David’s Story: Breaking the Cycle of Alcohol Use and Recovering from Childhood Trauma

After a three-day alcohol binge left him physically and emotionally depleted, David entered treatment at The Meadows. Emotionally shut down and disconnected from his past, he began to uncover repressed childhood trauma during group therapy as others’ stories sparked his own memories. These emotional breakthroughs shifted his motivation from living for others to valuing his own life. The sense of shared experience and lasting peer connection became key to his healing. Through codependency work and emotional regulation skills, David learned to distinguish past programming from present reality—empowering him to live with greater self-awareness, clarity, and self-compassion.