We talk a lot about bravery here at Living Sober. We are full of praise for anyone who makes...
Mrs D’s Blog
Here Lotta Dann writes on topics inspired by discussions taking place within the Living Sober community, and on themes that arise for her as she moves through her own sober lifestyle. Guest posts from other writers in recovery also feature on this page. Don’t forget – you can speak directly with others who are looking at the role alcohol plays in their lives on this site! Simply join our community and visit the Members Feed.
This powerful guest post is from our lovely long-time member @behind-the-sofa. He is a Peer Support worker at Connect...
Sometimes I worry that I'm repeating myself with all the writing that I do on addiction and recovery. I've...
I go on a lot about brain-retraining in early sobriety... how we need to really embrace the reality of...
This Guest Post comes from member @ecd66. ================ It’s Sunday morning and everyone else is asleep. I’m sitting at...
Just in case I ever think I should start pouring wine down my throat again, here are six reasons...
....but the problem is, if you let yourself down often enough, break promises you've made to yourself constantly and often...
Someone once asked me: "How do you move on from that need to escape your feelings by soaking yourself...
This guest post on relapse comes from treasured community member @daveh. He shares his wisdom often here on this...
I love being sober because I never have to waste any emotional energy worrying about how much booze I...
Today I am not going to shy away from anything that is happening to me. I'm not going to...
When I first quit alcohol it felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff staring into...
A couple of years ago I did a deep dive into Mindfulness. I'd heard people go on about how...
This guest post was written by member @sunshinestace. She actually wrote it as an update in the Members Feed,...
The end of the year can be a particularly tricky time for those of us who don't drink alcohol. It seems like...
This 'Sober First Aid Kit' concept comes from my lovely friend @suek, and it's brilliant. She wrote this guest post...
Getting sober does not make everything perfect. It does not make you miraculously want to run marathons or only...
Ok that was SUPER fun!! Loved that 'Bullshit' game in the last post and thanks everyone for playing. You...
That's how I think of early sobriety. You've jumped off the Boozy Cliff into a ginormous field of Thick Sludgy Mud...
"You'll never have fun at a party again if you stop drinking." That is BULLSHIT! A party is fun...
Being a human is hard bloody work, there is so much to contend with. Setbacks and knockdowns, love and death, disappointments...
How bad was my drinking really? I didn’t crash any cars or end up in hospital or jail. I...
Here’s how you go on holiday and don’t drink. 1) Go on holiday 2) Don’t drink And here are...
A long-time members of this site and community moderator Tom (a.k.a. @behind-the-sofa) recently contacted me to ask if he could...
I was asked this question the other day. “Mrs D, do you NEVER wish that you could have just...
This guest post comes from Anna, a writer who lives in Christchurch. She shared her Sober Story with us, here. ============...
These are some of the things that I do to ‘work’ at my recovery, the things that keep me...
This guest post comes from member @liberty who wrote it as an update in the Members Feed. It had...
One of the things that is so hard about being addicted to alcohol is that much of the angst...
Tiredness has a lot to answer for I reckon. Without us even realising it. Living in a state of...
Boy does life change when we quit drinking and are no longer subject to the impacts of artificially altering our...
It’s just bullshit all the lies that are fed to us about all the wonderful things alcohol brings to...
Alcohol takes us to places that we would never go when sober. Dark places. Dangerous places. I’ve done some...
This guest post comes from Tom Mabon a.k.a @behind-the-sofa, a long-time member of this site and also one of...
You know those thoughts that fly at you trying to convince you to drink or telling you you’re a...
We are gearing up to head away for our big end of year holiday. The dog is going into...
This guest post comes from our lovely long-time member @mrwtf. ============== “The difficulty lies not so much in developing...
… that is the question. This topic bubbles around recovery communties constantly. Do you count your sober days? Some of us...
This guest post comes from Suzy Morrison, the Consumer Project Lead at Matua Raki – one of the agencies...
At the end of my drinking days I was a miserable booze-soaked wreck. I had so much wine coursing...
This guest post comes from Thomas Mabon a.k.a @behind_the_sofa who also volunteers as a Community Moderator on this site....
This guest post comes from Matt Calman (otherwise known as @emjaycee). ======== @emjaycee: I’ve played sports or trained in...
Sometimes I have this fleeting thought that I’m actually kidding myself that I’m still fun now that I’m sober…...
I got caught underage drinking when I was sixteen. I was in a pub in Sumner near Christchurch (called...
This guest post comes from member @emjaycee. A writer friend of mine (and sober hero!) based in Christchurch. ============...
As outlined in this recent post by @nathanb, we’re planning some changes to set up Living Sober for the next...
Three years ago, on August 6th 2014, we launched this basic online platform Living Sober. It was a brand new site, simple...
This guest post is by Nathan Brown (@nathanb) from the NZ Drug Foundation, the organisation which maintains Living Sober....
