My name is Luciana Lage, I'm 35 years old, I'm Brazilian and I've been sober for over seven years. I would like to talk about confidence and self-confidence. No, I'm not talking about self-reliance and the false belief of living without needing support and help. I need! I'm talking about the following tripod: 1. trusting myself, 2. That people around trust me, and 3. trusting people. My tripod is getting firmer, but during the years I drank (for about 12 years) it was totally wobbly.
As the symptoms of alcoholism developed, disbelief in myself increased and the dependence on others to validate and value myself (which almost never happened or was not in the way or intensity I had expected). Without realizing that I had a mental disorder, I made promises to myself and to other people, failing to keep most of them.
From the real acceptance of my condition in relation to alcohol, I was able to rebuild and rescue myself. I learned and continue to learn to love myself, I am more confident of my potential, I have regained my parents' trust (materialized in small things and in support for the realization of previously lost dreams, such as a 6-month exchange in another country and living alone in another city to go to college), I had and carry out functions of trust and I am an encourager of people (in a world that already has too many critics).
I have been a member of the Associação Alcoolismo Feminino since May 2020, where in addition to contributing internally, I collaborate in prospecting partnerships and generating spontaneous media, through the dissemination of releases/suggestions for guidelines and intermediation of quality sources and information to journalists.
I believe in the power of information, education, prevention and the vocation of every human being to be more.
I believe that we women are dedicated to freedom, to the possibility of choices and decisions, leaving behind passivity (still expected by a large part of society) and becoming, day after day, protagonists of our stories, without playing roles in scenes that are not good for us.
Let us not forget to remember that: it is when relationships are toxic that we need to go out into the world in search of other relational arrangements and constructive experiences.
♫ Don't despair and don't stop dreaming
Never surrender, always raise with the mornings
Let the sunlight shine in the sky of your eyes
Faith in life, faith in man, faith in what will come
We can do it all, we can do more
Let's go and do what will be ♫
(Gonzaguinha – Seed of Tomorrow)
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