Danielle L. Age. 27 Sober: 1/22/20

Danielle L. Age. 27 Sober: 1/22/20

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol and drugs? For Danielle L, aged 27 and sober since January 2020, it took smuggling cocaine overseas, a nitrous-oxide habit so heavy it led to temporary loss of feeling in her legs, and a brutally honest intervention from friends. Mike S hosts the conversation with his usual mix of dark humour and straight talk, opening by reflecting on his own upcoming 40th birthday and the unexpected gifts sobriety has brought him.

That sets the tone for an episode that balances shocking war stories with practical, AA-based recovery. Danielle talks frankly about doing cocaine “from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep for two years or so,” and planning her nights so there was coke for waking and Xanax and wine for sleeping.

She explains how cocaine initially felt like a solution: “It was a way to gain back control and still be able to drink and go out” after blackout drinking and sexual assault in college. Her nitrous-oxide addiction, funded by takeaway apps and measured in bin bags of empty canisters, ended in hospital when she could barely stand. From there came sober living, outpatient treatment, and early days in AA, including being scared off at first by God-heavy shares.

She jokes about deleting her future sponsor’s number the first time they met, then later embracing a thorough step process, especially a huge fourth step and the idea that “expectations are premeditated resentments.” Danielle shares how she approached telling friends she was sober, why she sees fellowship as “the best part of the programme,” and offers grounded advice: save numbers, keep going back, and don’t let one person’s share put you off.

If you’re wondering whether you’re really that bad or if AA could ever fit you, this raw, honest chat might feel uncomfortably familiar in the best possible way. What expectations or habits might you be ready to question today?