What It’s Really Like Being The Child Of An Alcoholic | Vicky Pattison
On The Mend
High Performance
4.9 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
TV personality, author and radio presenter, Vicky Pattison, discusses her journey through self-care, addiction, and healing from the trauma of being a child of an alcoholic.
She opens up about how her mantra “you can’t pour from an empty cup” became crucial for managing anxiety, and the pain of realising she’d been an enabler to her father. Vicky also talks about using her second chance on I’m a Celebrity to reshape her life and break free from shame, encouraging others to speak out about addiction.
This episode covers the following themes: addiction, family trauma, self-care, stigma, and transformation.
Need Support?
Samaritans: Call 116 123 or visit samaritans.org
Narcotics Anonymous: na.org
Alcoholics Anonymous: alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
Mental Health Mates: mentalhealthmates.co.uk
Shout: https: giveusashout.org
IAPT: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adults/nhs-talking-therapies/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to know who's coming up next? Hit follow wherever you get your podcast and you'll be the first to find out. |
| 0:05.0 | I always worried that I had this addictive genetic. |
| 0:09.0 | The thought process of the child of an alcoholic, you know, there's a lot of blame. |
| 0:13.0 | I did see loads of similarities between myself and my dad. |
| 0:16.0 | My dad said to me, you know, you know, I never cared. |
| 0:18.0 | He went, I never cared about becoming what I was |
| 0:21.3 | going to become, but you do. And you went, and that's the difference. Vicky, how are you? I'm okay. Thank you. How are you? I'm good, thanks. I'm good. Thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. It's such a fucking joy to see you. You really light me up. That's so nice. |
| 0:37.4 | It's so nice. |
| 0:38.2 | I feel the same way about you. |
| 0:39.4 | You've got a lovely energy. |
| 0:40.6 | Oh, thanks, babe. pleasure. It's such a fucking joy to see you. You really light me up. That's so nice. It's so nice. |
| 1:14.1 | I feel the same way about you. You've got a lovely energy. Oh, thanks, babe. Thank you. I heard you talk about kind of social anxiety. I suffered with that so badly and I still do. I've kind of found ways to kind of navigate it now, but my way to deal with it was drinking. Main was as well. And like, drinking using for me was like, I called it like power in my pocket. Whatever I felt, like as soon as I was a bit pissed or I'd be, I'll be all right. I'll be all right. When that's taken away, like how do we deal with those situations? Because I still struggle with them. I know. You know, I never want to be there. you know, and I never want to be anywhere. Yeah, I never want to be anywhere. People will say, oh, this is really good to go. |
| 1:11.4 | I'm like, well, struggle with them. I know. I never want to be there. You know, and I never want to be anywhere. I never want to be anywhere. |
| 1:12.6 | People will say, oh, this is really good as you go. |
| 1:14.3 | I'm like, why? |
| 1:15.3 | No one's going to give a fuck. |
| 1:16.2 | And also, I hate being there. You know, so it's like, you know how much I've got to worry about going there. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I think because obviously sitting chatting to you now, you're so engaging and you look so |
| 1:27.8 | relaxing, you're so lovely. |
| 1:29.4 | People wouldn't assume you're feeling any type of way. |
| 1:32.5 | And I'm the same because I give off like an air of being |
| 1:35.5 | quite confident and cool under pressure |
| 1:38.4 | and all those things like nobody would assume |
... |
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