Thank you!!!
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Wow! You look great!
This is one of my favourite threads, I love how being sober changes so much for us.
Congrats on 4 months 
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Atta boy Bran. 
The benefits of not being a drunk.
I lost 50 myself when I started. It feels sooo good!!!
Keep it up buddy!
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Great job Jenny.
You look Amazing 
Keep up the great work.
You must feel so much better too.
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Great job @Bran522 
Thanks so much @Caite1025 and @Dazercat I feel so much more healthy, calm and I think it showing in my face is a bonus. This was a week after covid too so it should get better and better.
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Wow! Incredible and very inspiring!
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Thank you all for the encouragement!!!
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Lookin good, bro. Keep it up!
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Thanks!!!
Only one answer possible: wow 
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17 high af on cocaine. Drunk.
22 I escaped cocaine. Drunk with no intention of ever quitting.
35 one year clean and sober
39ish 4-5 years clean and sober. This is the happiest I’ve ever been in life. It was awesome!
5-6 years clean and sober. Still doing really good.
My 2nd son had died. Marriage problems were huge, and 3rd had been born. The wife was in Utah going to rehab. I was trying to keep it together. Trying to find some peace on the river. It doesn’t look like it was working.
7ish years clean and sober. It was getting dark.
8 years. Divorced kids gone I started carving. It helped. I stayed sober. I was very angry.
8 years. It was dark. I stayed sober!
8 years. It wasn’t always dark. I found moments of happy.
8 years. I had more moments of extreme darkness than I did happy.
9 years I snapped out of the darkness. My carving was doing good. I had survived the worst of the worst, and I stayed sober. I really believed I would never drink again. I was wrong.
Me not celebrating ten years sobriety. Because I decided I could drink like a gentleman. I look happy… not!
Me a couple of years into drinking again. I had broken every rule I made for myself in regards to drinking.
Me about a year and a half before I started trying to quit drinking. So approx 6 years of unsuccessfully drinking like a gentleman.
It was way harder to come back than I ever imagined. I’m lucky and grateful to be alive!
Me today. Getting close to 2.5 years alcohol free. It’s been mostly with the help of this place. Thank-you!
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The time frames and pictures are close to accurate estimations.
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Wow! Thank for sharing your journey! Congratulations on your 2,5 years. No more breaking rules and drinking like a gentleman… 
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Well… there is a lot of work left to do, in many ways… but thanks! 
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Sobriety shows in your clear eyes in the last pic. We don’t realize how much alcohol fogs everything until we give it up. What a ride. I’m glad you are here. 
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What a journey!
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You’re an amazing guy, Jason. I have lots of love and respect for you.
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you are so brave and strong. Thank you for sharing this story and your amazing carvings.
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I edited the 2nd photo. I didnt mean to violate the shirtless rule.
This post was pretty emotional to make.
Its a gift. I get to feel these days. I may not always like it, but its necessary. I cant heal if I cant feel.
I took a nice nap afterwards. Crying makes me sleepy.
It was hard to find pictures of me deep in my relapse that wouldn’t potentially trigger. I was hesitant. about posting my dark photography selfies. I think its important to share that recovery can get dark. I was very active in AA the entire time. Even when I drank those first two beers, after being sober for so long.
It was the meeting after those two beers where I felt so uncomfortable that I quit going. Two beers changed everything. I didn’t know it at the time. Alcohol owned me again. I became King Alcohols servant. Nothing bad happened. King alcohol was nice for a while.
I’m still blown away at how fast my thinking changed. How hard I was willing to fight to remain under King Alcohols thumb while he slowly squeezed the life out of me.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been sober. How much you think you know about alcoholism. How hard you’ve worked to get and stay sober, how many times you worked the steps, whether or not you believe in God, how many people you sponsor, how many times you read the big book. How strong you are, whether you do AA, smart recovery, Dharma recovery, went to rehab, didn’t go to rehab, whether you think your a binge drinker, or a full blown alcoholic, or just a problem drinker.
One drink is too many because 1000 isn’t enough.
Thanks for all the positive feedback! If your here, your a winner in my book! I’m happy and proud to be friends with all of you.
The guy in the first two photos.Travis was/is my best friend. He passed away with seven years sober just before I went to Hawaii and had my final relapse. He was the toughest person I ever knew. A brain tumor got him. I regret not making time to see him. It was unexpected and fast.
Live each day like it may be your last with an attitude of gratitude. You never know,
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