If you’ve spent the past year holding everything together while your loved one's addiction has chipped away at your energy, your hope, and your sense of self, this episode is for you.

In this raw, honest conversation, we look back at the year you’ve survived.

Not minimising it.

Not pretending it was “fine.”

Not brushing it off because “it used to be worse.”

This episode gently and truthfully names what you’ve been carrying:

• The constant tension in the home

• The emotional load of parenting alone

• The hypervigilance that has become your second skin

• The grief for the relationship you hoped for

• The exhaustion of managing everyone’s feelings but your own

• The loneliness of knowing most people will never understand this life

You are not dramatic.

You are not “overreacting.”

You are a human who has been living in survival mode for far too long.

1️⃣ If you already know you cannot do another year like this one, the waitlist for Pathway to Wellness is now open. This is my signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction, with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

2️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 6 of the Holiday Series

If you’ve lived through more than one chaotic December, you’ve probably told yourself:

“Christmas will only be okay if he’s sober.”

“Maybe this year will be different… if he sticks to what he promised.”

In this bonus episode of the Holiday Series, I am sharing the part nobody really tells spouses and families of someone struggling with addiction:

Your experience of Christmas doesn’t actually depend on whether they drinks, use, shows up on time, or follow through on promises.

It depends on you having a plan, support and steadiness in yourself.

I talk about...

Why most people here quietly assume “this is just how December is now” …and how that belief keeps you stuck repeating the same painful holiday patterns, year after year.

I share stories from past clients and how they went into Christmas with a plan, even while their partner’s drinking/drug use was unpredictable. and what actually changed for them and their kids.

The hidden cost of “I’ll just handle it” and why white-knuckling your way through the holidays leaves you depleted, resentful and running on fumes by New Year’s.

How to shifting from “waiting for them to be better” to “I’m allowed to create calm, clarity and moments of joy independent of what they do.”

What realistic hope looks like when you’re the safe parent, and howow to hold both: grief for what you wish your family could be and hope that your holidays can feel different from the inside out.

If this episode feels like it’s narrating your life, you’re not broken, dramatic or asking for too much.

You’re exhausted from carrying far more than anyone can see, and you deserve support, too.

And your holiday experience can be different (even if nothing changes on their end)

🎄 JOIN THE FREE HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE WORKSHOP

This is where we turn understanding into a plan.

Inside, you’ll learn real tools to navigate this season:

💛 Grounding strategies for chaotic moments

💛 Scripts for difficult family conversations

💛 How to reduce conflict without walking on eggshells

💛 Boundaries that actually protect your peace

💛 A plan for unpredictable moments

💛 Permission (and support) to prioritise YOU

You deserve a holiday that doesn’t depend on which “version” of Them shows up.

👉 Save your free seat here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 5 of the Holiday Series

This episode is the deep breath you didn’t know you needed.

If you’re heading into December telling yourself, “I’ll be fine… I’ve done this before… I can handle it,” this one is for you.

Because the truth is:

✨ You have handled too much.

✨ Your body is bracing, even if you’re pretending you’re okay.

✨ And you absolutely do not have to repeat another year of emotional roulette.

In this episode, Amanda gently walks you through:

The real reason your chest tightens as the holiday approaches

Why familiarity doesn’t equal healthy

How your nervous system remembers what your mind is trying to downplay

The physical cost of carrying someone else’s addiction for too long

Why “being the strong one” is quietly burning you out

What needs to shift before the chaos of the season begins

Why emotional preparation matters more than holiday plans, menus, or logistics

How to move out of survival mode and into something steadier

This is your permission slip to stop white-knuckling your way through December.

It’s the reminder you didn’t know you needed:

You are not meant to just “handle” the holidays

You are meant to be supported, grounded, and well.

And your holiday experience can be different (even if nothing changes on their end)

🎄 JOIN THE FREE HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE WORKSHOP

This is where we turn understanding into a plan.

