Sober one year since 2/10/2020, Josie was raised in Arizona She first came to AA at age 32 and is 53 now.
Her father raced boats. They spent many days on the lake where she learned to water ski at a young age.
They moved to the Atlanta area in her sixth-grade year, and it was a culture shock. She started doing poorly at school, developed an eating disorder, and started isolating as her parents' relationship unraveled.
She often went over the top athletically to try to please her father.
Her mother moved with the kids back to Arizona. Josie attended a much larger school there and her drinking took off.
"I could tell I liked it alot more than other people."
She was raped by a football player in her college dorm. She blamed herself because she was drunk.
Her boyfriend from high school was shot and killed in an altercation.
She later got unwittingly involved with some heavy criminals and joined the Army to get out of that situation.
Out of the Army, she returned to Atlanta where her daughter was born. She did not drink throughout the pregnancy.
When her daughter was in her teens, Josie nearly died from a Xanax overdose that she does not remember taking.
That led her to rehab.
When she finally got sober, she started going back to the rehab facility to help with art-based therapy until that got shut down during Covid.
She has been taking classes to become a Board-Certified Counselor focused on art as a therapeutic tool.
"I don't think I ever got it til I started giving back...I can't put my finger on what it is, but it is really different."
It was the guilt of having put her daughter through all this turmoil that maybe kept her going back out.
She was able to find great release in doing a thorough 4th.
She has joined a homegroup and developed a network of recovery.
Above all, she has a great relationship now with her daughter.