Many of you know this, but September is National Recovery Month. You may not know that purple is its official color, and it symbolizes the addiction recovery movement.
I think it’s fairly safe to assume if you’re reading this, you probably know or knew someone who struggled at some point in their life with addiction. If you and they were/are lucky, you knew/know them after addiction too. If you’re really lucky, the only version of them you got to know was their “after addiction” one.
I share a lot of my work, and I share a lot of myself. I don’t share a lot about my past or what it was like going through a decade of addiction because I try to always focus on the positive and to stay in the present.
But the past is there, and if you want to hear details about my struggles with alcoholism and eating disorders, feel free to ask. I’m an open book about my own lived experiences. They, no doubt, made me who I am, and I’m not mad about that. I’m grateful, looking back. Ten years removed from them, and I have nothing but empathy for the girl I was back then.
What I will say is that my addictions brought me to the “jails, institutions, and death” we hear about so often in AA. Literally, all three. I shouldn’t be alive today, but somehow I am. My last “drunk” was my last (and God-willing will stay so) because I was brought back to life through medical intervention (plus God, and if you want to hear the full story, be open to hearing about my experience with a legit spiritual awakening).
The girl I was back then needed hope to break free from addiction. I received it. I was given a last chance to change, to survive.
I took it. I’m taking it. I’m thriving. Some days, I’m surviving. And some moments in every day, for sure feel that way.
But I make it. One day at a time. I’m doing it. And I’m gonna keep going.
P.S. Wear a little bit of purple today or sometime this month.💜
Originally published on the author’s Instagram page
by Katie 
by Dana Brady 