Inside, you’ll learn real tools to navigate this season:

💛 Grounding strategies for chaotic moments

💛 Scripts for difficult family conversations

💛 How to reduce conflict without walking on eggshells

💛 Boundaries that actually protect your peace

💛 A plan for unpredictable moments

💛 Permission (and support) to prioritise YOU

You deserve a holiday that doesn’t depend on which “version” of Them shows up.

👉 Save your free seat here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 4 of the Holiday Mini-Series

When your loved one's drinking, substance use, sobriety or recovery feels unpredictable, it can start to feel like everything is out of your hands, the mood, the energy in the house, whether plans go ahead or blow up, whether Christmas feels magical or like a minefield.

This episode is for the lovely person who feels like they are bracing 24/7, waiting for the next wobble, the next mood shift, the next disappointment… and quietly wondering:

“What’s even in my control anymore?”

In this episode, I'm walking you through the three powerful things you can control, even in the messy middle of addiction and recovery -

✨ Your preparation

✨ Your level of engagement

✨ Your meaning-making

Because while you can’t control whether they use/don't use, wobble/relapses, turns up late, or arrives in a mood…. you can control how prepared you are, how much of it you pick up, and how you talk to yourself about what’s happening.

Those three things alone can change how this season feels for you and your kids.

And if this feels painfully familiar, please don’t navigate December alone.

🎄 JOIN THE FREE HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE WORKSHOP

This is where we turn understanding into a plan.

Inside, you’ll learn real tools to navigate this season:

💛 Grounding strategies for chaotic moments

💛 Scripts for difficult family conversations

💛 How to reduce conflict without walking on eggshells

💛 Boundaries that actually protect your peace

💛 A plan for unpredictable moments

💛 Permission (and support) to prioritise YOU

You deserve a holiday that doesn’t depend on which “version” of Them shows up.

👉 Save your free seat here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 3 of the Holiday Mini-Series

This episode dives into something most people will never understand unless they’ve lived it:

You aren’t just planning Christmas.

You’re planning Christmas around a loved ones addiction.

While the rest of the world is thinking menus, Secret Santa, outfits and photos… you’re quietly assessing risk, predicting behaviour, managing expectations, rehearsing backup plans, and carrying the emotional safety of the entire household on your shoulders.

This episode is for the spouses, families, and women in addiction-impacted relationships who are:

✨ Preparing for disappointment before it happens

✨ Making last-minute plans because nothing feels predictable

✨ Rehearsing excuses and half-truths to cover what’s really going on

✨ Managing the dread of “Will they show up? And in what state?”

✨ Navigating the heartbreak of an empty seat at the table

✨ Carrying grief while trying to create magic for your kids

✨ Exhausted from holding it together all year, and then even more in December

This isn’t “holiday stress.”

This is emotional project management at an Olympic level, all happening behind the scenes and all while pretending everything is normal.

And if this feels painfully familiar, please don’t navigate December alone.

🎄 JOIN THE FREE HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE WORKSHOP

This is where we turn understanding into a plan.

Inside, you’ll learn real tools to navigate this season:

💛 Grounding strategies for chaotic moments

💛 Scripts for difficult family conversations

💛 How to reduce conflict without walking on eggshells

💛 Boundaries that actually protect your peace

💛 A plan for unpredictable moments

💛 Permission (and support) to prioritise YOU

You deserve a holiday that doesn’t depend on which “version” of Them shows up.

👉 Save your free seat here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special Holiday Series Episode 2 of 5

If you wake up already bracing yourself… wondering which “version” of your loved one you’ll get today, this episode will feel like someone finally naming the thing you’ve been silently living.

This is the emotional whiplash of loving someone whose drinking, drug use or behaviour shifts without warning.

And during the holidays?

It hits even harder.

In this episode, we unpack:

✨ Why the unpredictability of his behaviour trains your nervous system into survival mode

✨ How your body knows before your mind does

✨ The mental rehearsing, planning, and exit strategies you make without noticing

✨ The dread not just of his behaviour — but of your own reactions

✨ The resentment, the spirals, the shame, the anger you don’t talk about

✨ Why the real cost of addiction in a family is losing access to the best version of YOU

✨ And the shift that gives you back your power this season

This episode is equal parts validation and empowerment, grounded in lived experience, clinical understanding, and the reality you’re navigating behind the scenes.

