Member-only story
Time to Open the Bottle
How this whole NEWWD thing got started
Hi, my name is Kristen and I‘m an alcoholic. Constantly striving to stay sober, I have a few stories to tell, insights to share, conversations to have, and photos to laugh at.
I started dabbling with alcohol around age 13 (not including the “can I have a sip” beginners tasting as a young child) which led to a 30+ year relationship with alcohol that was, at best, a bit tumultuous. I am far from a raging alcoholic but I was, and have always been, a high-functioning one. I went to school, kept jobs, showed up on time (usually), climbed the company ladder, made friends and lovers, and led a reasonably responsible middle-class WASPy life.
What I, like many alcoholics, experienced, was a desperate feeling that I needed to stop. I either didn’t know how, didn’t bother, or had a massive fear of the loss of friends and fun that would accompany quitting because booze is fun and sobriety is supposedly boring.
I write to share my stories of drinking and the journey of sobriety. I hope that through humor, insight, conversations, and the sharing of resources, I can help someone like myself, or like my sister Robin, who passed away in May 2022 unexpectedly from cirrhosis. No family should go through what we did and frankly, I will not let my sister die without a voice. She is…
