Bible Gateway Blog

What does it take to break the cycle of addiction and shame? One woman knows. She enjoyed a seemingly perfect life as a wife, mom, and leader of a megachurch while she hid her alcoholism that almost destroyed everything. Are you, or someone you know, in an addiction cycle, unaware of how unmanageable your life has become?

Bible Gateway interviewed Irene Rollins (@irenerollins) about her book, Reframe Your Shame: Experience Freedom from What Holds You Back (W Publishing Group, 2022).

What were the circumstances that led you to alcoholism?

Irene Rollins: Shame of my past caught up with me when carrying the weight of wounds that hadn’t been dealt with. I had an early introduction to alcohol and abused alcohol in my adolescent years. I had a lack of emotional health or awareness to carry the weight of the responsibilities that went along with leading a growing and thriving church alongside my husband while managing a home with three children and a marriage that was full of dysfunctional ways of communicating and operating. With trauma that hadn’t been dealt with and unhealthy emotional behaviors, using alcohol to escape after a long day at work unconsciously became my normal way of coping with stress. Without me seeing it coming, I fell down the slippery slope of addiction over a period of six years.

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