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“After I’d completed what I thought was going to bring me everlasting bliss, I discovered that I wasn’t really feeling that great,” Samantha Perkins says.

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Samantha Perkins is not the only woman alive who has been underwhelmed by adulthood. “I had done all the things I thought I was supposed to do — go to college, get my degree, get married, get a good job, have kids, buy a house. After I’d completed what I thought was going to bring me everlasting bliss, I discovered that I wasn’t really feeling that great,” she says. She realized that she was using alcohol as a coping mechanism to manage her disaffection and lifelong anxiety, and that alcohol was making her feel worse, not better.

She decided to stop drinking alcohol and began writing a blog (ALIVEAF — Alive Alcohol Free), which gave her a place to work out all of her feelings about motherhood, anxiety and sobriety. Women who found her blog experienced and shared many of the same feelings and challenges, which motivated Samantha to write and publish a book, Alive AF: One Anxious Mom’s Journey to Becoming Alcohol Free.

The goal of her book is twofold: First, she wanted to break down the stereotype that a person has to become a full-blown alcoholic before they stop consuming alcohol. She also wanted to acknowledge and address “mommy wine culture,” which she experienced for several years when she was a full-time stay-at-home mom to her two children. “Drinking isn’t the greatest coping skill, especially for moms who are in isolation,” she says. The COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty and stress it has brought to women has made it even more important for women to seek out coping skills that don’t rely on alcohol, she says.

 

Samantha is wearing: Dress, $138, Jacket, $298, Necklace, $275, Clutch, $42, all available at Dot Fox, 502.452.9191; Hat by Kenzie Kapp, $475.
Art Direction: Anita Oldham  Hair: Krista Nenni   Makeup: Amber Himes

Artwork: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free by Jeffrey Gibson, 2018. Glass beads, artificial sinew, wool, tin jingles, steel studs, on canvas over wood panel.
Location: Speed Art Museum

P.S. Take our ‘Did You Know?’ Derby quiz!

 

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