🎄 JOIN THE FREE HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE WORKSHOP

This is where we turn understanding into a plan.

Inside, you’ll learn real tools to navigate this season:

💛 Grounding strategies for chaotic moments

💛 Scripts for difficult family conversations

💛 How to reduce conflict without walking on eggshells

💛 Boundaries that actually protect your peace

💛 A plan for unpredictable moments

💛 Permission (and support) to prioritise YOU

You deserve a holiday that doesn’t depend on which “version” of Them shows up.

👉 Save your free seat here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode kicks off a special 5-part holiday series created for spouses and families whose Christmas looks nothing like the picture-perfect scenes on social media or in the Hallmark Movies.

If your loved one’s drinking or addiction makes the season feel unpredictable…

If everyone assumes you’re fine…

If you’re holding the entire holiday together while silently bracing for chaos…

This episode is for you.

I’m sharing the emotional load no one sees, the invisible planning you do, and the heartbreaking uncertainty you carry into every December. You’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone.

🎄 Workshop: Holiday Survival Guide - How to navigate your loved ones addiction through the Holiday’s

Stay Grounded, Reduce Conflict, and Enjoy the Season — Even If Their Behaviour Is Unpredictable

If the holidays already feel heavy, unpredictable, or lonely because of your partner’s behaviour, please join me for this free live workshop.

You’ll learn practical tools, scripts, grounding strategies, and a simple plan to help you stay steady, reduce conflict, and protect your peace, no matter what they do.

👉 Save your free seat here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a moment in every addiction-impacted relationship where you realise… it’s not just their drinking/drug use/gambling etc that’s changing the family, it’s changing you too.

You don’t plan for it.

You don’t see it coming.

And when it happens, the shame of it stays in your chest for years.

Today I’m sharing a story I’ve never fully talked about publicly, the moment I completely lost it, the moment my kids were scared of me, not their dad, and the moment I realised that addiction had changed me in ways that were unimaginable and I could no longer ignore.

If you’ve ever snapped, yelled, bellowed, broken something, stormed out, or reacted in ways you’re not proud of… please hear me:

you’re not a bad mother/father, a bad partner, or a bad person, you’re a human being in survival mode, and you're at your breaking point.

In this deeply personal episode, I talk about:

• The moment I “broke” and how my kids carried that memory
• Why your anger, snapping, and hypervigilance make total sense in survival mode
• How addiction slowly reshapes the “safe parent” without you realising
• Why getting support for you is the difference between coping and crashing

This isn’t an episode about blame or shame, it’s an episode about truth, compassion, and reclaiming yourself after years of walking on eggshells.

And if you’re thinking,

“I can’t keep living like this…”

or

“I don’t want my kids remembering me this way…”

This episode is for you.

And your great 2026 begins with one small step today. not in January, and not after the next crisis.

Ep 66 - They Say They're Sober... But You're Still Not Sure.

Ep 3 - Where Is My Lasagne?

Ep 47 - 11 Subtle Signs Your Partner’s Addiction Is Controlling Your Life

Ep 35 - When You're Scared to Set the Boundary... Start Here

1️⃣ Book a Friendly Chat: Explore what working together could look like because you’ve been trying “this way” long enough, and it’s not helping anyone.

👉 Click here to find a time

2️⃣ Join the Pathway to Wellness Waitlist: My signature program helps you rebuild your life alongside (or beyond) a loved one’s addiction — with calm, confidence, and community

👉 Join the waitlist here

3️⃣ Download the Free Crisis Conversation Guide: Learn what to say (and what not to say) when addiction takes over, with real scripts that help you stay grounded even when it’s messy.

👉 Get the Free Guide

4️⃣ Connect on Instagram: @addictionmakesthree

5️⃣ Questions or reflections? 💌 amanda@addictionmakesthree.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.