During my drinking career I knew that my mind had a terribly hard time recalling past alcoholic episodes. My mind would always tell me that I could take that first drink. But it never remembered the countless drinks I had to have after the first. It never remembered the hell to pay the next morning. It never remembered the horrible fight with my wife, who wanted to leave the bar hours before, but I didn't. In the depths of a bender, or in my suffering the morning after, it w

Driving to work this morning, I passed a certain stretch of interstate and had a flashback to a darker time. I experience these flashbacks frequently. Sometimes it’s something I see, sometimes it’s something I smell or taste or hear. Certain triggers will force memories from darker days to well up vivid reminders of when my life was desperate and caving in. I’ve passed this particular exit a million times since getting sober, but for whatever reason today it struck a chord an