One of the most important things we do to get sober is to ask for help. We've probably tried everything we can to stop drinking on our own, but when we finally realize we need help - how do we ask? Who do we ask? What works and what doesn't? Who is safe to turn to? On this show we explore how we asked for help - when we finally surrendered, what we did, how it went, what happened. We also talk about asking for help to STAY sober - otherwise known as accountability. How do we keep accountable? What does that mean to us? Who is in our support network? What happens when we do (and don't) stay accountable? Please join us for this important conversation on what is perhaps the most important part of getting and staying sober.
New Lifestyle Podcasts with The Bubble Hour on BlogTalkRadio
The holidays can be a joyous and festive time, but there are pressures that come with family and social gatherings, entertaining, and juggling a busy calendar. These events and stressors can be big triggers for the sober merry-maker! Listen in as we discuss the anxieties and triggers to watch for and the methods to avoid minefields and old habits, defuse tension, and enjoy the holidays to their fullest potential. A sober holiday is a happy holiday. Let's prepare for the festive season together!
For the summer months, we will be broadcasting live shows every other week,
instead of every week.
During the "off" weeks, we will re-broadcast popular or topically
relevant shows. This Sunday we will be airing "Vulnerability
and Recovery".
The three co-hosts of the show will be
sharing their experience with vulnerability, sharing some feedback we have on
some informal research/poll of what people think of vulnerability.
The show will air on Sunday, July 14th, at 9pm EST, 8pm Central, 7pm
Mountain and 6pm Pacific.
Go HERE to see the show's page on Blog
Talk Radio!
For the summer months, we will be broadcasting live shows every other week, instead of every week.
During the "off" weeks, we will re-broadcast popular or topically relevant shows - for example, this Sunday we will be airing "Creating Your Holiday Bubble" as we head into the July 4th holiday.
July 4th is one of the drinkiest (yes, we just created that word) holidays, and for people who are newly sober it can be a particularly challenging time. Now is a good time to start preparing, so you can enjoy the holiday weekend SOBER.
The show will air on Sunday, June 30th, at 9pm EST, 8pm Central, 7pm Mountain and 6pm Pacific.
Go HERE to see the show's page on Blog Talk Radio!
After surviving colon cancer in 2005, a breakdown from workaholism and a subsequent layoff from a job that she loved in 2011, it didn't take much soul-searching for Dawn Nickel to decide that what she really wanted to do for a living was help other women to recover.
Dawn has been in recovery from addiction to drugs and alcohol since 1989 and is well-qualified to work with women who want to recover their lives and pursue their passions. Building on her degrees in women's studies, women's history and a PhD in health care policy (all earned in recovery), Dawn is currently completing life coach training with Crossroads Recovery Coaching.
Dawn’s true passion is for the community that she has helped to create on her Facebook page, She Recovers and for other online communities like it.
What started out as a daily meditation practice using social media coupled with a heartfelt belief in her own life's purpose has since turned into a business called She Recovers that, at the present time, offers yoga retreats and workshops for women in recovery (click on the link in this paragraph to learn more about the recovery retreats!).
Please listen to our conversation with Dawn where we talk all things recovery, including different pathways to recovery, recovery resources and the importance of a sober community online and/or offline.
Thank you, Dawn! We are so inspired by you and all you do.
One of the most important things we do to get sober is to ask for help. We've probably tried everything we can to stop drinking on our own, but when we finally realize we need help - how do we ask? Who do we ask? What works and what doesn't? Who is safe to turn to?
On this show we will explore how we asked for help - when we finally surrendered, what we did, how it went, what happened.
We will also talk about asking for help to STAY sober - otherwise known as accountability. How do we keep accountable? What does that mean to us? Who is in our support network? What happens when we do (and don't) stay accountable?
Please join us for this important conversation on what is perhaps the most important part of getting and staying sober.
Listen to the show through the widget below, or see the tab above to learn how to subscribe to our podcast!
Denial is a defense mechanism that allows a person – despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary – to deny that something is true,
when in fact, it is true. It is one of the most powerful and difficult
problems that Alcoholics and Drug Addicts face before, during, AND after treatment, because it is always the thinking that precedes the act of picking up a drink or a drug.
If you have a drinking problem, you may deny it by:
Drastically underestimating how much you drink
Downplaying the negative consequences of your drinking
Complaining that family and friends are exaggerating the problem
Blaming your drinking or drinking-related problems on others
If
any of these symptoms sound familiar to you, or someone you love, or if
you're struggling with drinking, please listen to this informative and
important show.
This is an extra special episode of The Bubble Hour this week - a group of
sober women talking about Cognitive Distortion - otherwise known as "how
we think".
Do you ever find yourself in a negtative thought
pattern? Do you listen to the way you talk to yourself? Do you ever
inflate or minimize emotions? Do you get overwhelmed easily?
