I own it, a distant, not proud that was me, and when I face it a little dignity, not looking for excuse me, I just want to be free from power, weakness head on me.

Free, free, free, free, free.

Hello, everybody, and 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 where I have been writing about my life after alcohol since my very first day of sobriety seven years ago. And you can hear my story there.

And then I invite you to tell your stories here. Well, getting sober can be challenging under the best

of circumstances, but some cultures are so strongly alchogenic to borrow a term from Ann Deltz atson's drink, that it's hard to find the support to build the kind of recovery community that really supports and nurtures life after alcohol.

Today's guest, Breed Miguel, joins us from Ireland, and she can attest to feeling isolated in recovery but she's doing things to change

that please welcome this lovely young wife and mother of two sweet little children in Ireland

hi breed how are you I'm brilliant thank you very much I'm absolutely delighted to be on the

bubble hour I oh I love how you say bubble hour. It's so great. I, we have had...

Like I said, off air, I'm going to... Sorry. Go ahead.

No, I just said, like I said, off there, I'm going to try and talk slowly because I am aware that people might not be able to understand my thick

midlands Irish accent.

It's so beautiful, Breed.

And I've had the joy of meeting you in person.

And so I can put your face to your voice as well.

And so I just want our listeners to know that this is just a bright-eyed, lovely young woman who's just, you just put so much joy in your recovery that I'm really happy that you're here with us today because I know it isn't easy, but it's something that's important to you.

And so I'm really happy that you're going to talk about that and talk about the ways that

you'd like to see things change in your community and in your homeland.

So we have lots to get to.

And I know also something else we should talk about is that we met in New York at the

...