My name is Zach S. and I’m an alcoholic. My sobriety date is 2/1/16. My drinking began early. What started with weekend partying quickly became an everyday thing. It became more important than anything else in my life. Alcohol and drugs controlled every decision I made in my life. In 2012 I was 21 years old when I had my first trip to the Keating Center. For the next 4 years I bounced in and out of the rock. I was never able to put together more than a few months, sometimes days of sobriety. I treated it like a flop house.

I’m Rachel D, and my sobriety date is June 30, 2023. Growing up was chaotic, but I still had hopes and dreams. I didn’t set out to burn my life down. I just wanted the noise in my head to quiet and the ache in my chest to ease. The first time I put substances in my body, it felt like someone had finally found the dimmer switch on my fear. I didn’t know it then, but I had just handed over my coping to something that didn’t care if I lived or died - only that I kept feeding it. My using was lonely. It looked like promises I meant but couldn’t keep. It looked like saying I was fine while I was bleeding out emotionally. It looked like lying to people who loved me, then resenting them for noticing.

My name is Kyle, and I am an alcoholic. My sobriety date is January 17, 2023, the same day I walked back through the doors of the Keating Center. I was blessed with a wonderful childhood and a loving family that taught me right from wrong. However, when I was 13 years old, my parents divorced, and an alcoholic stepfather became part of my life. Although my family loved me, I struggled with the changes and the loneliness that followed. Instead of learning how to deal with those emotions, I looked for an escape. I found that escape in drugs and alcohol.

My name is Leah, and I’m an alcoholic. My sobriety date is July 15, 2025. It isn’t my first sobriety date. I first came through Jean Marie House in 2010, and recovery gave me a life beyond anything I could have imagined. I rebuilt everything—my career, my relationships, and my future. As time went on, I relocated out of state for a career opportunity, and in doing so I slowly separated myself from the support system that had helped save my life. Over time, I began believing that all of the good things in my life were the result of my own efforts rather than the gifts of recovery and a Higher Power.

My name is Tim, and I am an alcoholic. My sobriety date is May 5, 2025. I had a wonderful childhood and a loving family that taught me right from wrong. I grew up in the Bedford and Bedford Heights area. We didn't have a lot of money, but I always had everything I needed. I had my first drink when I was nine years old and my last drink when I was fifty-two. Alcohol was easy for me to get when I was young, and I never passed up an opportunity to drink. I didn't drink every day at first, but by the age of eleven I was already planning activities around alcohol. By the time I was eighteen, I had become a daily drinker.

Hi, my name is Angel A, and I am an alcoholic. I grew up on the rough streets of Parma Heights. I was an only child for eight years and raised by my grandparents and my mom. So I am by nature, spoiled, and entitled. When I was 8 my mom met my dad. they had my brother and sister and it wasn’t all about me anymore. My teenage years were pretty boring. I was always grounded. I picked up my first drink when I was 18. I had a couple wine coolers.. it was my first drunk. I was married to my ex-husband and had my son so I drank occasionally on the weekends. I was out shopping and taking my cousin home and I met the love of my life at a red light on Brook Park Road. He drank the way I wanted to. He took me to my first bar and I loved it. At first, it was just on the weekends then it was during the week. Every chance I got I was at the bar.

My name is Joseph T. My sobriety date is 4/16/24 and I am an Alcoholic. I grew up in southern Ohio on a big farm in a little town called Warsaw Ohio. I started working at a young age and I took my first drink at 10 years old, at 18 I went into the Marines. I did 10 years, after I got out my drinking got really bad I couldn't say sober at home, so I came to Cleveland and fell short a few times.