NewLight Recovery

Chapter 1

" Okay everyone, thank you for coming to today's meeting. It shows a lot of bravery for you all to come here today to talk about your addictions. We here at NewLight are a safe space for women to share with each other about their experiences and struggles, so without further ado, I am your conversation leader Anna and I will start us off." said Anna.

The 6 other women stared at Anna waiting for her to speak, some with curiosity and others with indifference.

" Okay, so as I said my name is Anna. I am 21 years old and I'm an alcoholic. I started drinking when I was around 15 and by the time that I was 18 I was deep into my addiction. I took a couple shots everyday before school, some more at lunch, and as soon as I got home I got ready to go out with friends to drink more. When I was 19 I decided to get behind the wheel after drinking all night. I had my friend in the passenger seat and I drove us straight into a telephone pole. She was in a coma for a couple weeks and that was my rock bottom. I got a little jail time and when I got out at 20 I knew I needed to turn my life around so I got a job here and now I'm a year and 6 months sober." Anna said and the other girls gawked at her, unexpecting her to say that because she was very preppy and looked like she had never made a mistake in her life. " Who would like to go next?"

Everyone sat in awkward silence for a minute until someone spoke.

" Uh, I guess I'll go. My name is Lyza, I'm 18 and I have a pill addiction." said a petite girl with glasses and long brown hair. " I guess my story would start with when I broke my leg in multiple places. I fell off a roof a couple years ago, and that's a whole other story, but anyway, I got heavy pain meds from the doctor and once I ran out is when I realized I was addicted to them. I was ashamed and didn't want to tell my mother, so I got them from people on the street to feed my addiction. My mom found out when I ended up passed out on my kitchen floor. I wasn't sold what I usually was and accidentally took way too many and overdosed. She thought I tried to kill myself and I couldn't bear to have her feel so hurt, so I told her the truth. She was angry and kicked me out and yeah now I'm here and 4 months sober."

" Thank you for sharing that Lyza, it's very nice to meet you and I'm glad you're here." said Anna in her chipper voice. " Who's next?"

A tan girl with slightly curly red hair spoke. " Hey, I'm Nicki, I'm 19, and I have an addiction to exercise. I know it doesn't sound comparable to what has already been mentioned , but it honestly has taken over my life. I don't really have a trigger for it starting or anything, it just did. This is the first day in the past 7 months that I haven't worked out. Everyday I wake up at 5 am and run 10 miles, which takes me just over an hour, before coming back and doing an hour and a half of yoga. Then after breakfast and getting ready I go to the gym and I am there until about 3:00 pm. Then I go home and eat another meal and do whatever I can before 5:00 pm when I go for my second run, which is another 10 miles. I get back and eat dinner and then do ab workouts and anything else I can get in before I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I know it sounds insane but I actually do this. Once I get in bed it takes me hours to fall asleep because all I can think of is doing another workout and I hate myself for it. I lost my job months ago because it was too stationary for me and I would constantly be late because I was working out, and I got sick of asking my parents for rent money so this morning I decided I needed to try and get help."

The girl next to Nicki noticed she was on the verge of tears and grabbed her hand squeezing it before speaking. " You are valid and so is your addiction, don't feel like we won't accept you here because we do."

Nicki smiled as did Anna before motioning for the girl next to Nicki to go next.

" Oh I guess I'm going. My name is Imani, I'm also 19 and I have a self harm addiction. I started cutting when I was 14 and it's been off and on since then. I've been clean and then relapsed more times than I'd care to admit, but at the moment I'm 5 days clean, so there's that I guess. If it's okay with everyone I'd rather not go into my reasoning and all that shit right now, it's just, like extremely heavy, too heavy for an introduction." said a short girl with mid length black hair and simple makeup consisting of mascara and red lip gloss.