I own it, I didn't, not proud that was me, and when I face it a little dignity, not looking for excuses, I just want to be free from power.

Weakness head on sea.

Free, free, free, free, free, free.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this episode of the bubble hour where real people tell real stories of addiction and recovery.

I'm Gene McCarthy. I write the blog Unpickled. I tell my story there and I invite you to share your stories here.

Well, helping others in recovery can be an important element of staying sober, so much so that

it is one of the steps in 12-step programs and that other pathways encourage it in various forms.

And for some people, their introduction to recovery and the power of helping others leads them

to a career in that field. And that was the case with today's guest, Jessica G., who went from treatment to running a

sober living facility and now works as an outreach coordinator.

Hello, Jessica.

Welcome to the bubble hour and thank you for joining us today.

Hi, Jean.

It's nice to be here. Thank you for having me.

I'm really glad to have you come and share your story today, and I know that it's multifaceted

and has a lot of intertwining, I guess, paths of recovery or what would we say, like, co-occurring issues.

So I know it's not easy to just like tell ABCD, but I'm really looking forward to hearing you share today.

So let's just start with that.

Let's start with how you tell us about yourself and your

story. Okay. I grew up in South Florida. Both of my parents are together still. I came from a really

loving family. I have a younger brother and a younger sister that are both normies.

And basically my whole life, people told me I was beautiful, I was wonderful, I could do anything,

...