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.

Hey everybody, it's head coach of this naked mind Scott Peneered and I am back with another

but different version of coaching questions. So we're going to change up the format a little bit.

And one of the things that I really wanted to do for a long time is talk to some of our incredible certified coaches.

Talk to them about what they do, how they work and just what they see out there.

We're going to continue to answer questions so every podcast is going to have that.

But we're going to add in a special co host every week and this week my special co host is Carla Adkins.

Hey Carla, how are you?

Hey, I'm so good and I really am. I'm so excited to be here. It's going to be fun.

I have been looking forward to this conversation because one of the things you specialize in and I'll let you talk about it in a second, but one of the things you specialize in is anxiety.

And particularly anxiety over health and I can't tell you how many questions I get about that.

So I was like, we've got somebody who knows this stuff inside and out so I was really excited.

Why don't we start with the idea, just tell us your story, right? How, how did you come to become a coach? What is your alcohol story would love to hear some of that.

Absolutely, I don't want to take up the whole time with my alcohol story because it is quite involved, but I will just say in general, you know, when I was younger and probably started in high schools with my anxiety really started to ramp up and then in college, it just,

it just guyrocketed, you know, it's just it was the classic anxiety panic attacks where I really started to avoid certain things, grocery stores were hard for me every when I look back now, I look back and I mean, every day was hard, you know, and that's when I could see, see this connection being made in my brain going, oh, but I don't feel like that when I'm drinking I don't know.

So it was this path being formed in my head of well alcohol is helps me with this and and obviously that was reinforced by the, you know, or just our culture in general.

So I could see that now is where that's where the self medication started and obviously then in a time to where you just think, I mean college I'm supposed to be drinking I'm split this is I mean I'm crazy if I'm not just that again culture mindset.

And then obviously it's it's it's just became a pattern and things really started to get a lot worse and so I drink more it was just this constant drinking more anxiety was rising I still never made the connection that that alcohol was actually, you know, like gasoline throwing on like a that little flame and no idea and no one talked to me about it.

Nobody's not the cause what are you thinking.

Yes, and I went to council after councilor just really it was I just thought it was who I was and it was just that was my story I was I was a person that was anxious to have panic attacks and anyway fast forward it obviously that just continued and my body just honestly just couldn't take it anymore.

And I am one of it's I got seven years ago my body just said I can't do it. So I went into a cute liver failure, which is you know one of those things that sadly in our world is actually happening more and more to people.

...