Hi, my name is Melissa Urban, and you're listening to Do the Thing, a

podcast where we explore what's been missing every time you've tried to make a change and make it stick.

Today my guest is Holly Whitaker, creator of Tempest, a digital platform for the

treatment and support of alcohol mis-users.

Those who feel their drinking is problematic but aren't alcoholics.

She believes recovery isn't about discipline, will power, or even abstaining, but building a life you don't want to escape from.

Today we'll discuss her own experience with alcohol and recovery, the problems with how drinking is portrayed in the media and pop culture.

My own, I'm not drinking right now, experiment, and how you can explore your relationship with alcohol

without judgment or shame.

My own relationship with alcohol is complicated, as I'm sure many of you could say.

I am a recovering drug addict.

I've been in recovery for 19 years, but my recovery does include drinking alcohol socially.

I know this isn't typical, but that was a decision made in conjunction with my therapist, who I saw for the better part of 10 years and my

alcohol use has never been problematic. I have never identified as a misuse. I've also given up alcohol for large periods of time due to a health

initiative like prepping to run a triathlon or for months at a time during my

Whole 30 experiments. In September 2018 I decided to explore my

relationship with alcohol once again due in large part to the influence of people I

had been following on Instagram like Holly, Mary Beth Laru, Danica Bresha, Laura McCown, and tell better stories.

So for the month of September, I decided I'm not drinking right now. And I adopted that phrase specifically because I wasn't quite ready to say

I'm never drinking again, but I really did want to explore what life would be like without alcohol in the equation.

Over the course of the next six or seven months, I shared what not drinking looked like for me and

how I handled social situations and all of the

...