I’m sober now… what do I tell people?

How do I tell people I'm sober now?

This was a big question for me when I first got sober. “Okay this is awesome but…how do I tell people? How will they react? What will they think of my STERLING image?!”

All jokes aside, it really was an important question. For me, I knew that so much of my active use was seen by everyone around me. I thought that I was slick in “getting away with it” but in reality, it was terribly obvious. “No one is on an island by themselves in life” is a phrase that I heard often in early recovery. It meant that my actions were seen, heard and felt by so many around me. When I got sober, I realized that for those that really had a front row seat – why not give them a new “ticket” to my recovery? Now the question became what exactly do I tell them? I needed to learn how to include them while not overwhelming anyone; especially myself. 

What I found was that those supportive people were a lot more receptive and resilient than I had originally thought. My first notion was that they wouldn’t get it or would not know how to handle what I was telling them. My nervousness and anxiety led me to barely share anything at first. It wasn’t until I brought my family to an open meeting to watch me celebrate 3 years that I realized the receptiveness and resilience. It was such a big experience for me to do that and once I did, I became more comfortable sharing my recovery with those around me. I found that as I became more confident, those around me did as well – confident to ask questions and be curious about this huge thing in my life. Friends and family wanted to know how meetings were going, how I was feeling and what sobriety was like. 

By recognizing that my drinking and using wasn’t a total secret and trusting myself and what I was doing, it allowed me to include people in a beautiful part of my life – my recovery and my growth as a person.