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 your host, Gene McCarthy. I write the blog Unpickled. And as you probably know, I recently

released a book called The Unpickled Holiday Survival Guide. And as I'm posting this, it's Christmas

Eve, which for a lot of you,

I think, is probably a pretty peaceful, happy time. I'm hoping you're spending time with your

family or just having a nice time to yourself. But for some people, this isn't so happy. This can be

a difficult day. And I thought that this was a perfect time

to post something I've been working on. I was recently on a retreat in Mexico and I had the

opportunity to interview a dozen or so amazing women. And you're going to hear from them today.

So what I asked them is, what would you do if I called

you and I was feeling triggered? If I was having a rough day and I called you for help. How would you

talk me through that? And what you're going to hear is the answers that these amazing women

offered, how they would talk me or you through a rough patch.

So save this. If you don't need it today, save it for later, save it for the next party you're at,

or maybe save it for a down day, or maybe you could just listen to it for yourself

and know what you could say to someone who calls you to ask for help.

That's what this episode is all about.

And as I said, I recorded it in Mexico, so you'll notice that I don't have my usual quality

...