Letting Go...

Letting Go of People, Letting Go of a Life

One of the hardest parts of recovery isn’t just putting down the drink or the drugs—it’s letting go of the people and the life that went with it. Nobody really prepares you for that part.

When I was in the middle of it, I thought those people were my family. We laughed together, we cried together, we numbed the pain together. But the truth is, our bond wasn’t built on love—it was built on survival, on staying stuck in the same cycle. And when you decide to break the cycle, you start to see just how much of it was never real.

Cutting people out of my life has been one of the hardest and most painful things I’ve ever had to do. I didn’t just lose friends—I lost a lifestyle, a routine, a sense of belonging. When you’re used to calling someone every time you’re bored, lonely, or hurting, the silence afterward is loud. That silence is where I struggled most. That silence is usually what pulled me back to relapse.

I can’t even count how many times I told myself, “Maybe I can still hang out, I just won’t use.” But the truth is, for me, that never worked. Being around it meant eventually doing it. And I had to accept that recovery meant building an entirely new life from scratch—and that’s terrifying.

But here’s the thing: I’m grateful for those lessons. I had to walk through the pain of letting go to understand what real healing looks like. I had to stumble and relapse to realize how important my environment is, how much who I surround myself with truly matters.

Recovery is not just about staying sober—it’s about protecting your peace, your heart, and your future. And sometimes that means walking away from people you love, so you can love yourself enough to survive.

To anyone going through this: I see you. I know how lonely it feels. But that emptiness eventually makes room for better things—new connections, real love, true belonging. The kind that doesn’t require you to destroy yourself to fit in.

So today, I can say this: I’m glad I went through the hurt of cutting ties, because it taught me how much I want to live.

What’s one of the hardest changes you’ve had to make in your own healing or recovery—and how did it shape who you are today?