Making the choice to stop drinking alcohol in order to turn your life around for the better is a tough decision indeed. Not only do you have to deal with the taxing physical symptoms from withdrawals in your body, but you have to fight the battle in your mind, too. It can take years of struggle, relapse, and moments of self-defeat before you finally reach that overwhelming goal of sobriety.

Alcoholism is a serious disease affecting over 15 million people per year. Sadly, the addiction kills up to 6 people a day, according to 2018 statistics, with most of the deaths occurring between ages 34-65! These are just the deaths related to being an alcoholic.

Of all of the fatalities resulting from auto accident injuries, drunk driving accounts for a whopping one-third of them. This is to say nothing of the secondary health issues that arise from alcoholism or the serious emotional, and sometimes physical, toll it takes on the people who love the abuser. That being said, alcohol is still shoved in our faces through advertisements implying it’s the only way to have a good time amongst friends or at social events.

So, when a person who is addicted to abusing alcohol decides to take that leap into sobriety and a world of emotional and practical unknowns, it should always, always, be applauded. Sobriety can take someone on the worst path in life and turn it all around for the better. Here are 35 before and after images of amazing people who went through the struggle of getting sober and are proving that it is SO worth it!