Anne V. Age. 27 Sober: 2/20/17

Anne V. Age. 27 Sober: 2/20/17

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation with Anne V offers a sharp, funny and very honest look at going from self-described "party girl" to committed recovery. At 27 and sober since February 2017, Anne talks with host Mike S about growing up in a small Dutch town, moving to New York at 18 to model, and how legal drinking at 16 meant her teens were already "really messy".

There are wild stories – knees blown out on blackout nights, passports in her handbag "because who knows what I'll do in a couple of hours", and a nickname of "Annie all-nighter" that later felt eerily close to A.A.

You’ll hear how she spent years in an exhausting loop of extreme partying followed by juice cleanses and the gym, convinced alcohol was her "joy source" and the problem was always something else: work, location, ambition – anything but drugs and alcohol. That shifted after a multi-day bender she simply hadn’t planned on: "For the first time I realised… this was out of my control.

This was so not what I had intended." A friend with five months’ sobriety takes her to a Tribeca A.A. meeting, and Anne initially treats it like a short-term life hack: "I'm just gonna do this for a month." One month becomes three, then six, and a turning-point trip to Burning Man sober shows her she can dance, love music and have adventures without chasing the next pill or drink.

Standing in the desert, she realises she can "just stand there and enjoy the music" instead of running around like Pac-Man. The episode is especially relatable for younger people and newcomers who feel torn between keeping a party identity and wanting a different life. It asks a quiet but important question: how long do you want to keep living like every weekend is the last big one?