• Name: Alison Harper Scola
• Age: 46
• Hometown: San Diego, CA
• Location: Washington State
• “Currently Not Drinking” Status: Sober / Recovered Alcoholic-Addict
I got drunk for the first time when I was eleven years old, and I knew I had found my new best friend. Alcohol erased all the pain, loneliness, & anxiety that I carried as a result of childhood trauma. I quickly became obsessed with chasing that feeling of euphoria and at such a young age, lost everything good I had in my life. As I look back, I see that I was using alcohol to self-medicate anxiety and depression. By the time I was 19 years old I was suicidal and saw no hope for the course of my life.
It was at that time that a friend suggested that I may have a problem with alcohol and invited me to a 12-step meeting. I flirted with going to meetings for a year or so but could not put down alcohol because I was not convinced that I really had a problem. I knew something was wrong with me but thought I could stop if I wanted to.
As time passed the consequences of my destructive lifestyle got worse. The misery my drinking created forced me to accept that I had a problem. With the support of my family, I went to outpatient treatment and began working the twelve steps. This process opened the door to a path of healing and growth that I’ve been on for the past 27 years. I grew up. I fell in love with life. I fell in love with being in my body. I learned to love myself.
The practices that keep me centered, happy, and sober are the 12 steps, yoga, meditation, trauma work such as EMDR and Somatic Experiencing, exercise, dance, music, time in nature, & community. Today, the focus of my life is the joy of guiding others to awaken to themselves and all the creative power they must build a life they love. I am grateful for my beautiful life of sobriety every single day.
#theyellowlife #currentlynotdrinking #notdrinking #nondrinker #sobercurious #sober
