Wife of an Alcoholic is now The Love Over Addiction Podcast. In today’s episode, Michelle explains the reasons behind the change and what it means for the future of the podcast.

“If we start with love for ourselves and learn how to nurture our bodies, minds, and spirits, we will be able to offer that kind of love to others.”

Read our blog at:https://loveoveraddiction.com/2018/07/changing-the-name-podcast/

Learn more about the Love Over Addiction program at: http://theloveoverway.com/programs/love-over-addiction

Hey, it's Michelle. Normally, I announce the name of this podcast and play some beautiful music that my brother, Tristan, scored for us. I don't know if you know this, but Tristan is actually my little brother who lives in LA with his wife and his bulldog named Lilly. And Tristan scores music for movies and for TV shows.

So the music that you're listening to in the Love Over Addiction Program, he wrote all of that. You have a professional composer writing that music for you. He was just at Johnny Depp's house because he was working on his latest movie. And you know that really funny woman Melissa McCarthy? He just scored something that she was in as well.

So here's the deal. This is why there's no snappy music playing. Because we are changing our name. Yep. It's true. We are not going to use the Wife of an Alcoholic Podcast anymore. And I want to explain why. I want to get one thing straight. We, the women of this movement, love or have loved good men and women who are choosing to drink too much or use drugs.

And although we might be very angry and very hurt, we are working our butts off at our own recovery. We realize, and we take full ownership that we have work to do. We are learning what it looks like to stay in our own lane, to forgive, to be dignified. Even though some of us have left our relationships and our marriages, we are always praying, cheering, and hoping for the ones who use drugs and alcohol as a way to escape.

The addiction community is starting to speak out about labels like "addict" or "alcoholic" or "drunk." And I try very hard not to go down the rabbit hole of getting too involved in the theories of addition. It feels like every expert has a different opinion. The more I research, the more confusing it gets. The neuroscientists, the therapists, the ones who have used drugs or drinking as coping skills, they all have different explanations. So I conscientiously and respectfully choose to stay out of that arena.

The truth is, I'm not interested in what causes addictive behavior. My job is not to try and get your loved one sober. There are tons of more qualified professionals out there who can help with that. My mission is to grow a community of women who are getting back to feeling valuable instead of worthless like this disease tries to make us feel. My passion is our self-growth and healing.

Two of my children have dyslexia, and so do I. Growing up with the label of "Learning disabled" used to bother me. My dyslexia does not affect my intelligence. Sure, I can't spell the word promise correctly. Thank God for Megan who spell checks everything I write. But that doesn't hold me back from being a creative, sensitive, and driven woman. Today, I have learned to be proud of my dyslexia. I think it gives me a creative advantage. I don't mind labels at all. Call me dyslexic, call me learning, I don't care. And I am trying to teach my children to feel the same way.

But I want to be sensitive to all the labels we place on each other. And that is what our community is about. Even though the people who are hurting us are doing so because they are choosing to drink or use drugs too much, we want to be respectful. These are real men and women with feelings and a boatload of potential. We never want to come across as better or smarter. Clearly, this is not the case from a woman who can't spell the word promise. We love or have loved these gifted men and women for who they really are. We have been their greatest cheerleaders and their biggest supporters.

So with this in mind, I am changing the name of our Wife of an Alcoholic Podcast. I'm changing this name because not everyone in our community is married. And because we are labeling the ones we love as alcoholics. Plus, we talk about all kinds of addictions, not just alcohol. For example, we had an episode on pornography addiction a couple weeks ago.

So what is the new name? The Love Over Addiction Podcast. As you know, we have a few programs called Love Over Addiction, Love Over Mistakes, and Love Over Boundaries. It is one of our core beliefs in this movement of ours that every day we are trying to choose love over addiction, love over anger, love over judgment, love over ourselves, love over our children, and love over our weaknesses. If we start with love for ourselves and learn how to nurture our bodies, minds, and spirits, we will be able to offer that kind of love to others. And then, we will begin to heal the world.

Because I've written hundreds of free articles over the last six years, specifically about loving someone who struggles with addiction, I now want to open up that space to talk about more of my favorite healing topics that might be less about addiction, and more about spirituality and self-love, learning to love our bodies, how to raise our children, and friendships. Basically, I want to talk about all the things that women love to discuss.

So Love Over Addiction is our new name. Make sure you stay subscribed to the podcast. Most of the podcasts will remain between five and 10 minutes, but we will also be doing some interviews with some people that I really think you should know. They are game-changers and life-givers. We are going to be interviewing lawyers, financial planners, rehab specialists, and some powerful women who are going to teach us about self-care.

So make sure you stay tuned. Please share Love Over Addiction with your friends. And let's offer ourselves the kind of love we've been looking for, with or without labels. I hope you found this helpful and insightful, and please make sure to subscribe. Check out our free resources at LoveOverAddiction.com.