freedomfries

I'm 29 now almost 30. I'm 34 days sober.

I'm wondering have I wasted my youth, or will a sober thirties make up for lost time. Is it too late for me to experience being young? Is 29 still young? Did anyone drink their twenties away and then have a sober thirties? Do you feel like you missed out or is 29 time enough to get sober and still experience youth?

Gabe1980

Firstly, 29 is definitely still young. I drank away my twenties and thirties. I feel the same as you do, but at 40. I think if you have stopped now you will have a 30s you can remember and that are meaningful. Fill them with whatever makes you happy.

anxiousrock

I hope it's not too late... I'm 32.
I wouldn't say I wasted my 20's as I did so many amazing things but drinking did ruin a few occasions for me and rather be without it. I'm 31 days sober and feel awesome

Erica375

Oh, FF, sweetie, you're right on schedule. Someone once told me we spend our 30s fixing the mistakes we made in our 20s and don't really start to live until our 40s.

You're doing great -- keep up the good work!

Cityboy

have I wasted my youth - No, just the time you've spent thus far while under the control of drugs or alcohol.

will a sober thirties make up for lost time - No, but you're quality of life will be much better so don't worry about it in that way.

Is it too late for me to experience being young? - Only if you allow yourself to remain trapped by chemical dependency.

Is 29 still young? - Yes

Did anyone drink their twenties away and then have a sober thirties? - Personally, my dependency on drinking was constantly attaining new heights through late 20s and 30s, all the way to 55 actually.

Do you feel like you missed out - #understatement

is 29 time enough to get sober and still experience youth? - 55 was

TexanJohn

Shoot I drank my 20s and 30s away. About to hit 40... 🤪🤪🤪

Reid82

Yep, most of my late 20's is a blur. Went to my first treatment at 31, couldn't make it stick fully. Back at 36 and coming up on 18 months now.

nez

I drank a ton through my twenties. Depending upon whose definition of "being young" you use, I could be considered as having done my youth to the max.

I don't feel that I wasted my twenties, it was a time of many powerful lessons. But I wouldn't be able to access the info contained in those lessons until recovery, because alcohol had taken my library card.

I am not in my twenties, but I feel much younger than I did when I was in my twenties.

WeThinkNot

LOL!

I wasted my twenties and my thirties. And I'm not even going to complain about that because I've come across people in recovery who drank much longer than I did.

Post sobriety that was the thing that hurt me the deepest: all of the lost time. However I've changed my perspective on the matter and now view my 20s and 30s as an investment. If I hadn't drank those years away and gone through absolute hell to get sober then I wouldn't have the life I do now. Now every day is better than the last and today is the best day of my life.

Don't worry about your 20s FF, the ceiling is much higher than you think if you put the booze away.

totfit

You are at the absolutely best age to get sober. Gain traction now and life will surprise you. Your 20's were not wasted away. They were valuable experience. Now, just try not and waste the experience you have gained leading you to getting sober.

least

I drank thru my 20s and got sober in my 30s. Then after 20 yrs sober, in my 50s, I started drinking again and it took me two years to get sober again.

Yes, 29 is still young.

stickyone

I drank all the way from middle school until I was 30 years old. I have drank in about 8 years. But when I stopped drink I began to abuse my prescription pain medicine. Today is 160 off of pain medicine and I still have touched a drop of alcohol since I was 30.

stickyone

Haven't touched alcohol.

Dee74

You’re young enough to have 50 or more years ahead of you FF.
I’ve done so much more in the years I’ve been sober than I did in the drinking decades before that.

Stay sober now and seize the day man.

D

sugarbear1

I have a friend who got sober at 15 (yes, full blown alkie) and I know people who got sober at 50 or older. They are still sober today.

This is your life and you ARE young!!! You have an amazing sober life ahead of you!!!!

D122y

I got you all by a few years.

I don't consider drinking from 5 years old through 50 as wasted time. Someone else might, but that is there opinion.

If I wasn't drunk most of the time, I might have gotten hit by a bus or something.

Drinking worked for me, until somethings went wrong. Then I had to adapt.

I am a winner. I refuse to believe anything else. I don't care what anyone says.

I use the past hells on earth to remind me never to drink again.

My mind and body just could not handle it anymore. I know if I relapse, I will go mad and die sooner. I don't want that.

Thanks for the therapy.

Robbie64

I wish I had only wasted my 20s by drinking then had got sober in my 30s. It wouldn't have been so bad. However I wasted not only my 20s but also my 30s and 40s too, wrecking personal relationships, jobs, my finances and my health. I can't turn back the clock, no-one can. However if you have the chance to reach your 30s and to get and stay sober then take that chance. You can still have many years ahead of you to more than make up for what you did in your 20s. If you wait until you are much older it's more about damage limitation.

Dee74

just a word on 'waste'....

I thought that way for a long time...

now I figure everything I've been through, good and bad, has lead me to where I am today - and here is not a bad spot to be

TheWayBack

I didn't drink in my twenties. Or thirties. Instead I started in my late 40s and wasted an entire decade on drinking.

Better off to do that in your twenties, much easier to recover.

Of course, better to never do it.

Wastinglife

I drank and did drugs all through my 20's. However, it was all done socially. All my friends were also drinking socially.

When I was approaching 30, I started to drink alone. Friends were settling down and getting married so i didn't have anyone to drink with. I was drinking everyday by 30. Drank heavily until this day at 44.

You have plenty of time to do the things you thought you missed. I became an alcoholic at 29 so imagine 15 years more for me.