I Almost Lost Everything to Alcohol. Now I’m a Mom 11 Years Sober

Welcome to the very first episode of Recovery Rocks with Kelly.

Kelly shares the story behind her 11 years of sobriety—from alcohol addiction, liver failure, relapse, and struggling to stay sober to finally finding the tools, community, and hope that changed her life.

But recovery didn’t end when she stopped drinking. Today, Kelly is a wife and mom raising three teenagers while navigating the very real challenges of motherhood, relationships, family, self-care, and staying connected to her recovery.

Recovery Rocks is for moms and women who need to know they’re not alone. It’s about getting sober, staying sober, being present for the people you love, giving yourself some grace, and building a recovery that rocks.

Join my private group on Recovered Life here. 

Creators and Guests

Host

Kelly Schuster

What is Recovery Rocks?

Recovery Rocks with Kelly is a podcast about motherhood, family, and navigating everyday life in sobriety. Kelly shares the real ups and downs of being a mom in recovery—from raising kids and managing relationships to taking care of yourself while taking care of everyone else. With honest stories, real-life experiences, and occasional guests, it’s about motherhood, recovery, healing, and building a recovery that rocks.

Recovery Rocks is going to be this podcast for you mothers out

there. And you women out there to know that you're not alone.

You know that being a mom is motherhood is rough. It's rough.

You know, I have three teenagers and it's it's getting at that

time where they're starting to drive now. We get busy with

their lives with you know, scheduling appointments,

laundry, housework, all that stuff gets added up. And then

we get that mom guilt when we want to take time for ourselves.

But recovery is so important that we need to put that first.

This is the Recovery Rocks podcast with Kelly. The show

that proves you can get sober, find yourself, and create a life

that's bigger, louder and better than you ever imagined. And now

here's Kelly.

Welcome to Recovery Rocks with Kelly. I'm so glad you are here.

Whoo. A little bit about myself. I am 11 years sober from

alcohol. Was it easy to get to where I'm at? No, it was quite

the struggle. Let me tell you. But recovery is possible. I am a

mom. I am a mother. I have three beautiful teenagers. I have a

wonderful husband. And God has blessed me with a beautiful

family. 11 years ago, I was chasing an illusion of control.

Today I am chasing clarity. I am a mother of someone who spent a

long time trying to survive my own reflection. Now I'm using my

voice to show other moms, you don't have to survive alone. This

is the reason why I'm doing this podcast because I want to reach

out to other moms out there, women to know that recovery is

possible. You can do it. You can get sober, you can reach

sobriety. A little bit about my drinking career in the past.

About the age of 29, I had liver failure from alcohol. Yes, liver

failure. I was hospitalized from drinking too much. This didn't

happen just overnight. This happened from, you know, time

and time and time elapsed probably be, you know, from my

teen years of drinking here to up until my adulthood, drinking

during the week to the weekends, to binging every single day. I

use it for anxiety. I use it for stress. I use it for panic

attacks. I use it just to get out of self. And next thing I

know, I needed to have it 24 hours. My body was craving it. I

didn't want to drink anymore when I was in liver failure.

However, my body was craving it all the time. Even when I would

try to stop drinking, my body would shake and shake and shake.

