Hold on to your headphones. It's season three of Recovery Happy Hour, where we talk about Life

beyond the bottle and what happens after we get sober.

I'm your host Tricia. Thanks for joining me today. So I'm taking today's podcast in a different direction.

Okay, Recovery Happy Hour features personal stories of recovery and alcohol addiction,

but today is all about family dynamic.

And I've got one of the authors of a book about addiction and families. Alcoholism is a family disease. Even if you

don't identify as an alcoholic then the translation of this would be your

drinking affects everyone around you whether you realize it or not.

You may not see it now, especially if you're still high functioning and your problem looks

great on the outside, but give it some time.

You'll start to see the things that you often missed or ignored.

I grew up in a family of addiction.

My brother is about three years older than me and he was my first

close relationship with an addict alcoholic. His drugs of choice ran the gamut over

the years from pills to alcohol, the heroin to meth.

From age 11 up until about four years ago,

and I'm 38 now,

I witnessed firsthand the damage that drugs and alcohol

will do to someone and to a family.

I witnessed the stigma and the scenarios that you imagine when you think of the stereotype,

interventions, rehab, prison, homelessness, those are the big ones.

Being close to addiction for my formative years shaped who I am, both good and bad.

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