This guest post comes from our much treasured member @prudence who has worked through some tough circumstances recently including the death of...
I’ll be honest I had a sad pang about not drinking the other day and had to quickly run...
We talk often here at Living Sober about how the early days of sobriety are so damn hard. How...
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. My husband is away overseas for work so it’s just me and the kids here...
One of our very brave and amazing community members @wvlheel has just celebrated his one year soberversary – yay!...
Boy I did use to put a lot of effort into being a booze-pig. So much time and energy spent...
I have a sneaky suspicion that there are people who visit Living Sober to read blogs and look in...
This guest post comes from the always awesome Sue Kerr (@suek). Enjoy! ========== When you first quit drinking, you...
Someone asked me the other day if I missed drinking. I almost giggled at the absurdity of the question...
A year or so ago I took part in a free online Mindfulness Summit which was amazing! I felt like I was...
This guest post comes from the New Zealand author J.A. Wright (she was raised in the Pacific Northwest and...
I’m not usually a huge one for New Year’s resolutions because I don’t want to feel useless when I don’t...
A lot of our community are struggling this Silly Season feeling confronted by all the boozy get-togethers and family gatherings...
The end of the year can be a particularly tricky time for us sober people. Lots of financial pressures, social events to...
This gorgeous update was written in the Members Feed by member @bellab a few weeks ago and I thought it so powerful...
This guest post comes from beloved community member @inthegarage66 (known by his shortened nickname as @itg). For a while...
This guest post comes from Katrina Tanirau, a journalist living in Matamata. She reached out to me via Facebook offering...
Lovely long-time member @morgan travelled to Wellington recently to attend a 21st party. She stayed at her elderly Aunt’s house...
By crickey I am flawed. I am so deeply flawed it is not funny. I know I’m a brave...
We are very fortunate that the lovely @suek has written another insightful guest post for us. I always...
For the past three days I’ve been asking members of the Living Sober community to email me photos of their...
This is one of the main things I want every person who is stuck in a miserable boozy hell-hole...
Our beloved and very clever community member @prudence has just celebrated her 2-year soberversary! It has been such a...
The Cutting Edge addiction conference is fast approaching! This is a 3-day event run by Dapaanz who are New...
This wonderful poem was written by our very clever long-time member @pearl. With her permission I am reprinting it...
I think we need to accept that there is a certain amount of grief that goes with getting sober....
This update was posted by our beloved long-time member @ylang-ylang (over 700 sober days hooray!) in the Members Feed...
Getting sober is hard work – it is! Anyone who says otherwise is either lucky or lying. Of course...
Well this is exciting! Finally I get to publish the results of the Members Survey that we ran over...
This guest post comes from Jay, the Community Outreach Director at One Mind Dharma. ========== On March 20th of...
If anyone is reading this post and hasn’t yet registered to become a member here at Living Sober and...
This might sound strange but in many ways I am grateful for being an addict. Why? Because without having...
This guest post comes from my lovely friend Ali Ikram – a man who grew up in New Zealand...
Today is day 1630 of sobriety for me and this is proving an interesting time for me right now… The...
A lovely man who worked in the addiction sector here in New Zealand passed away recently. His name was David...
Once again here I am going on about brain re-training. It is VITAL! It is CRUCIAL! It is HUGELY...
I just celebrated my 1600th sober day! I probably wouldn’t bother counting days at this stage of my sobriety...
This guest post was written by the wise and lovely@suek after she hosted some friends for dinner recently. ============ @suek:...
Alcohol is such a tricky drug. On the surface it appears to help us deal with things by relaxing us...
Some more Christmas and New Years inspiration for you – this post comes from @_jjw_, a smart and lovely kiwi dude,...
This post follows on from @suek’s last guest post ‘When Sober Gets Old‘. Here she offers some fantastic practical...
This guest post comes from my dear friend @suek. She writes brilliantly and is always full of such wisdom and...
The Silly Season is fast approaching and already there are rumblings in the Members Feed about what a difficult...
Living Sober has just had it’s inaugural annual get-together! A community-led meet up of brave sober warriors in Wellington....
This might seem a bit silly and trite but I’m often incredulous about this. Before I got sober I...
Am I a failure because I’m not calm and contented all the time? Am I a failure because I...
There’s so much talk in sobriety about us all learning to take care of ourselves (so often a foreign...
We are very fortunate that the lovely @suek has written another exceptional guest post for us. Sue’s writing ability...
Occasionally I get asked to speak at events about my drinking and sobriety story. Strangely it’s not something I...
Today’s guest post comes from Bren Murphy who writes the blog Last 100 Days Alcoholic. Bren was a HUGE support to me...
I don’t think I was very resilient when I first got sober. My emotional coping mechanisms weren’t well formed...
Today marks one year since my big TV ‘outing’ as an alcoholic in recovery. It was a huge scary...
