Audio: Ellie Revisited (part 3)

Last fall I did a long interview with Ellie Schoenberger for my weekly sober podcast thingy.

you know Ellie, right? She’s big in the sobriety world. She’s one of the founders of The Bubble Hour and the website Crying Out Now. And I recently had a chance to speak with her again, to catch up and see how she’s doing.

Since the entire conversation runs long (over an hour), I’ve divided it up into pieces. Here’s an extract from part 3, it’s about 3 minutes long.

Please leave a comment after you listen to the extract … so that i know you’re out there.

Click below to listen:

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Belle

I want to put this online, to hold myself accountable. I want to document the noise in my head. I'm tired of thinking about drinking. date of last drink: june 30, 2012

  • Thanks for this Belle. I just don’t buy the alcoholic model – it presupposes there’s something wrong with us, when in fact drinking to numb pain is quite a logical and rational response. It’s just not sustainable and creates more problems than it appears to help, and as thinking, onto it people, we get to choose NOT to take that road. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me – I just know I can do better. I don’t want alcohol to own me, just like I don’t want anything to own me. Anyway….its really helpful to feel like I can participate in the alcohol conversation on this level. Thanks.

  • Wanda, it is not about “working harder” it’s about willingness to surrender the drink one day at a time and accepting help from others as they point you on your way with behaviors that have helped them walk the past. You are not bad, you are unwell … there is a solution, there is help. We love you!

  • Thanks for this!! Labeling myself an “alcoholic” did nothing to help my sobriety. It just made me feel like a loser. I get that it works for some people but it did not for me.

  • i’m continually amazed at how much sense this stuff makes to me. you and ellie just talking….how could i not see this stuff for myself? sometimes i guess i need someone to point out the obvious! i blame my pickled brain.

    i agree, nobody can tell me what to do, not even me 😀

    that was a great excerpt, thanks for putting it out there as a “freebie” 🙂

    i am going to search down that bubble hour thing…i can use all the help i can get.

  • I feel like the person you’re talking about. I keep relapsing. It’s horrible. I hate myself and I’ve been crying. You’re so right about hanging around day 1. It’s a horrible place to be. I need to post and read the posts every day. I’m not working hard enough at this. I want to stop hating myself.