OTI Member Stories: Dee

Hi. My name is Deirdre aka Dee. I’m the ripe old age of 46. 2 kids (18 and 22) and happily married to the amazing Ciarán. Alcohol has always been in my life. I was always a shy teenager and I was a late starter discovering the booze but when I did... my God I loved who I became. So full of confidence and the life and soul of the party! So that continued for a few years. Fast forward to having our kids and working too, I didn’t really notice at the time, but I was having a drink (or several) every evening. All part of my routine!! A few bumps in the “road of life” and a drink just felt it helped me relax and block it all out for those fuzzy few hours. Then the next day I’d wake up feeling like crap and those bumps in the road were still there plus a headache on top of it!

Then pandemic hit me hard! I lost my job. I couldn’t go out. Wine became my friend. It was November 2020 when I tried to stop for good. I joined another AF platform and off I went. Blipped so many times along the way but I was determined to keep going. So March 24th was my restart of day one.

I started listening to the OTI podcast one morning while out for a walk and was immediately hooked! This was a breath of fresh air. I had tears every time I heard another episode. Sometimes they were tears of laughter. Sometimes tears of sadness. Del’s post had me bawling. He was amazing. Such a strong warrior. Something just felt right about OTI. So when I heard they were setting up their amazing little community I knew I was coming home! Signed up straight away and haven’t looked back since. Shaz, Freddie and Ben have so many things happening on the OTI platform that I don’t even have time to count my AF days anymore! I’m too busy booking my next zoom chats with them! All the members are so lovely and it’s great to meet them having a cuppa early on a Saturday morning via zoom.

So as I write this I’m on day 166. I’ve attached a day one and day 166 photo. Take a pic. You really won’t believe the difference in yourself. But the best part is how I feel on the inside. Ready to do Andy Ramage’s arête way course starting Monday. I’m starting college the end of September.

Thank you OTI. You are amazing!!