director] would always say to me, ‘stay on the path.’ I have embraced that in the past year, staying on the path, no matter what. The path has taken me to all kinds of amazing places. Today I’m open to whatever the next indicated action will be. I’m an artist and it took a long time for me to let my sobriety work for me as a creative. I owe it all to the tools I learned at the Van Ness House in 2013. I still apply them today. I’m staying on the path.”
—Tripp Mills, sober since July 30, 2013.
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