Reclaiming Power Through Sobriety: My Journey from Chaos to Resilience
- May 29
- 4 min read
By Challaine
For over two decades, I lived a double life. To the outside world, I was Challaine—a driven entrepreneur, wife, a devoted mother of four, and eventually a bestselling Author, Podcast Host and Life/Recovery Coach. Behind closed doors, I was drowning, using alcohol as my escape- like so many other women/mothers. When I look back… It was such an anchor that just had me tethered to a life that was quickly coming to a full stop. My last night of drinking I was suicidal. I had never been suicidal, ever! This was a major problem where I had some tremendous reevaluation to do.
I didn't realize I was in a prison of my own making. I started drinking when I was 12. It was so much fun! What started as social drinking morphed into my primary coping mechanism—the "mommy needs wine" culture told me this was normal, even celebrated. Pour a glass after the kids are in bed. Have another when the stress builds. Toast to surviving motherhood with a bottle on Friday night.
What no one talks about is how quickly that glass becomes your trusted confidant, your emotional regulator, your permission slip to feel or not feel. That glass with the girls turns into two bottles pretty quickly. I believed alcohol was supporting me when in reality, it was isolating me from authentic connection, especially connection with myself. Physically I was here, emotionally and spiritually I was nowhere to be found.
Even when the consequences became undeniable—including getting arrested (that should have been my wake-up call) I just couldn't see the doorway to freedom. Each rock bottom had a trap door leading to another level down. Rock bottom never “worked” for me.
The Breaking Point That Became My Breakthrough
My moment came not with a dramatic crash but with a quiet realization: I was tired of breaking my own heart. Tired of the promises I'd make to myself every single day that I would “start on Monday”. I promise you THAT Monday never comes. There’s ALWAYS a reason to drink; birthdays, funerals, anniversaries, breakups. I was so exhausted from modeling for my children that numbing was the answer to life's challenges. How could I help them if I couldn’t even help myself?
Rebuilding From the Foundation Up
Recovery required me to excavate my life down to the foundation and rebuild with intention. This included…
Creating sacred self-care rituals. I replaced the end-of-day wine ritual with practices that actually restored me—journaling and writing my book that allowed me to process emotions rather than suppress them, meditation that taught me to sit with discomfort, and movement that connected me to the body I'd been abusing for so long.
eing intentional about my relationships. Sobriety showed me how many of my connections were rooted in this shared habit rather than authentic connection. I had to make difficult choices about who could accompany me on this new path and who belonged to a chapter now closed.
Rewriting my internal story. The most persistent voice I had to confront was my own—the one that whispered I wasn't enough without liquid courage, that I needed alcohol to be interesting, confident, funny, sexy or worthy of love. Dismantling these beliefs required daily practice in choosing new thoughts. Choosing. New. Thoughts.
Turning Pain Into Purpose
The most transformative part of my journey wasn't just healing myself but discovering how my experience could serve others. Women, especially mothers, are drowning in expectations while being sold alcohol as self-care. "Mommy needs wine" isn't just a cute phrase on a mug—it's the normalization of using alcohol to cope with the overwhelming demands of motherhood.
Today, I've built my life's work around this truth. My bestselling book "I Woke Up One Day & Changed My F*cking Mind" chronicles my journey without filters or platitudes. My coaching practice helps women discover their own path to empowerment—often, but not exclusively, through sobriety. My podcast creates space for conversations we need to have about reclaiming our authentic selves.
The Truth About Resilience
The women I work with don't just get sober—they reclaim their dreams, rebuild their self-trust, and redirect their energy toward creating lives of meaning and joy. Some launch businesses, others repair fractured relationships, many discover creative passions long buried under bottles and busy-ness.
True resilience isn't pretty or perfect. It's messy and requires facing the very things we've been avoiding. But on the other side of that discomfort is a life beyond what you can imagine when you're numbing your potential away.
As I approach my 40th birthday this May—a milestone I once thought I might not live to see—I'm truly thriving and living my BEST life ever! Not because life is perfect, but because I'm finally present for all of it—the heartbreak and the joy, the challenges and the wins.
This is the gift of reclaiming your power: you no longer need to hide from your life. You get to live it—fully, fiercely, and freely—one sober, sexy step at a time.
Challaine is a #1 bestselling author, life and recovery coach, podcast host, and mother of four. Her mission is to help women, especially mothers, reclaim their power and purpose through sobriety and self-discovery. Learn more at www.challaine.com.
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