If you've ever worried that your stress is ruining someone you love, or that self-care is something you have to earn, this episode is for you.

Today Lisa Arrigo is back. Lisa is a licensed clinical social worker, a trauma-informed therapist, and a woman in long-term recovery from cocaine addiction. A short clip from her first episode upset a lot of expectant moms, so we came back to clear things up. Babies are much more resilient than that clip made it sound, and there is no such thing as a perfect mom. From there, Lisa shares her full story. She grew up in a chaotic Italian family in the Bronx and became the family secret keeper. She came out in 1985, found cocaine, and nearly died in San Francisco. Later her own father became her dealer. She got clean in the rooms, and then relapsed after 20 years when someone offered her a line before an event.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why stress during pregnancy doesn't doom your baby, and why "good enough" really is enough

• How to start self-care when you don't feel worthy of it: make it smaller

• Simple tools for stressful days, from a glass of water to hand on belly, hand on heart

• Whether to start trauma therapy or the 12 steps first, and how to find a therapist who understands addiction

• What Lisa's relapse after 20 years taught her about self-neglect and asking for help

So without further delay, please enjoy this episode, and let me know what you think!

SHOW NOTES:

Guest Website: https://lisaarrigo.com/

👊🏼Need help applying this information to your own life?

Here are 3 ways to get started:

🎁Free Guide: 30 Tips for Your First 30 Days - With a printable PDF checklist

Grab your copy here: https://www.soberlifeschool.com

☎️Private Coaching: Make Sobriety Stick

https://www.makesobrietystick.com

Subscribe So You Don't Miss New Episodes!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music, or you can stream it from my website HERE.

You can also watch the interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@theonedayatatimepodcast?sub_confirmation=1

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-day-at-a-time-recovery-podcast/id1212504521

Have you ever worried that getting sober means the fun is over? I sure did. When I got sober at 25, I honestly thought my good times were behind me. Thirty-two years later, I can tell you that was one of the biggest lies my brain ever told me.

Today I welcome back my friend Alysse Bryson for her third time on the show. Alysse is the founder of The Sober Curator, an online magazine that celebrates sober living through book reviews, travel, fashion, mocktails, sober horoscopes and pop culture. She has 20 years of sobriety and the most "max whimsy" office I have ever seen.

We get honest about why early sobriety can feel boring and flat, and how your brain heals over time. Alysse shares the sponsor exercise that helped her stop avoiding alcohol and stop letting it have power over her. She also gives her strategy for going to parties and events where everyone is drinking. Then we get into the fun stuff: hobbies, collecting oddities, dressing up as the Golden Girls at a podcast convention, and the sober makers bringing humor to recovery.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why boredom in early sobriety is normal and what's happening in your brain

• A simple exercise that takes away alcohol's power over you

• How to go to events where everyone is drinking and still have a good time

• Why it matters to watch your drink being made, even with long-term sobriety

• How hobbies, costumes and a little whimsy can make sobriety fun

So without further delay, please enjoy this episode, and let me know what you think!

SHOW NOTES:

Guest Website: https://thesobercurator.com

👊🏼Need help applying this information to your own life?

Here are 3 ways to get started:

🎁Free Guide: 30 Tips for Your First 30 Days - With a printable PDF checklist

Grab your copy here: https://www.soberlifeschool.com

☎️Private Coaching: Make Sobriety Stick

https://www.makesobrietystick.com

Subscribe So You Don't Miss New Episodes!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music, or you can stream it from my website HERE.

You can also watch the interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@theonedayatatimepodcast?sub_confirmation=1

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-day-at-a-time-recovery-podcast/id1212504521

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4I23r7DBTpT8XwUUwHRNpB

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a8eb438c-5af1-493b-99c1-f218e5553aff/the-one-day-at-a-time-recovery-podcast

What if the steps that saved millions of lives were never really about religion at all, but about the same science therapists use in their offices every day?

Today I sit down with Dr. Dice for round two. He's a former paramedic, firefighter and Navy SEAL who blew up his life, landed in treatment, got sober through 12-step recovery, and then went all the way back to school for his PhD so he could do for others what his therapist did for him. In his doctoral research at Old Dominion University, he pulled out the theory hiding inside the 12 steps, and what he found is something he calls the holistic change model. Before we get there, he tells me how he survived BUD/S training twice after a shoulder surgery a Navy doctor said no one had ever come back from, and the rope bridge moment that ended Hell Week for his entire class.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever said "that sounds like a cult" and walked away from 12-step, and for anyone who loves someone like that.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What emotional compulsivity is, and why drinking is often just the latest tool in a lifelong pattern

• How steps one through twelve line up with stages of change, narrative therapy, CBT and existential therapy

• Why seeing yourself as a character in your own story is the beginning of self-love

• The difference between white knuckle sobriety and a program that takes you from surviving to thriving

• How online meetings opened the door for people who are afraid of being recognized

So without further delay, please enjoy this episode, and let me know what you think!

SHOW NOTES:

Guest Website: https://bishopdicedefense.com/

👊🏼Need help applying this information to your own life?

Here are 3 ways to get started:

🎁Free Guide: 30 Tips for Your First 30 Days - With a printable PDF checklist

Grab your copy here: https://www.soberlifeschool.com

☎️Private Coaching: Make Sobriety Stick

https://www.makesobrietystick.com

Subscribe So You Don't Miss New Episodes!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music, or you can stream it from my website HERE.

You can also watch the interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@theonedayatatimepodcast?sub_confirmation=1

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-day-at-a-time-recovery-podcast/id1212504521

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4I23r7DBTpT8XwUUwHRNpB

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a8eb438c-5af1-493b-99c1-f218e5553aff/the-one-day-at-a-time-recovery-podcast