After struggling with alcoholism for about 13 years, trying and failing to quit several times on her own, and hiding her addiction from everyone, Nicole Nelson knew she could no longer claim to have control over her drinking.

“I knew this time last year I was defeated and I knew it had to be big to make me quit,” she said. “It had to be something drastic.”

The event that precipitated the beginning of her recovery journey was big enough to leave a scar from about the middle of her forehead to near her left ear.

Today, after a year of sobriety, Nelson wears that scar proudly. It reminds her of where she was and how far she has come.

The day she took her last drink was a Saturday. She does not remember why she started drinking at 10 a.m., but she does remember starting with a 6-pack of beer. She followed that with some shots and a little bit of wine that had been left over from the previous week. After that she headed to the beach because, to her, there was nothing better than sitting in the sun all day, getting a tan and drinking.

On the way, she stopped at the liquor store and purchased a bottle of rum. Nelson spent the next three hours tanning and refilling her drink. She eventually ended up hanging out with her fiance’s family at a lake in Iowa. After a boat ride, she had filled her glass one last time and was walking toward the dock.

As she reached the dock, she slipped on its wet surface, fell and lacerated her face on the metal dock post. When she stood up in the water everybody was staring at her and screaming about her face. She kept insisting she was fine.

“I was so far gone that it didn’t faze me,” Nelson said. “I didn’t know the damage I had done to myself at that point.”

Once she got to the emergency room, they pulled the towel from her face and gave her a mirror. Nelson said the cut on her face was so deep she could see the white of her skull and the ridge of her brow line. After tests to rule out brain damage, the surgeon on duty called in a plastic surgeon to assist in stitching the wound. It took four layers of stitches.

One of the things that sticks out most in Nelson’s mind from that day is one of the doctors telling her that if she had hit the post an inch to the right she would have lost her eye. If she had fallen an inch to the left she would have impaled her temple and quite possibly would have died.

That next day, as she sat on her bathroom floor, hungover, in pain from the head injury, and on the verge of throwing up, she knew that was it.

“I knew that was bottom, and I knew that everyone knew how bad it was,” she said.

On Monday, she went to work, determined she would not take any time off for something that was her fault. That night, she went to a recovery meeting, and she has faithfully attended meetings ever since.

Nelson acknowledges that not all alcoholics are as open about their disease and recovery process as she has been. She has shared her journey with friends and family on Facebook, she sponsors other alcoholics in her recovery program, and she blogs for Sober Nation, which provides online recovery resources and links to drug and alcohol treatment centers.

“It (being open) might help someone,” she said. “And if it helps one person, then that’s the whole point.”

Nelson battled off and on with alcoholism since graduating from college in 2003. When she graduated, she felt like she was losing the network of friends and system of support she had established in college.

“For me, that was the catalyst of where my alcoholism took off,” she said.

Still, she was what she calls a “functioning alcoholic.” Between 2003 and 2016, she got married and divorced twice, had two children, held down a variety of jobs and went through a series of moving and getting re-established. There were periods of drinking in there, she said, but there were also periods when she could go without drinking.

“At that time, I could stop,” Nelson said. “I could control it.”

Her drinking, however, worsened each time she started back up again, and at about this time last year she could not go more than 12 hours without a drink.

“The spiral of how your life starts to literally come uncorked, looking back now is — epic,” she said.

Since starting her recovery journey a year ago, Nelson feels like she is regaining control over her life.

Through the recovery process she is learning how to cope with the everyday challenges that can cause an alcoholic to turn to drink. She’s also learning a lot about herself, her character defects and the reasons why she drinks.

“I’m 35 years old right now,” Nelson said. “For the first time in my life, I actually feel like an adult. I grew up.”

She is also thankful for the accident that was the catalyst for the changes in her life.

“Who would have known what would have been next had I not slipped and fell and hit my head the way I did,” Nelson said.

“I’m happy for that day. I’m thankful for that day.”