About Karla Adkins

Twelve years ago, alcohol almost killed me.

Not metaphorically. Not in the way people say when they mean their life was a mess. I mean it literally — my body was failing, my MELD score was climbing, and I knew with absolute certainty that if I kept drinking I would not survive.

I also knew that every method I'd tried hadn't worked. Not because I wasn't trying hard enough. Not because I lacked willpower. But because nobody had ever explained to me why I kept going back when I desperately wanted to stop. The label of "alcoholic" didn't fit my experience. The idea that I had a disease that would define me forever didn't feel true. And yet here I was, unable to stop.

Then I found the science. Neural pathways. The way alcohol rewires the brain. The biology behind why willpower alone will never be enough — and why that has nothing to do with weakness or character.

Everything finally made sense.

And I wanted to share it with every person who had ever felt what I felt — desperate to stop, ashamed to ask for help, and convinced they were broken in some way everyone else wasn't.

That's why I wrote And She Came Tumbling Down. That's why I started coaching in 2019. That's why I created Melding Yellow.

Because liver disease is rising. It's killing people — young people. And I couldn't keep my story to myself anymore.

I don't believe you need to hit rock bottom. I don't believe you need a label. I don't believe the only path forward is one that requires you to announce your struggle to a room full of strangers.

I believe you need the truth. The science. And a safe place to find your own way through.

That's what I'm here to give you.

The Story Behind the Name

When you have liver disease, your doctors track something called a MELD score — a number that tells them how sick you are. Patients know their MELD score the way other people know their blood pressure. It's always there, always being watched, always carrying weight.

Yellow shows up in our world as a warning. Caution signs. Traffic lights telling us to slow down, pay attention, something is coming.

My body was doing the same thing. The yellow of jaundice was my caution light — a signal I couldn't ignore any longer. My body was waving a flag, desperate for me to pay attention.

But I didn't listen.

Not until I was in acute liver failure. Not until my body had no other way to make itself heard.

I don't want that for you. I don't want you to need a crisis to finally pay attention to what your body is already trying to tell you.

If you're reading this, maybe that caution light is already on. Maybe it's been on for a while.

This time — let's listen.

But yellow is also the color of sunshine. Of hope. Of a new chapter beginning.

Melding Yellow lives in that space — between the medical reality of what alcohol can do to a body, and the beautiful, hopeful life waiting on the other side.

And there's one more layer. Yellow and blue make green. The color of growth. Of healing. Of becoming.

That's the color story of this brand. And it's the color story of my life.

Karla Adkins is an author, alcohol educator, and coach who has been working with individuals and families since 2019. She is 12 years alcohol free and lives in Pawleys Island, South Carolina with her husband Grady and daughter Piper.