And I just had to have the alcohol to just feel normal. I

literally could not even get out of bed without having a drink to

even function. It was the most scariest, darkest place I think

I've ever been in my life. When my family had seen how sick I

was, and I didn't like being told that I was sick, because

alcohol to me was just like, Oh, I'm not sick. But my family kept

saying, you are sick. You're a sick person. Alcohol is making you

sick. I'm like, I really don't drink that much. It always was

like a denial lie. I was telling myself always a denial lie. Well,

they had enough of me and I pretty much had lost my

apartment, my salon, my car, everything was taken away from

me. Nobody wanted me to live with them. So I went into a

biblical program that was a year long. And I found God

again. And it was very spiritual. And I'm happy that I

did that program because it did save my liver for that year

being sober. But when I got out of the program, I did relapse. I

did not have the tools. When I got out of like staying sober,

relapse prevention, I just I didn't know what else to do when

I got thrown back into the world. So I found myself back

into AA. I tried AA before. And this time I was like, I'm really

going to do it. So I went back to AA, got a sponsor. And I

decided to do the 12 steps. I started working the steps. And

it was very enjoyable. I did like the 12 steps, but then I

procrastinated. And then I bought heads. And I would do the

steps up until step four. But I did not want to do that fourth

step. I did not want to do it. I did not want to do my moral

inventory. I didn't want to go back to my past. And I didn't

want to have to share all that stuff with somebody I didn't

even know. It's my personal business. I don't want to have

to dig deep into the dark where I used to be and talk about it. I

would relapse because I wouldn't do my fourth step. I would

did my fourth step. It took my sponsor probably about three

hours, we went over it, I wrote it all down. And then we burnt

it in the fire. It was like the biggest relief. Like, I don't

know, like 100 pounds was like lifted off my back, maybe, maybe

like 500 pounds. My recovery grew in AA. And I began to love

the community of AA. And I became sponsoring myself, and

had sponsees. And I could see myself in these sponsees. I could

see where I used to be, where I used to be that closet drinker

and hiding my drinks and, and, you know, drinking so much that

I just couldn't even get off the floor of the bathroom. I felt

their pain. I felt what they're going through. I knew the

feeling of not wanting to go back there. It's hard. It's

really freaking hard. I had the longest was like three years. And

I relapsed and I'm like, what am I doing wrong? I don't know

what's going on. So I decided to go into a rehab program, a

re rehab program. And that's where I had a counselor. That's

where I learned about relapse prevention. That's where things

really took off. And I kind of got more of understanding of

awareness of my addiction. After I got out of rehab, I did eight

weeks of intensive outpatient treatment. That was awesome. I

really learned a lot through that. And then I did recovering

code certification after that. And things really started to

take off. So that kind of leads me up to where I am today. And

I do attend AA still, I do the in person meetings. But I started

to get bored again in AA, the meetings kind of got boring to

me, and the stories and the same people. So I decided to go

online. And Tick Tock, I decided to do a platform for recovery

rocks, make my own thing, with music and videos, having fun

with X, I love rock and roll. And I love all that good stuff

like that, you know. And then I was on Tick Tock looking at

people's lives for recovery. And I came across Damon Frank's

Recovered Life. And he was doing live Tick Tocks. And I'm like,

this guy is really cool. He's got some awesome stuff. He's so

knowledgeable. He is so funny. He cracks me up. And I just, he

just was like, grew on me, you know, spiritually even. And he

would have people come up and talk and I'd be like, I'm not

going up there. No, he keep, I kept declining the box. I'm not

going up there talking. I'm too scared. Okay, one day I finally

did. And I was so happy I finally did. So personally, I

got to know Damon very well. And he has just changed my life. So

he's got this Recovered Life going. He's got the website, he's

got the app going. And we got, you know, I became a member in

it, we got meetings going, we got events going, we got

community going, we got people going. And everybody is so

helpful in every way possible. And that's why in my first

podcast here, I just want to give a shout out to Damon Frank

for all his help, and encourage me and you know, give me the

confidence to do a podcast and to start one and just to get my

voice out there. Because clearly God put him in my life

for a reason. And I truly believe that God puts people in

your path for a certain reason. Recovery Rocks is going to be

this podcast for you mothers out there. And you women out there

to know that you're not alone. You know that being a mom is

motherhood is rough. It's rough. You know, I have three

teenagers and it's it's getting at that time where they're

starting to drive now. We get busy with their lives with you

know, scheduling appointments, laundry, housework, all that

stuff gets added up. And then we get that mom guilt when we want

to take time for ourselves. But recovery is so important that we

need to put that first. I want to be that you know, being fully

present mom, you know, being that mother and recovery to me

means learning how to show my kids what resilient actually

looks like, you know, it means breaking that generation

patterns in real time. So I want to share in this podcast, I want

to encourage you empower you women out there. And moms, you

know, things that we're going to go over in episodes coming up,

you know, the dangers of women and drinking, you know, women

can't drink like men, we just cannot. I had liver failure.

It's damaging to the body, women just cannot drink like men. We'll

talk about that later in episode. The mommy wine culture,

you know, normalizing alcohol as a parenting tool. You know,

these wine culture, mommy getting together having play

dates and thinking it's okay to drink wine and have these play

days. Inpatient parenting of active addiction. Are you that

mom that's actively drinking and being impatient with your kids?

I talked about before hiding your drinking closet drinking.

Are you that mom that's hiding your drinking? That needs help.

That's what I'm here for. I want to help you. So this podcast is

going to be all about that, encouraging you to let you know

you are not alone. And I'm going to be here fighting for you as a

cheerleader for you. In any way possible. There's still so much

of life ahead of you. There is still joy waiting for you. There

is still hope. And if you're willing to take one step at a

time, you'll be amazed at where those steps can lead. Thank you

for letting me be part of your day. Thank you for trusting me

with your time. I am so honored to walk this journey with you.

This is Recovery Rocks with Kelly, a place where women don't

have to pretend. A place where we are healed. A place where we

can grow a place where we remember that our past is not

our story. But it's not the end of it. Until next time, take

care of yourself. Give yourself grace. And remember, Recovery

Rocks because hope is stronger than fear. I'll see you next

week.