14 years sober: man recounts his escape from severe alcohol addiction
A 56-year-old man known as Tarmo marks 14 years since he last drank alcohol, recalling years spent living out of his car and scavenging bins for food and deposit bottles. A former drinking companion's intervention and a support group helped turn his life around.
A man who wishes to be identified only as Tarmo is marking a significant milestone today: 14 years without alcohol. His story goes back to the summer of 2012, when the then 42-year-old had already spent 15 years battling severe alcohol addiction while living without a permanent home.
At that time, his days followed a grim routine of sleeping in his car at night and, during the day, searching rubbish bins for food and deposit-return packaging to fund his next drink and ease his hangovers. He describes the final ten years of his drinking as a slow suicide, a period marked by hallucinations and hearing voices.
The turning point
The decisive moment came when a former drinking companion, Rauls, who by then had gotten sober, knocked on the window of Tarmo's car. Rauls invited Tarmo to move in with him and brought him along to a support group, a step that became the turning point on his road to sobriety.
Looking back, Tarmo says the addiction did not take hold all at once but developed gradually. Until the age of 27, regular sports activity helped keep him from the worst consequences, but afterward his drinking intensified until it consumed his entire life.
He says he is not haunted by the property, health or relationships he lost to alcohol, but he can never forgive himself for once stealing money from his own child's piggy bank while in the grip of addiction. Now, after 14 years of sobriety, Tarmo has been able to be present for important family moments, including his daughter's graduation.
