One in eight adults in the U.S. is an alcoholic and 95,000 people die annually from alcohol-related causes. Even though some alcoholics achieve sobriety, staying sober can be a struggle. More than 30% of people relapse within their first year of attempting.
“I have memory of being outside a bar in England in blackout, lying in the gutter covered in my own vomit,” Veronica Valli recalls vividly of a night she thought was fun more than 20 years ago, but after realizing alcohol was becoming a problem, she gave it up.
“I reluctantly accepted that I was never going to have fun again,” Valli said.
But within a year into sobriety, Valli began to see things differently,
“I began to see things differently. I was going out. I was having fun. I was dancing,” Valli said.
Valli wanted to show others they can do the same. That is why she created Soberful, an online community that includes support groups and workshops. The Soberful program centers around the five pillars of sobriety. The first is movement.
“Being purposeful about what we move toward and what we move away from,” Valli said.
Those looking to get and stay sober must connect with others who will support their decision to stop drinking. They also need to balance their needs; process their past and what led them to drinking; and focus on growth.
“When we’re sober, we get the chance to grow into the people that we were always meant to be,” Valli said.
These pillars are helping Kathryn Roman keep her sobriety after she noticed alcohol was becoming more prominent in her life. Roman said she was breaking her own rules.
“I wasn’t going to drink alcohol if I was around my kids. I was only going to drink alcohol if someone else was driving and slowly I found myself breaking those rules,” she said.
So far, she has been sober for almost a year. Living a soberful life after alcohol.
Valli has been sober for more than 21 years. She said a way to find out if you have an alcohol problem is to ask yourself if you spend too much time doing these four things: drinking, thinking about drinking, thinking about not drinking and recovering from drinking. You can learn more about her program and her book Soberful at soberful.com.