16 Interviews With People Struggling With Addiction

We have interviewed 16 people who have struggled with addiction. These stories are full of inspiring tips on how to live with and overcome addiction, both from substances and alcohol. Please allow these stories to be a beacon of hope for you, and know that there is always a way out.

Most recent stories of people struggling with addiction

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I’ve interviewed 16 people struggling with addiction, and here are the top 5 most mentioned tips that helped these people overcome
it:

  1. Therapy (10 people helped)
  2. Rehab (6 people helped)
  3. Reinventing yourself (6 people helped)
  4. Social support (5 people helped)
  5. Self-improvement (5 people helped)

In our many years of publishing helpful mental health content, we always received questions from our readers about specific situations. While we have a lot of helpful tips to share on how to be happier, we simply can’t offer advice for every situation.

That’s why I’ve set out to interview folks with every type of mental health struggle. My job as an interviewer is to categorize these interviews and present them in a way that is most helpful to our readers.

Read all the case studies

Exercise, Therapy and Religion Helped Me Climb Out Of Alcoholism and Unhappiness

“The moment I felt something change for the better was when I was sitting at a bar sipping on a beer, and I called my father. I told him I truly didn’t want to drink anymore and really wanted to get sober. He sighed and said, “We tried to help you. Now it’s up to you just to stop drinking.” I asked him how that was going to be possible considering all of my options ran out. He screamed into the phone, “JUST STOP” and hung up.”

Struggled with:
Addiction
Assault

Helped by:
Exercise
God
Therapy

Sharon Fekete Interview Featured Image

Sharing My Journey From Alcohol and Substance Abuse to Sobriety and Happiness

“I felt prettier, smarter, funnier when alcohol entered my body so I simply continued numbing through the years. The progression of this disease of alcoholism turned into a nasty drug habit and those feelings of insecurity turned into deep darkness when I was “off my meds”. Or in other words, without alcohol or drugs.”

Helped by:
Rehab
Therapy

Marci Rossi Featured Image

Conquering Alcoholism and Hopelessness And Helping Others Do the Same

“I used alcohol to deal with stress, anxiety, boredom–essentially any negative feeling that I didn’t want to experience. I was also using it to try to generate positive feelings–to celebrate, to have fun, to socialize. Turning to alcohol for so many different reasons made it hard to control. I started by setting rules for myself, like only drinking on the weekends and only after a certain hour. But I consistently broke those rules, so they kept getting looser and looser.”

Rachel Miller Featured Image

My Journey to Get Back on My Feet After Alcoholism and an Ischemic Stroke

“The dual journey of recovering from a traumatic neurological event while also protecting my sobriety has felt daunting, perilous, and isolating. It felt like I’d been just practicing recovery from alcoholism for the past seven years just so that I’d be ready for the big test this year.”

Elijah Meason Featured Image

How Accepting Help and Mindfulness Became the Turning Point in My Life

“Drugs and alcohol were common place and I was constantly moving around. That’s not to say that my parents were using in front of me, just that it was fairly obvious as to what was going on. Because of this, I actually grew up attending AA meetings and was introduced to “recovery” pretty early on. Even so, I would go on to spend 16 years in an alcohol and drug-induced nightmare that almost consumed my life. Irony at its finest.”

MaryAddison Yates Featured Image

How the 12-Step Program and Therapy Helped Me Deal With Addiction, Depression & ADHD

“I met my future husband when I was 26 but I never felt truly connected to him. I felt just as invisible to him as I did to everyone else. When we decided we wanted to have children, by some miracle, I was able to abstain from drinking just before and during my pregnancy. I coped by being very controlling, a shopaholic, and a workaholic. The twins were born when I was 31 and postpartum depression led me back to the only solution I thought I had: drinking”