I own it, I did that, not proud but that was me, and when I face it, I take back a little dignity, not looking for excuses, I just want to be free from power.

Weakness had on me.

Free, free, free, free, free.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the bubble hour where real people tell real stories of addiction and recovery.

I'm Gene McCarthy, recovery author, blogger, and podcast host.

I've been chronicling my adventures in life after alcohol since my first day of sobriety a decade ago.

In my blog, I'm Pickledled and in the books that I write,

two of them so far and more on the way at jean McCarthy.ca. I tell my stories there and I hold space

for your stories here. And today I'm holding space for Betsy Beiler. Hi, Betsy. Welcome to the bubble hour.

Hi, Jean. Thanks so much for having me.

I'm glad you're here and I am glad to introduce our listeners to you. So I'm going to not hesitate at all. I'm going to turn the mic right over to you. Betsy, tell us about

yourself and tell us your story.

So, hi, my name's Betsy.

As we start always in our meetings, I have, I am a mom, a wife, a therapist, mental health and chemical dependency, and kind of a crazy cat lady. I'm also in recovery and have been sober

from drugs since 1996 and from alcohol since 2004. And my story about how I am, where I am today, is personal and professional.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, about 25 miles west, and when you're from that area,

you just tell people you're from Chicago or Chicago land.

Often when I meet people who grew up in the city of Chicago, they're a little touchy about that.

They want to know if your address said Chicago, Illinois, which it did not.

It's just that average folks from around the world would never know where Wheaton, Illinois was.

I grew up there in what my brother-in-law likes to call Pleasantville, and from the

surface, it looks like that. It's a good place to grow up. We had good schools, and I had the same

...