Addiction is a serious problem that affects millions of people.
And not only is it life threatening for the addict
and could be life changing for their loved ones too.
But there is hope for those people who are suffering.
So here to share her personal story with addiction
and recovery is the author of Chaos and Clarity,
Seeing the Signs and Breaking the Cycle.
Marcy Hopkins. Thank you so much for being here
and for sharing your story.
So you got really candid. You just put it out there. Yeah, it's pretty raw.
I mean, when I start the book,
I'm literally in my a bedroom at six years
old and that was when my first beating occurred.
And so yeah, it is. And,
but I think you need to be raw. You need to be real. So
people can relate because we all have a story
and we need to be as authentic and put as much out there. So you can connect
and you go on to talk about after that how you became addicted to alcohol.
But when did you realize that it wasn't actual addiction?
Oh, goodness. Well, it was kind of a roller coaster with that because
I was taught that alcohol was normal.
Drinking every day was normal. If there was a problem
you drink? Ok. So,
for me, drinking every day wasn't abnormal
but there were times when things got difficult in my life that
I would start drinking more, it was creating problems in my relationships.
It was creating problems with work.
What was it like for you to,
to really relive that and to go back to those moments and to that, you know,
those tough choices and dark decisions.
Yeah.
So writing the book was hard and it was very hard to
go back and you have to keep going back to the stories,
right? Because there's such a process in writing a book.
And it was interesting in the beginning, there were a lot of tears.
It was very difficult.
But as I continued on with the book,
I noticed that
I was really healing because it was reaching deeper and deeper inside of me
and
I was actually letting it go.
It wasn't a part of me anymore. It's just something that happened to me.
So it was very cathartic for me.
Well,
for those people that are out there going through the
chaos right now trying to get that place of clarity.
What advice or tips can you offer them to break that cycle of addiction?
Well, it's hard because a lot of times we are drinking excessively,
but you may not think it's an addiction
and maybe it's not, maybe it's just a really bad habit.
Maybe you're going through a really difficult time.
But if you are asking yourself,
am I drinking too much, then you might wanna look at that.
If you're having relationship issues,
if you have or people are saying things to you,
then you wanna really take a look at that.
Maybe you can't
not drink.
And if that's the case, then you are addicted to alcohol.
But there are things that you can do. The first thing you've got to do
is make that realization for yourself. You've got to surrender to the fact
that that's the first step. The first step is surrendering,
realizing you have alcohol use disorder. Ok?
No one can make you
choose to stop drinking. You have to do it on your own.
And luckily you have a lot of help in your book. It's available right now.
Wherever books are sold. Absolutely. There's so much help in there.
I appreciate it. Thank you.