I’m Sober.… So Now What? A Journey of Hope and Healing
What will the reader gain from I’m Sober… So Now What?
This book provides a glimpse into the mind of an addict; what it is like to have a rock bottom and dig your way out. It delivers important information about addiction, relapse, and relapse prevention, using my personal story to qualify that I have been there. I understand your pain. This creates a connection that every addict is desperate for and seeks.
You will discover you are not alone, and despite our messy choices and the consequences that came with those choices, you deserve a healthy, sober life. You will learn that your addiction is a disease and what that means in regard to your recovery. You will receive a sense of love and hope that will inspire you to look at your recovery deeper. Both the addict and non-addict will gain a better understanding of their roles in recovery. You will have firsthand examples of what “doing the work” looks like when searching for sobriety.
You will gain important information about the various stages of relapse, as well as the warning signs. Most importantly, it brings love and hope to addicts and their loved ones. These two elements, love and hope, are essential for anyone, addict or not. Without love and hope at our center, any advice about addiction will be proven useless. In a very engaging, easy read (21,801 words long), you will come to understand that it can be done, that we can and do recover. I’m Sober…So Now What? will be the first in a series of recovery books.
About the Author
After more than two decades of substance abuse, multiple failed attempts at sobriety, numerous arrests, a revolving door of treatment facilities, and a rock bottom that resulted in near death on her basement floor, Melissa has finally achieved long-term sobriety and is eager to share with the world that addicts do recover! Life after drinking is possible.
Originally from a suburb north of Atlanta, Georgia, resides in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where she is raising her two youngest of four children with her husband, Derek. Her second chance at being a present mother leaves her in a dialectical dance of gratitude and exhaustion but she wouldn’t want it any other way.
She currently works as an administrative assistant at Holy Family Catholic Church in Clemmons North Carolina. That’s right – even after all her self will run riot and messy decision making throughout her life, thanks to drinking vodka like its water and popping pills like they were breath mints, God brought her home and keeps her in His house where she can be of service to those in need.
She is an active member in the AA community, where she spends time as a guest speaker sharing her message of hope to those that are looking for a new way of life. She is a board member of Joseph-Mary Foundation, where she raises money for education and medical supplies for families in Cameroon, Africa. Her passion for reaching across the continents to those in need fuels her vision to not only lend a hand to her neighbor but help educate others about addiction through sharing her personal story.
With almost a decade in sobriety, Melissa is following her calling to love and support those whose lives have been impacted by addiction. She believes her divine intervention was meant to not only spare her own life, but to also be used as a conduit to connect the lost and broken with a higher power whom she knows as God.
“I have been called to love those, who may not love me back, for this is unconditional love and what we have been instructed to do above all other commandments-to love one another”-Melissa Gissy Witherspoon
Join My Journey
Overview
Imagine finding yourself day in and day out on the hamster wheel of addiction. What does this look like exactly? I suppose it depends on the addict you ask. For me, my cycle of insanity was waking up still drunk from the day before, popping pills to stay awake, then washing down more pills with vodka to fall asleep… rise and repeat. The definition of insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over expecting different results. That is the essence of a person in active addiction. Take that messy cycle and top it with shame, guilt, fear, and isolation, maybe tuck in some deep, dark, hidden secrets and resentments, and then you will have a general idea of the day in, day out of an addict’s life.
My drugs of choice were alcohol and Xanax. But don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t in an exclusive relationship with just them. Come one, come all in my steady stumble down to rock bottom. The only thing that mattered was staying numb from my physical and emotional pain caused by twenty years of poor decision making and the consequences that came with those decisions. I didn’t start off there, but that is where I ended up—on the cold, hard floor of my unfinished basement, with the Beetles playing on repeat in the background, and a candle beside me so I could light my menthol cigarettes back-to-back until I faded away for good.
But I didn’t fade away, just in and out until I saw something… and that something, which I consider my divine intervention, delivered me to the doorsteps of my most recent attempt at recovery. Although this time, it was going to be different.
After a long stint at a dual diagnosis inpatient facility and several months of time in jail, as well as a rigorous DUI Court second chance program, I reentered the world to begin cleaning up wreckage from my past while watching my father die simultaneously. This catapulted me into my spiritual awakening. My story shifted from trying to survive one day at a time in recovery, to embracing my sobriety and using my spiritual connection to lead the way.
Along my journey in recovery, through my firsthand experiences, I have gained much knowledge about:
- the different stages of finding sobriety
- the understanding that addiction is a disease rather than a choice
- ways to embrace gratitude during life’s challenges
- the stages of relapse and how to identify the warning signs
- how to have compassion for one’s self and others in a world that, seems at times, is unable to return the favor.
I share all of these life-learned experiences with you, while reminding you that you ARE loved, deserving, and capable of having the life you long for, free from the bondage of addiction.