"I was a party girl on 48 hour benders every weekend - I got sober after going to rehab aged 24"
- 6 months ago
A former "college party girl" who got blackout drunk every night and had weekend "48 hour benders" got sober after going to rehab - aged 24.
Grace Adams, 26, started her dance degree at university and engaged with the "college party life scene".
Her lectures in the day were followed by nights of parting and binge-drinking - and repeating the next day to "numb" her feelings for "four years straight".
She says she would turn up to morning dance rehearsals still drunk or "hungover and reeking of alcohol" - and hid empty bottles to conceal her addiction.
Her problem continued when she graduated and got a job, until finally it all became too much and she confessed her addiction to her parents.
At 24 years old she checked herself into rehab to get sober - and since then has had an "amazing" 14 months of sobriety.
Grace, a media manager, based in the Upper East Side of New York, said: "At college, I thought it was normal to drink like that every night because everyone else around me was doing.
"But when I got a job, every day the minute I finished I'd be drinking too - and I'd always take it too far.
"I'd have to piece things back together from photos and texts to friends the next day.
"I felt regret, shame and guilt constantly - but my solution was just to numb my pain with more alcohol.
"Until one Sunday, I woke up from a bender and I called my mum. I was worn down from years of it - I was ready to admit defeat.
"I sobbed on my way to rehab because I was terrified, but it ended up being the best decision of my life."
Grace says she barely drank before moving to Dallas, Texas, US, to study a four-year degree in dance in 2016, at Southern Methodist University.
But she quickly settled into the university drinking scene, and started going out to bars every night with her new pals.
Grace said she and her coursemates subscribed to a "work hard, play hard" mentality - so her heavy drinking felt "normal".
She said: "I would have dance rehearsals until 11pm then run home and start drinking before going to a bar.
"I'd turn up to ballet at 8am the next day - still drunk, or hungover and reeking of alcohol."
After four years of nightly boozing, in 2020 during Covid, Grace graduated and moved back in with her parents in Baltimore, Maryland.
She said: "I realised it wasn't normal and started hiding my drinking - I’d drink after my parents went to sleep.
"I’d take the empty bottles out when they had gone to work the next day."
She returned to university in September 2020 to complete a masters degree in marketing - where she fell straight back into her old partying ways.
Then after graduating, she got a job in New York City, in February 2022 - which was when things began to spiral.
On Fridays, she would finish work and pour her first drink - and "be in and out of blackout for 48 hours".
She said: "I was always the drunkest person out, who would have to be taken care of."
Grace Adams, 26, started her dance degree at university and engaged with the "college party life scene".
Her lectures in the day were followed by nights of parting and binge-drinking - and repeating the next day to "numb" her feelings for "four years straight".
She says she would turn up to morning dance rehearsals still drunk or "hungover and reeking of alcohol" - and hid empty bottles to conceal her addiction.
Her problem continued when she graduated and got a job, until finally it all became too much and she confessed her addiction to her parents.
At 24 years old she checked herself into rehab to get sober - and since then has had an "amazing" 14 months of sobriety.
Grace, a media manager, based in the Upper East Side of New York, said: "At college, I thought it was normal to drink like that every night because everyone else around me was doing.
"But when I got a job, every day the minute I finished I'd be drinking too - and I'd always take it too far.
"I'd have to piece things back together from photos and texts to friends the next day.
"I felt regret, shame and guilt constantly - but my solution was just to numb my pain with more alcohol.
"Until one Sunday, I woke up from a bender and I called my mum. I was worn down from years of it - I was ready to admit defeat.
"I sobbed on my way to rehab because I was terrified, but it ended up being the best decision of my life."
Grace says she barely drank before moving to Dallas, Texas, US, to study a four-year degree in dance in 2016, at Southern Methodist University.
But she quickly settled into the university drinking scene, and started going out to bars every night with her new pals.
Grace said she and her coursemates subscribed to a "work hard, play hard" mentality - so her heavy drinking felt "normal".
She said: "I would have dance rehearsals until 11pm then run home and start drinking before going to a bar.
"I'd turn up to ballet at 8am the next day - still drunk, or hungover and reeking of alcohol."
After four years of nightly boozing, in 2020 during Covid, Grace graduated and moved back in with her parents in Baltimore, Maryland.
She said: "I realised it wasn't normal and started hiding my drinking - I’d drink after my parents went to sleep.
"I’d take the empty bottles out when they had gone to work the next day."
She returned to university in September 2020 to complete a masters degree in marketing - where she fell straight back into her old partying ways.
Then after graduating, she got a job in New York City, in February 2022 - which was when things began to spiral.
On Fridays, she would finish work and pour her first drink - and "be in and out of blackout for 48 hours".
She said: "I was always the drunkest person out, who would have to be taken care of."