For Kimberly Nelson, parties were a part of college life.
And she was just one student, among many, who saw alcohol as not much more than a remedy for boredom, just something to help her relax and socialize. She spent many nights drinking until she passed out, sometimes experiencing blackouts, and many of her friends seemed to be doing the same thing.
But when she woke up in a hospital emergency room years later, she also awoke to the reality that her drinking threatened her life.
She said that although many people come out of the college “phase” of heavy drinking, others, such as herself, discovered they had a disease called alcoholism.
“I knew what I was doing wasn’t okay, but then everyone else was doing it,” she said. “A lot of people come out of that phase, but I didn’t. And when you cross over that line, you can’t come back over.”
Now a residential counselor at the Eugene drug and rehabilitation center, Serenity Lane, she has spent much of her life sharing her story and educating people about alcohol’s potential to turn into someone’s worse enemy.
Nelson recognizes many college students are in the same place she was, and they don’t realize their drinking habits could ruin their lives. But being a student whose weekend extravaganzas went too far, the recovering 39-year-old hopes to help others before it’s too late.
And she’s also counting down the days to Dec. 2, 2001, her 12th sobriety birthday.
“The thing about this disease is that it progresses even when you don’t drink,” she said. “You have to take it day by day.”
Nelson had her first drink at age 14, and although she kept herself busy in high school with the rally team, string ensemble, Young Life and the varsity tennis team, alcohol and marijuana still managed to take a small part in her teenage life.
“In high school, I was in the experimental phase,” she said. “But I was still in control.”

In the beginning
Nelson attended Oregon State University in 1979 and moved into the residence halls with a friend from high school. At that time, drugs and alcohol still seemed harmless.
“It was so classic when we moved in,” she said. “Our moms helped us decorate, and then the second they left, we pulled out our Southern Comfort and jar of pot.”
The following summer, Nelson moved in with a few of her sorority sisters into a cabin in Lake Tahoe, Calif. Her drinking accelerated, and she was also introduced to cocaine.
“That’s when it really started to affect my life,” she said. “I was just having a lot of hangovers, not being responsible and not keeping jobs.”
Nelson spent her junior year abroad in Germany, where she realized something was wrong. Her blackouts became more frequent, and she started to notice signs of alcoholism.
“I took some risks that were pretty stupid and life threatening,” she said. “I was also depressed off and on, and I’d isolate, drink in my room and not answer the door sometimes. I knew I had a problem, but I just was not willing to give it up.”
Nelson moved back to Eugene after graduation to work at her father’s law firm, and her family also started to notice her drinking problem. After a year and a half, Nelson moved to Portland for work and also began to see a psychologist and started using anti-depressants, but her drinking combated the medicine’s effects.

Blind to reality
“I just wasn’t honest about how much I was drinking,” she said. “Denial is pretty amazing.”
But after Nelson blacked out at her sister’s graduation party, her friends and family knew she needed more help. Her mother and friend set up an evaluation appointment at New Day, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Portland, and the counselors recommended she check in as a patient.
“I stayed sober for three and a half years,” she said, “but out of fear and not wanting to disappoint my parents.”
After treatment at New Day, Nelson moved to San Diego, where she worked for about a year and a half. But after a bad break-up and losing her job, she had a relapse and started drinking again.
She moved to Alexandria, Va., in 1989 and lived with her cousin, who was also in recovery, in hopes of getting better. But shortly afterward, Nelson took an overdose of drugs mixed with vodka and ended up in the emergency room. Though Nelson considered suicide in the past, her near-death experience was in fact accidental.
“I had some really intense guardian angels working overtime,” she said.

Taking responsibility
Nelson’s parents brought her back to Eugene, where she checked into Serenity Lane. She had her last drink on Dec. 2, 1989.
“I suddenly realized that I couldn’t get better for anyone but myself,” she said. “And this time, I wasn’t going to do it for my family or my friends. … I was going to do it for Kim.”
Nelson began working for the University part time and interned at Serenity Lane in the early 1990s. She got married, and soon after, she had two children: Jaeger, 3, and 6-year-old Wyatt, who has appeared with her in several Serenity Lane television advertisements and posters that read, “Another Serenity Lane Miracle.”
Her co-worker, Jerry Schmidt, marketing director at Serenity Lane, said Nelson does her job wonderfully because of her positive attitude and appearance.
“The kids identify with her,” he said. “People have such a stereotypical view of what drunks look like. … They think of bums on the street.”
Nelson also spends some of her spare time presenting information to elementary schools on request.
“She’s just a star,” Schmidt said. “She’s willing to do anything if it will help just one person.”
Although she had a history of alcoholism in her family, she said even those who don’t have genetic factors are susceptible to alcoholism, especially during their college years.
“We can mess with our chemistry enough to get us into the mode of being physically dependent on [alcohol] … where we have to have it in order to function,” she said.

Everyone’s at risk
Among teenagers who binge drink, defined as consuming 5 or more drinks in a row, 39 percent say they drink alone, 58 percent drink when they’re upset, 30 percent drink when they are bored, and 37 percent drink to feel high, according to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.
Dr. Scott Pengelly said younger people tend to dismiss the idea that they could have an alcohol problem.
“They think ‘It’s not gonna get me,’” he said. “They think it’s a problem older people have because they can’t handle alcohol. They say ‘I won’t have that problem. I’ll know when to quit.’”
As a college student, Nelson had thought of drinking as a distraction, not something that would cause her pain in the future. But after seeing alcohol’s potential for destruction and having lived sober for 11 years, she wants students to know that there is hope in leading a different lifestyle.
“This disease’s goal is to alienate me from my loved ones and rob me of my self-esteem, and it almost did,” she said. “But there is an alternative, and I’m grateful to be living a life of recovery.”