I own it, a distant, 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 me.

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

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the bubble hour where real people tell real stories of addiction

and recovery.

I'm Gene McCarthy, recovery author, and blogger over at Unpickled.

There's a link in the show notes if you're interested to read about how I've been living

alcohol-free since 2011.

I tell my story there, and I hold space for your stories here. Now, I'm happy

to report that after endless weeks of a persistent upper respiratory illness, I'm finally feeling better.

If you listen back to the episodes from late December through till, you know, last week, you'll hear my

voice go from a baritone going up the register

till I'm close to normal by today. My heart really goes out to anyone who is battling through

cold and flu season right now and double love to those of you with little ones at home who

are sick. I have to share with you. I was absolutely

stir crazy from spending so much time indoors the last 10 days or so. And if you look at my

Instagram, which is Gene McCarthy writes, you'll see that I made a beautiful snow labyrinth in the

mountains just after Christmas. And that was on a good day. That was sort of between

viruses for me. And then there's really barely any post since then because I caught this

crazy cough. And I'm telling you, it was absolutely off the charts. I was sleeping in the

basement because my poor husband could not get any sleep. And I wasn't just coughing like a regular cough. I don't know if this

has ever happened to you, but if you've ever been staying in a hotel and there's someone in the

...