Rising from the Ashes: 10 Things I’ve Learned in my Journey to Sobriety

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Even when addiction destroys your life, the power to recover is within you; these 10 principals can help you rebuild your life as they did for me

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Have you ever hit rock bottom and lost everything? Has the reality of what you have been choosing in your life and what it was destroying ever hit you right between the eyes? That’s a big yes for me, but let’s back up a bit.

I started drinking at the age of 14. Born into an emotionally tumultuous home and raised in the rough-and-tumble world of Australian machismo, alcohol was a way to numb everything that I hated about my life and provided an escape from the intensity of the world. Eventually I became a single father and was miserable in a career as a tradesman on the Sunshine Coast. Fast forward a few years, through a series of events, my life got drastically better. I held a senior position in a thriving global organization. I had financial security, enjoyed worldwide travel and adventure, and received accolades and adoration from many.

Even amid a lifestyle that many would envy, there was this feeling of unworthiness. This sense of not being good enough, not belonging anywhere, started very early on because I had the point of view that I