Hello and welcome back to Sober Awkward, where we're doing something a little bit different.

We started this podcast to share our own messy, awkward and hopefully humorous journeys through

sobriety and have always felt incredibly humbled by how many of you have connected with our

stories. But not everyone's journey is the

same as Vicanise. So we put our heads together to figure out a way to give back and let our

listeners inspire each other. Basically, we're taking us to idiots completely out the equation.

We decided to run a storytelling competition, during which we asked you

to share your own inspirational stories of recovery with us. Well, to be honest, the stories you sent us

completely blew us away. They were powerful, moving and truly inspiring. We knew right away that we had to share them. So, with

the permissions of the storytellers, we're going to be sharing one of their stories with you

each week. This is our way of celebrating you. These are your stories, raw, real and full of hope. Welcome to Sober Stories.

Today's Sober Story was from Brian. I looked at her from across the room. There were bottles

littered about on most surfaces, some half-drunk wine glasses, a few empty beer cans.

A shot glass lay tipped over on the floor, a viscous green liquid pooling beside it.

Some bottles had cigarette butts floating in their remnants. The burnt ends of a couple of joints

lay on the glass coffee table. The air was a mix of stale alcohol, smoke, and something else that

couldn't quite pinpoint until I saw the lumpy stain on the floor. Vomit.

"'I guess that got a bit out of hand, eh?'

She hardly looked up. She was cold and pale looking, hardly dressed, wrapped in a thin couch throw she must have

grabbed from the upturned basket laying beside the stain.

Yeah, was her faint reply.

I wanted to say more, to say something, but I wasn't sure how to proceed.

...