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.

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 over nine years ago

in my blog Unpickled and in books like the Unpickled Holiday Survival Guide

and my poetry collection, The Ember Ever There.

So I tell my stories there and I hold space for your stories here.

And today I'm holding space for a listener of this show who responded when I mentioned in a previous episode that I wondered

what it was like for doctors when they are dealing with somebody who has questions about

recovery or who comes to them with symptoms of recovery, what they're taught in mid-school,

and what it's like to be on the other side of the clipboard.

And this lovely listener has responded and offered to share her insight and expertise with us today.

So I welcome Dr. Maureen to the bubble hour. Hi, Dr. Maureen. Thanks for being here.

Hi, Jean. And you can certainly just call me

Maureen. My name's Maureen Filippeck. And as Jean said, we connected over her query for

input from health care providers. In the past, I had heard some kind of cringe-worthy tales of how

this went for some of the listeners and guests when they tried to ask their doctor for help or how that went.

So I'm hoping today's discussion will help improve that for me and for all listeners.

A little bit about myself.

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