Alcohol addiction came late to Laura, compared with most, although it had claimed the lives of many in her family. It was only after the birth of her son, unfortunately accompanied by the complex mental disorder postpartum depression, that Laura’s drinking, previously just a weekend social indulgence, spiralled dangerously out of control, further worsened by her additional use of pills.

Her alcoholic descent was one she has likened to a phrase used by a Hemingway character in “The Sun Also Rises.” The character in question is asked how he went bankrupt – “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” For anyone who has experienced a descent in alcoholism, that’s a pretty apt description of how it goes – gradually, then suddenly.

Laura went into rehab on July 14, 2008, but not with the aim of recovery, as she would readily admit. Because her alcoholism and pill-popping was now so out of control, her tolerance level had become exceptionally high, meaning the quantity needed just to cope with her daily withdrawal symptoms was placing her in severe danger.

At that point in her life, now going through a divorce and away from her kids, rehab meant a painful detox, but they’d medicate her. She’d survive, she could get a break, and hopefully, she would then be able to reach the previous toxic effects of her earlier alcohol use once again.

“I Do Not Belong Here”

Fortunately, fate intervened. Here’s how Laura recently described her introduction to rehab life back in July, 2008:

“The hour that I checked in, I was ushered into this orientation, and I heard people introducing themselves. I’m like, “Oh, this is a huge mistake. These people are hardcore, like heroin addicts, and I do not belong here. I’m a mom with a pill problem.”

And I bolted and ran for the office to check out. And this guy followed me out of there, out of the orientation. I thought he worked there. He started telling me about his daughters and explaining like, “If you have kids, you should stay.” And he was really annoying. He was slowing me down.

He ended up being somebody that I struck up a friendship with there, and kept a friendship with afterward. Then we ended up dating later on. So he actually made rehab a bit bearable for me.”

Additionally, on leaving rehab, fate was to intervene once more.

Laura’s divorce attorney, wary that the substance use and rehab stay might cause a problem during proceedings later, insisted Laura underwent weekly drug testing and kept a record of all the meetings she attended. The drug testing lasted 6 months, and Laura remained sober throughout.

Describing her first year in recovery, Laura uses the analogy of a cat running across a busy street: “You ever seen a cat run across the street? They put their ears back, and they just go. I felt –  that first year – I was like a cat, with my ears back, just going in there. There might have been bombs dropping on either side of me, I didn’t see anything. I was just like, “I’ve got to get across the street, I’ve got to get to 365 days.”

Once a life in recovery and a life of complete abstinence from alcohol became more normal for Laura, she began to excel in her chosen profession – writing. She won the 2018 LA Moth StorySlam, and was recently named the weekly US contributor for an Italian news magazine, “The Daily Worker.” Laura also sits on the advisory board for the San Diego Writer’s Festival and the Outliers HQ podcast Festival, and then there’s her hugely popular podcast “The Only One In The Room,” named after an experience at a writer’s retreat, and recounted in The Huffington Post.

“Alone in a Room Full of People”

In fact, it was that very experience that has spurred much of Laura’s best work: “I found myself in an all too familiar position. In September, 2018, I was the only black woman in the room at Brave Magic, a famed writer’s retreat. After it was over, I wrote about my ‘only one’ experience in The Huffington Post, and comments started flooding into my DM from people from all races, ethnicities, creeds, and nationalities who had felt ‘othered’.”