I went through a nasty break up a few years ago. I did the whole "do me" thing. I did it from one extreme to the other, at first going out and meeting new people, hooking up with a few and then feeling really shitty about myself, to just not dating anybody for a good year and a half. In that year and a half I really tried to find myself but while I was doing this I was struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism. I could control it at times and get sober for a period of time but I'd always fall back into it. Last Summer was tough, and wore me out. It was wedding after wedding and party after party and I couldn't keep up with it. I have a difficult family dynamic that added to the stress. One weekend everything hit the fan. I was ready to cut my father out of my life and planning how I would handle that. I got depressed and drank for 2 days straight. I saw a friend for a bit one afternoon and drove to a bar after. I feel into a really dark place, I had several drinks in less than an hour and drove home. I didn't make it home, I rolled my car on the freeway and got arrested. I checked myself into rehab and have been putting the pieces back together. I've been sober for 4 months and am lucky to be alive. I've got a new lease on life, I'm learning about myself, I've got a new vehicle, and I've come so far from where I was in my dark days. Now I know some people recommend when you get sober to not date for a year. I get that and I'm not rushing anything I'm just wondering what people think about this. I'm getting a feeling like I'm finally in the spot the universe wants me to be in and just have this instinct like the right person for me is going to show up in my life. Here's the downside. If that were to happen, I'd have to explain the mess I was in and how I got out of it. Wouldn't that be a red flag to anybody? How am I supposed to date someone when I have whiskey plates and ignition interlock on my car. The more I think about this the more I realize that dating is out of the picture for me, but if that person shows up why should I have to wait until I get the plates off of my car? What would you think if you met a decent person who'd been through some shit, was sober and committed to sobriety but they had whiskey plates and ignition interlock? A definite no no I would assume. That hurts my self esteem to think about.