In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of young people getting sober. Alcoholics Anonymous has more youth in the program than ever before and the numbers keep growing. While most alcoholics and addicts join the program of AA or NA over the age of 30, there are more and more teens and people in their 20s walking in.

People who aren’t in programs like AA and NA often imagine them as dingy church basements filled with old religious men. I, myself, thought that before joining the program, and although the dingy church basement part might be true, among the older people you will find groups of 20-year-olds and teens who smoke cigarettes and grasp their vapes tightly in their hands. Some are college students at prestigious schools, while others are living on the streets, and everything in between. Social status, class, age, and past have no place in this community. The only requirement is a desire to get sober, but why  do so many young people today seek sobriety? 

 I asked this question myself when I first considered getting sober. Even though my life was falling apart right before my eyes, I didn’t understand the appeal of trading a party on a Friday night for a meeting group with a bunch of strangers. Eventually, those strangers turned to recognizable faces and friends that greeted me with joy everytime I walked into a room. For the first time, I was surrounded with true care and acceptance. The meetings became the party and the after party consisted of motorcycle rides and milkshakes at nearby diners. AA showed me fun and excitement, while starting to guide me towards a sense of peace. 

Still, being sober at a young age has its difficulties. It is hard in early sobriety, with influences and temptations everywhere, to build a sobriety that is not fragile. When most of the people in your environment are doing drugs and drinking, your sobriety becomes isolating. The community aspect of AA is helpful in relieving that isolation. 

Some people come and go in the program and at a young age, life is always changing. Starting college was a change that deeply affected my perspective of sobriety. No one around me was sober and all of my friend’s plans included recreational substances. I did not have it in myself to stay sober on my own. I needed the program and a greater connection to keep me sober. 

The idea of letting go of control over your life is hard when there is so much more life ahead and letting go of an old life that the people around you are still living is even harder. Being sober gives a person a sense of self awareness. It is a gift to be self aware, but sometimes there is bliss in the ignorance of self. AA reminds me of what I have gained and the experiences shared serve as a constant reminder of what I have to lose and I have everything to lose. 

I can't speak for everyone who gets sober young, but from experiences shared with me, as well as my own, I can say that life became unmanageable. Each time I turned to substances led me down the path of losing. Being sober young allowed me to start moving forward again. 

What I once saw as comfort in drugs and alcohol revealed itself as only a temporary illusion. Eventually I learned I wasn’t trading a “good time” for a church basement, I was trading a fake life for a real one.