You're listening to the Love Over Addiction Podcast.

Thank you so much for agreeing to share your story with me.

So, can you, let's start at how does addiction or how has addiction or alcoholism affected or shown up in your life?

Oh, thank you. That's a really good question and thank you for having me on. I'm really excited to share my story.

I think addiction, when I really look back on my life, has been my greatest teacher and taught me some very painful lessons, but there's also been a lot of personal growth that's come out of it.

So, I grew up in a family. My dad was so smart. I mean, I remember just spending time with him as a small child.

And he just had a way with words and he was just, he was wonderful. He was also a functional alcoholic.

He supported our family. He was successful in his business and every night he was come home and I can still remember the sound of the ice cubes going into his cocktail glass and then the scotch and we would have dinner.

And then he would, my mom would go downstairs to her office and he would go sit by the TV and keep drinking until I think he used to bring his glass of scotch to tuck me in at night.

And then, although I remember later, he would bring it to bed with him. So, that was probably not great for the, my parents in Tennessee, I can't imagine.

And so, when I was in high school, my parents did divorce and my mom went on to have a very happy second marriage and my dad just sort of, he retired early and then he kind of just watched TV and drank really for most of his life.

So, anyway, I don't want to get to into that story. So, but I did want to share this story that when my daughter was six months old, my brother and his wife really pushed us to do an intervention to get my dad to start drinking.

So, we, we found a, a center that would help him and we all came together, his three sisters and myself and we, we got him to get treatment, which was great.

At the time, I had a six months old daughter and was married to an alcoholic that I was very concerned about and unhappy in my marriage.

And I just remember this one key point. I remember my dad's sister, my aunt, she had also been married to an alcoholic. So, there's a lot of it in my family.

A lot of wonderful people too. But she just looked at me and I was, I didn't know what to do. I had this little baby. I don't think I was working at the tribe.

And she said, go to Eleanor, like she just said, go, it was all about like getting my head straight. And she said, and once you get through this, whatever you do, just be aware that you will probably find yourself in a crowded room full of people.

And the person you end up sitting down and really enjoying their company with is probably going to be an alcoholic. She's like, that's just in your wiring.

So, I ended up, my first husband was a severe alcoholic and I left him when my daughter was about two and a half.

And I moved to the house, quit my dad, moved to a new city. And then 10 years later, I met this wonderful man who was also an addict and I married him.

And now I'm divorced from him as well. So, it's been, like I said, quite a journey.

That this one, like a journey. So, okay, this is really helpful and I'm so glad he mentioned that.

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