ESH: Ashley B - 13 Years

ESH: Ashley B - 13 Years

She talks honestly about outside substances, psych wards, and a second round of treatment that pushed her into a 12-step fellowship where she first heard the doctor’s opinion and realised, “I thought that was normal.” Ashley leans heavily on a higher power: “There is absolutely nothing to do with me that I am sober today… the only answer I have is a God.” She speaks directly to people who bristle at the word God, sharing how she went from avoiding the topic to seeing that relationship as crucial for staying sober.

Curious about how others manage their sobriety when life just keeps throwing bricks? Ashley B’s share at 13 years sober shows exactly how messy, painful and surprisingly funny long-term recovery can look. Speaking as a Sunday morning speaker at HACYPAA 9, Ashley charts her journey from an east-side Des Moines upbringing with normalised drinking and a dad using meth, to that first drink at 17 that finally made her “okay in my own skin”.

You’ll hear how service, sponsorship and a tight-knit AA group carried her through early sobriety, a new career, marriage, an unplanned pregnancy and a devastating miscarriage. She shares raw details about later years too: marital betrayal, marriage counselling, her beloved grandma’s dementia and death, a skin cancer diagnosis, and parenting three energetic children on very little sleep and lots of spilled salt. Through all of it, Ashley keeps bringing it back to simple AA tools and spiritual reliance.

She stresses that even at her lowest, “never once… did I think a drink would make it better,” and offers hope that with “just a little bit of faith” you can stay sober through anything. If you’re juggling family, grief, mental health and recovery, could Ashley’s story be the reminder you need that you really can stay sober, one day at a time?