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 your host, Gene McCarthy.

I write the blog Unpickled, where I have been telling my story of life after alcohol since my first day of sobriety in 2011.

I tell my story there and I invite you to share your

stories here. And during this time, when we are all doing our part to help flatten the

curve of COVID-19, when we are feeling isolated, stuck in our homes, doing what we can by doing nothing at all,

perhaps sending family members to work in jobs where they're helping others and we're afraid

for them or for those of you who are doing that work yourself. This is a really, really hard time

to be a person in recovery.

And I really hope that podcasts like this are helping you get through.

I would have loved to have done a special episode only about this.

But I had guests lined up and I thought, let's just keep telling our stories,

because this is what we need to do right now. So my guest today is a woman who goes by the

name of Winged Victory. Those of you who have been active in Hello Sunday Morning or who are

involved in her community, boom, rethink the

drink, or perhaps you've seen her work in the Huffington Post. She has spent the last five years

not only working on her recovery, but bringing people together to tell their stories and to share

their ways of healing and to be part of something bigger.

She joins me today from her home in Portugal to talk about what it's like on our day of

...