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

I'm Gene McCarthy, recovery author, blogger, and podcast host.

I've been chronicling my adventures in life after alcohol since my first day of sobriety a decade ago in my blog on Pickled and in the books that I write.

Two of them so far, more on the way

at my website. I tell my stories there, and I hold space for your stories here. Today, I'm

holding space for Maureen Towns. We're going to have a little bit of a different discussion today,

because today we're going to focus on the family. Addiction is sometimes said to be a family disease, and recovery is a family adventure,

a family undertaking.

And Maureen understands this better than anyone, and she helps other families embrace the same.

Maureen is a relationship mentor with over 25 years of nursing experience in both

the public and private health care across Canada. I'm excited because she lives two hours up the road

from me here in Alberta and I never get to talk to other people from my neck of the way. So this is

exciting. So for Maureen,

after experiencing mental illness and addiction with her own children, she founded Maureen Towns

consulting to help families struggling to care for their own loved ones. And she works with parents

to inspire them to rediscover themselves within chaotic and challenging situations. Maureen, welcome to the

bubble hour. Oh, thanks, Jean. Thanks so much for having me. I spent hours reading your book,

and it was so insightful and gave me a look at this from the inside. As a parent, I read it with

my heart and my throat because I think as all parents,

we have moments where we're scared for our kids and we don't know what to do. And we think,

oh, no, I'm in charge and I have no clue what to do. And usually things work out. For you,

...