Chelsea never fit in as a child. She felt different from all the other kids she knew; she felt out of place in the classroom of her Jewish day school: "I was the new kid, the girl who came from a small town and couldn’t read Hebrew," she recalls.

She felt a sense of discomfort in her own skin, "At the time I felt like I had nowhere to go." Until she was 13, and she found a way to escape. That Passover, since she had had her bat mitzvah, her family let her drink four full glasses of wine at the Seder table.

"There was silence in my mind," she says. "I took a deep breath after four glasses of wine… I wanted that feeling of peace and ease all the time."

The next year Chelsea transferred to a public school and began hanging out with a new group of friends. She was binge drinking every weekend and coming to school high. "That was a really dark time for me, and I was almost suicidal. I drank to numb myself." She doesn’t have many positive memories from this time in her life, she says. The first 20 minutes would be great and then she would turn into a different person, black out, and end up in some random place then next morning.

Chelsea knew she needed to change her life, but she didn’t know what to do. She became more and more depressed. "I had nothing left. I woke up every morning hoping I wouldn’t wake up. There came a point in my drinking where I wanted to stop but I couldn’t."

When she was 18, she decided to quit drinking and started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. After several months sober, Chelsea decided she needed some outside help. She turned to Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis where she found an addictions counselor who helped her complete her recovery.

"I felt instantly comfortable with her,” Chelsea says. “I think it was all about the timing, exactly the person I needed at the right time when I was willing to listen."

"I’m not the same person anymore. I went from being completely miserable and wanting to die to this place in my life where I’m OK. Not every day is a good d ay, but I want to wake up in the morning. I have purpose again."

Chelsea has reconnected with her family, her Jewish community, and herself. She recently celebrated 18 months of sobriety. "I take it one day at a time. Most of all, I just try to enjoy being 19."

Details of this story have been modified to protect the subject's privacy.