I dreamt that you were twisting through seven suns of gold and the gypsy was insisting

their story must be told I came two in the morning but I took it as a warning that you might be a treasure.

I could touch but never hold.

Hello and welcome.

In case you don't know who I am, I'm Veronica Valley.

And I am going to be talking today about fear.

And the reason that I'm going to talk about fear is I don't

think it's spoken about enough. And I believe it's the engine that drives an alcohol problem.

When I was first getting sober and I really didn't know if I was going to stop drinking forever,

I was kind of had one fit in and one foot out. And I didn't really if I was going to stop drinking forever. I was kind of had one fit in and one

foot out and I didn't really get it. And I could see that I was maybe drinking too much and I

could also see that I felt so much better not drinking. But I didn't really relate to anybody.

Like I was quite young when I stopped drinking and a lot of the stuff

that I thought qualified you to have a problem like having a DUI, getting arrested, losing a job,

none of that stuff had ever happened to me. I just knew that I didn't like how I felt. I didn't like

being me, I think is the best way to sum it up. I didn't like

being me. So I had kind of one foot in, one foot out. I wasn't drinking. I didn't really get

anything. I was kind of still sleepwalking. And I was in a meeting and I heard a middle-aged man talk about fear.

And he spoke about fear in the way that I've never heard, or up until that point,

I'd never heard anyone speak about fear.

And he said the reason he drank was because he was frightened. And I kind of like was rooted

to the spot because I'd never heard anyone say that. And as soon as he said it, I just thought,

...