“I relapsed on day forty-two. Nobody at the meeting looked surprised, and that was the first time I felt like I belonged somewhere.”

“She didn't yell. She sat on the edge of my bed and said, 'I'm not going anywhere.' I hated her for it. I'm grateful for it every single day.”

“Five o'clock wasn't a time, it was permission. Getting sober meant learning what an evening actually is.”

“We used together the night before. I don't know why it was him and not me. I've stopped needing to know.”

“Twelve guys in orange around a folding table. One of them had eleven years clean and was there because he volunteered.”

“I had a corner office and a dealer on speed dial. I told myself those two facts canceled each other out.”

“I never had a drug of choice. My drug of choice was 'more.' Recovery had to be about that, not about any one substance.”

“It started with a prescription for panic attacks. Nobody told me coming off could be more dangerous than staying on.”

“People laugh when I say I'm in recovery from weed. I used to laugh too. Then I tried to stop for a week and couldn't.”

“Every mug in my kitchen had a joke about wine on it. My daughter asked me to stop buying them. I didn't hear what she was really asking.”