Looking for a new listen that combines the serious with the fun? One that offers REAL stories of hard life shit with educational information? Look no further than SHARING OUT LOUD, a podcast hosted by a sober woman (ME!) who got tired of staying silent about her alcoholism and sobriety, and frankly, everything else in life. A woman who spent so much of her life being told she was "too much," "too aggressive," "too loud," and "polarizing," that she never allowed herself to be 100% true to who she was, until now. She decided it was time to start SHARING OUT LOUD, and when she did everything changed. Take a listen below or on APPLE and Spotify, you won't be disappointed!

Here's the deal -- just like you don't love everyone you meet, not every AA group is right for every person. There is SUPPOSED to be consistency to all of them but because humans can totally suck (what? It's true!) and egos get in the way (we alcoholics LOVE to control everything), so it's just not feasible to say you'll love every meeting's approach. And that's ok! You just try and try and try different meetings until you find the right one.

When I was drinking my personality was “A LOT” so when I got sober and was still kind of extra, I thought I needed to change. I tried REALLY hard to lose all of the things I thought were BAD about me.. turns out I didn’t have to change everything, only improve on the things I felt were truly needed!

I was triggered, not to drink, but my EMOTIONS were triggered a few weeks ago when TWITCH took his own life😢. Every single emotion from every moment of my life when I was depressed enough to contemplate taking my own life came flooding back. Since that day, what seems like EVERYONE has been posting about “asking for help”, “talking to someone”, and “you are not alone”, all of which is amazing because we need AWARENESS, but here’s the thing, when you are in a state of depression that leads to such dark thinking, you are not in a state (necessarily) where you can ask for help.

Do you suffer from SAD? Seasonal Affective Disorder. I do! And it has been a really hard last month. 15 straight days in Chicago - 15 days of DARK, GRAY, GLOOMY weather. 15 days of feeling like I was losing my mind.

I used to think all the mommy wine/drinking jokes were funny -- until I became a bad statistic. Just another drunk mom…Mom having to have her mommy juice has become so normalized that there are entire websites dedicated supporting this behavior. These sites sell all kinds of products featuring drinking phrases and quotes; tshirts, coffee mugs (to put your wine in of course), wall art… basically anything that can be printed, painted, or stenciled on, and mothers flock to it like crack.

FEAR IS A BITCH. It can consume us. It can take over hearts and our minds but we have to fight back and just let go because we can’t move forward in life if we stay frozen in fear. xoxo.

How can a mom possibly have a drinking problem? Really? With the mommy wine culture how can she NOT have a drinking problem?

It is time! I have been talking about starting a blog for years… a blog about addiction, motherhood, aging, and more! I am scared but what is life if we don’t take risks? And I have already “come out” as an alcoholic so this can’t be too hard right?