This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi, this is Annie Grace and welcome to this naked mind podcast. Today I have a naked life story with Mike. Welcome Mike from freezing Brooklyn. I'm in free fall.

Thanks so much for having any and thank you for everything you've done your book and the podcast in particular been a great help to me over the last year. So it's really an honor to be on really a great opportunity. So thanks.

It's so cool. It's so cool to have you. So tell me where you know back me right up to the beginning where did it all start to start for you.

Okay, sure. So I grew up in a suburb of Boston.

You know, I don't specifically remember my first drink, but I think it was around eighth or ninth grade and was, you know, the type of thing where it was like, you know, me and a bunch of friends,

it's an awesome terrible liquor out of my parents liquor cabinet like some bush mills or some schnapps or something and, you know, then started drinking at an early age, you know, I grew up, you know, an Irish Catholic, big Irish Catholic family outside of Boston.

So it was a big drinking family. My parents both drank a lot, but you know, my parents are both very successful, you know, supportive parents and, you know, had a great life in terms of, you know, we had a house in Cape Cod growing up and there's a lot of family always around, a lot of friends, a lot of social gatherings.

But of course drinking was always a big part of a lot of those different types of activities and gatherings and, you know, being kind of like an Irish Catholic family. I think there was a lot of, you know, sort of repression going around and so alcohol could kind of be, you know, a shortcut to, you know, opening up to people or being more social and kind of a coping mechanism as well.

But, you know, in high school, my friends and my friend group and I would drink a lot and, you know, when I look back on it now, it kind of set, I kind of set the blueprint for myself in terms of, you know, what my life would be like for the next 20 years from like 16 to 36, which is, you know, I would try to be this responsible kind of quieter type of person during the week, you know, get my work done study, get pretty good grades, keep people off my back, play sports.

And then the weekend, I would kind of transform into this party animal hole, if you will, and I kind of set this blueprint of, you know, binge drinking kind of every weekend.

So it was a big part of my life in high school, my friends and I started smoking weed and, you know, experimenting with other drugs at that time.

But, you know, I kept things together and, you know, even back then was able to maintain a sort of balance between, you know, partying, if you will, and, and school.

And so that, that really continued all the way through college, I went to small liberal arts school in the Northeast and no shortage of partying there and, you know, a lot of drinking, big drinking school and, and that really continued through college and then right after college moved to New York City.

I got a job here, I've lived here for 15 years now and, you know, a lot of my friends that I went to college with moved here right after college too, and we just kind of kept the party going for a lot of years and.

It was really fun, you know, throughout the 20s, you know, you'd kind of work and I'd work and I'd live this, you know, what a lot of people, whereas a badge of honor and now looking back, it really wasn't so much, but this type of weekend warrior lifestyle, you know, and when I was younger, I could hand it over to you.

I could handle it.

But then as I started to, you know, get into my 30s, you know, the hangover started getting worse and, you know, my tolerance would get a lot higher and, you know, drinks so much more over the weekends.

I got into my 30s and then you know, a few, a few things started to happen, which is like, as I got into my 30s, you know, I'd go out and, you know, you just kept doing the same things, you know, over and over again and it just kind of felt like a lot of my friends around around me were starting to have kids, they were pursuing different jobs.

You know, starting families moving out of New York City and I was just, you know, kind of felt like I was stuck on this hamster wheel of, you know, I wasn't growing and changing and I was just hitting the same bars over and over again and in your book something I really identified with was, was, you know, you talked about how life kind of becomes this small, boozy groundhogs day and things start, you know, in a way started to feel like that.

You know, a lot for me and then so you know, kind of two years ago and getting into 2017 is really one of a few things happened that started to change, you know, in my life that started my drinking and ramping up, but then also kind of started me on the path I've been on now to sobriety.

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