# I broke 12.5 years of sobriety. (Update) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2011, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-broke-12-5-years-of-sobriety-update/568908 "2011-01-25T11:46:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 54
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-broke-12-5-years-of-sobriety-update/568908/54 "2011-01-26T22:08:45Z")
From a post about your early days: > [@Ask The Former Prisoner](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-prisoner/425888/61): > > …I started drinking lightly while in Texas. Within 6 months I was doing coke and got a DWI… From four years ago: > [@everyting I aways wanted](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyting-i-aways-wanted/367443/1): > > OK here is is in short. > After 8 years of sobriety and getting my life back on track I just discovered that I have everything I always wanted and I am mostly the person I aways wanted to be. > > I have several successful stimulating businesses, two wonderful children that I could not be prouder of, a wonderful marriage, I live in a great place, I have everything I need and most of what I want, I am healthy and like myself. > > All of this dawned on my about a month ago. I think I sensed it coming because I started to feel a bit anxious. So I quit smoking about a month ago and started working out and opened up discussions with my wife about some issues we were not talking about. All of this went with out hitch. > > I am not rich by American standards I just do not have a desire of “things” much. You see I spent the last 8 years of my life trying to put all the pieces of my life back together and be a “normal” person again. **For 20 years I was either trying to get drugs or trying to get off them. I am done with that now and I found my self this month at the top of the ladder I set up for myself** … (Bolding mine) It’s so easy for things to turn bad when people who’ve had substance abuse issues in the past try to moderate your drinking. How will you be able to keep it under control? You were happy when you were sober, too. It just seems a whole lot wiser to not gamble with addictions. You can keep your women while you’re sober, you know. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-broke-12-5-years-of-sobriety-update/568908)._