

I am always honored when people share their stories with me, when they trust me with their deepest fears and secrets. They can be big, sweeping tales of bravery and tragedy or smaller gems about kindness, perseverance, and quiet courage. What I do for a living is tell stories… on television. I am just one of many who struggle, one of the lucky few who finally found a way to not let it run my life. In 2013 the National Institute on Mental Health estimated 40 million American adults suffered from anxiety, and that number did not include the many children growing up in its grip, as I did. But it has been a part of my life since I can remember.

I just know what finally worked for me, and that my sobriety, while new, is hard won and my life is so much better for it. I do not claim to know all the secrets to getting better, and as you will read, I have learned painful lessons about what is important. But there is not a magic number of years of sobriety that suddenly confers authority or expertise, or even a guarantee that it will last. There are people who will say I have not been sober long enough to write this book, that I should wait until I have eight years without a drink, or eighteen. Winner of the Books for a Better Life Award in the First Book category Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Read Excerpt
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Honest and hopeful, Between Breaths is an inspiring read. She addresses her time in rehab, her first year of sobriety, and the guilt she felt as a working mother who could never find the right balance between a career and parenting. The now-A&E Network reporter reveals how she found herself living in denial about the extent of her addiction, and how she kept her dependency a secret for so long.

Now, in Between Breaths, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety–which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam–and how she dealt with this anxiety as she came of age, eventually turning to alcohol for a release from her painful reality. Beloved former ABC 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas reveals her alcohol addiction and anxiety disorder in a shockingly honest and emotional memoir.įrom the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, “I am an alcoholic,” to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw.
