I moved my nightstand to find an old spill of who-knows-what and it really got me thinking. For 3.5 months I haven’t had to worry about empties left out that my parents might see if they came in to turn off the lights that I constantly left on after “falling asleep”. I haven’t worried they would hear the rolling bottles in the secret trash drawer. I haven’t had to plan when to sneak trash out of my room or drive until I find a public trash can to dispose of the evidence. I used to keep my room clean partly because I simply had to keep an inventory of what I was hiding where. I had to keep up appearances to mask the disaster I was on the inside. Today I get to wipe away these stains knowing that, God willing, they will be the last of their kind. I am grateful I don’t have to hide today. Sobriety continues to gift me peace 
Happy Saturday y’all!
I found many a stains and even a couple hidden bags in my time 
. Cleaning up the wreckage of our past? Sounds like that to me 🤷
Secret secrets are no fun, secret secrets hurts someone. 
great list of gratitude, keep healing!
What a turnaround Jazmine 
I can completely relate. Hiding things was awful!
It felt good doing this myself. Keep up the good work. Peace of mind is priceless.
Beautifully expressed, Jazmine and…
Go, Y O U!
I have loads of bottles to recycle today.
Each and every one-being bottles of j u i c e!
No alcohol, NOPES.
It was all so exhausting.
The hiding.
The shame.
There was an incident ( a while ago now )…where my mom started gathering, collecting bottles-while yelling at me…and my younger brother was present ( and I am n o t a teenager )…
I am in d-mn midlife, the middle of my life…at this point!
Anyway.
It was all so exhausting.
Right?
I am sure so many of us can relate.
I feel overwhelmed this morning - while if figuring out where to recycle juice bottles…
( Since our town s-cks in regards to recycling glass )…is one of my many uh, “ first world problems “…then, I will take it.
Sobriety is soooo much better!
Keep going, Jazmine.
Wipe out those stains!
Literally and figuratively?!
Wow. This was my story when I was drinking. Incredible how sneaky we could be. Yes drive away from my house to throw things out. Then I thought I could hid a garbage bag full of empty small wine bottles in my own garbage and I never took the garbage out. My house knew this so of course red flag and he found the bottles. My sobriety journey started. Thank god because now 3 years 3 months sober. But I really liked reading your post. Brought back my past life to a “T”. Happy sobriety. 
I can totally relate ! Hiding them in my truck vs the garage or recycling in case anyone seen. Getting up extra early to put them in recycling on the day so nobody noticed! Good for you ! You got this! Inspiration to us all!
Thank you Nancy! I appreciate it 
I can definitely relate. My garage and cellar were very popular. Nothing there now!!!!
Great job, I remember when I had empties lined up along the wall next to my bed. I was in denial and organized them like trophies.
Man remember coming home from rehab and finding all my old script bottles , I really should have been dead hundreds of bottles makes me sick to think about
I was hiding empty bottles too everywhere and then gathering them up once a week to throw away in a public trash can. So nice to be connected to people who can relate. You feel so alone when you are in it.
What a great post! Thanks Jazmine and congratulations!
Couldn’t relate more to this post. It feels nice to be free from the grip addiction had on my life. Congratulations on your continued sobriety and wishing you nothing but blessings for the future. Keep it up!
Awesome, congratulations and thanks for sharing!
Thank you Jazmine, and all of the commenter’s as well. I found this post at a time when I needed that reminder. 
While we are all different, we are exactly the same. What a huge burden lifted.
