You're listening to this naked mind podcast I'm here with Charlotte. Hi this is Annie Grace and welcome

to this Naked Mind podcast and I'm here with Charlotte. Hi Charlotte how are you?

Hi Annie I'm doing incredible so excited to be here with you.

So great.

So why don't you take us sort of back to the beginning in your journey with alcohol?

Where did it all start for you?

Sure, so I mean, honestly it started when I was about 12.

My mom had liquor in the house and me and my friends would dump out the vodka and put it in our own water bottle and fill

hers up with water and that's the first time I was really introduced to the taste of it.

I didn't necessarily like the way it made me feel, but it just kind of became like a regular thing after that. Like with all of my friends we drank I mean probably about 13 14

was when it started to be a weekend thing like middle school it was just it was just what, you know, like me and my friends and alcohol was always such a big part of my life growing up with my mom and my dad. My dad was an alcoholic he was a binge drinker really he would go like five days of just

non-stop drinking to you know pass out and then he'd wake up and just drink again. My mom was more of a functioning alcoholic as they call it to where, you know, she was a bartender so she would drink at work and before work and, I mean she took care of me she she did her best you know but I saw

alcohol as just a normal thing for for adults at that time and I guess I was in a rush to join the

party at a young age you know and and unfortunately because it I started

drinking so young it really just formed I formed so many limiting beliefs around it from a very young age which you know kind of set me up for failure when it came to alcohol because I believe

this was where my confidence came from this is what you do to have fun and you know this is this is who you are like everyone likes you more

when you're drinking and you fit into the crowd when you're drinking so

there was no problem you know and I didn't really have hangovers as a teenager for, I don't remember having them anyway.

It was just, you know, sleep in and find out where the next party is that night.

So, yeah, it started really young and then you know when I was

19 I became pregnant with my first child he's now 17 today, and he I mean that was my first time of now that I've reflected so much that was my first time of being sober

Alcohol-Free for any longer period of time and I remember feeling so amazing during that time and I just attributed it to being pregnant right and the hormones and I'm sure it had something to do with that, but the clarity that I felt in my brain was, like I just remember, I can think back to it

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