PLEASE NOTE: This episode is part of our "One Year On" series, two ESH shares recorded approx. 1 year apart.

Alex's first share can be heard here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/32m2rqcRNARIBsM5WW8tAl?si=ezW7CNoNRaGyN3sM-PA_5g

Alex didn’t arrive thinking she had a problem. She arrived because everyone else thought she did.

From a first drink at 12 to blackouts, psychosis, jail, and two DUIs, her story traces a path many know too well — chasing numbness, calling it freedom, and slowly losing everything that matters. Along the way, there are moments that cut deep: a brother in shackles at a funeral, isolation during COVID, a gun to her head, and a life that kept narrowing despite her best efforts to hold it together.

Recovery didn’t come clean or easy. It came through court orders, a monitor on her ankle, and eventually a choice between jail and rehab. It came with relapses, “Cali sober” experiments, and the hard truth that for her, one substance always leads back to the same place.

What stands out isn’t just where she’s been, but how she speaks about it now. With honesty. With humour. With clarity about what addiction took — and what sobriety has given back.

Today, Alex is building something real: relationships that hold, a future she’s working toward, and a life she chooses, one day at a time.

This is a story about chaos, consequences, and coming back.