Part 2 of 2: Julia M

Part 2 of 2: Julia M

What emotional and inspiring tales of recovery are out there? This second part of Julia M’s story offers a raw, funny, and fiercely honest look at early sobriety, especially for anyone juggling kids, careers, and the chaos left behind by addiction. Julia talks through her first real encounters with recovery meetings, where women “with much grislier stories” wrapped around her like a safety net, even entertaining her children so she could share freely.

AA becomes one of the only places she can be present as both a mother and a person trying to get well. You’ll hear how her sponsor relationship began with a phone call from a crack house, and how it took a full year to work through the steps. The Fourth Step terrified her so much that she wrote it only in meeting rooms, trusting that “the rooms would protect me” if the urge to use hit.

Her language around addiction is vivid and memorable: “I have a challah bread of benzos, vicodin, cocaine, vodka in my brain… If I touch one, I begin the other,” and her dealer’s number feels “at the bottom of the glass.” Julia also talks about brain chemistry, hormones, and post-acute withdrawal, describing how a psychopharmacologist helped her see patterns in her relapses around her menstrual cycle.

For her, recovery is a mix of fellowship, therapy, medication, and a deeply practical spirituality where “God was the fucking rooms.” Family healing runs through everything: bringing her kids to meetings, making amends at her mother’s grave, and learning to co-parent with an ex-husband she once blamed.

She stresses staying “in the middle of the herd” of AA through service and connection, and offers clear advice to newcomers: take phone numbers and actually use them, because asking for help is part of staying sober. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re bothering people by reaching out, Julia’s experience might make you think again.