Listen to this open discussion among several recovering women who talk
about growing an awareness of how we treat ourselves - our
perfectionism, our negative thought patterns and the ways this impacts
our sobriety.
We also talk about the tool we use to re-program our
break addictive thought patterns.
Many times when people talk about recovery they talk about recovery meetings (12 step and otherwise).
And while recovery meetings are at the core of many peoples' recovery, for this show we will discuss the myriad ways people stay sober in addition to or instead of meetings.
The is NOT a "meetings vs. no meetings" discussion. At The Bubble Hour we do not endorse or promote any one form of recovery, and we believe in most cases it is many things that help people stay in recovery. We also believe that at the core of successful recovery is a sober network, and we will discuss this, too.
Through our own stories and those shared by others, we will offer many points of view and options to get and stay sober!
Listen to the show through the widget below, or see the tab above for how to subscribe to our podcast!
We often hear the expression "relapse doesn't have to be part of recovery".
True enough, but the reality is relapse is often part of people's recovery journey.
On this show we will share tips and tools to protect your sobriety
against relapse as best you can, as well as stories from people who have
experienced relapse first hand and made it back to recovery.
Please listen to this informative and honest look at relapse signs and symptoms, as well as practical tools for relapse prevention.
You can listen through the widget below, or subscribe to our Podcast by clicking on the link in the right hand sidebar, or following the instructions in the tab above.
Quick - what does the word 'vulnerability' mean to you? Does it have positive or negative connotations for you? Or both?
The dictionary defines vulnerability as this: "the inability to
withstand the effects of a hostile environment". Other definitions
include: "reduced defensive measures" or "susceptible to physical or
emotional attack".
Doesn't sound so good, right?
So
why is vulnerability such a cornerstone to recovery? How do we navigate
its potentially treacherous waters? Why is it so pivotal?
Listen Lisa, Amanda and Ellie, co-hosts of The Bubble Hour, as we have an open (and, yes, vulnerable)
conversation about the topic of vulnerability.
Through the power of
story and shared experience, we discuss what vulnerability means to us,
and how it continues to evolve for us as women in recovery from
alcoholism.
Listen through the widget below, or subscribe to our podcast through the link on the right hand sidebar (or read how in the tab above):
Sarah Allen Benton is author of the book, 'Understanding the High Functioning Alcoholic' , and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and therapist at McLean Hospital in MA.
She has been featured in a NY Times article by Jane Brody, has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS Early Show, NPR, is a blogger for PsychologyToday.com and more.
Sarah is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober since February of 2004. She gives lectures and trainings on the topic of high-functioning alcoholics at colleges, boarding schools, and at professional conferences including Harvard’s Treating the Addictions.
Please visit her website The High Functioning Alcoholic for more information about Sarah, her book and additional resources.
In this episode Sarah tells a bit of her own story of alcoholism and recovery, and answers questions about High Functioning Alcoholism, including how to define it, what common personality traits and drinking patters are found with high functioning alcoholics, and steps people who fit this description can find ways to get help.
A very informative episode, and we thank Sarah for her time, and for being such a valuable resource in helping educate us all about this aspect of what is a confounding disease for so many.
Listen to this episode here (or click on the picture in our sidebar to subscribe to our iTunes Podcast):
The holidays -no matter what religious affiliation you are- are difficult times for people in recovery, or struggling to get sober.
Everywhere we turn are ads on television for alcohol, holiday and office parties, and images of people drinking jumping out of the woodwork. Facebook posts are full of images of people drinking (or taking pictures of their drinks - that one always amazes us).
Tonight's episode is all about creating your "Holiday Bubble" - how to keep yourself safe (and hopefully happy!) during the holidays.
It is also our first "call-in" show, which we are really excited about, where people called in with real-life dilemmas about how to make it through their first sober (or not even their first) sober holiday.
We shared stories, cautionary tales, tips and advice and laughed a little along the way.
If YOU have questions for us about how to survive this holiday season, you can always email us at: thebubblehour@gmail.com
We'd love to hear from you.
Enjoy tonight's show! P.S. - There is a glitch on the show with a silent gap that lasts for about a minute - sorry - it's our first time doing a call in show ... please be patient and wait. :)
Deciding whether or not to tell people in your life that you are sober is a highly personal decision, and one of those issues where if you ask 100 people, you're going to get 100 different answers.
We thought the best way to tackle this subject was to hear from three guests (as well as Lisa & me) about our own experiences with deciding who to tell, when to tell, why we would be open about it, and some cautionary tales of experiences that didn't go so well.
We're making progress on overcoming the stigma of addiction and alcoholism, but it is still a grossly misunderstood disease, and so it is important to think carefully before sharing that you're sober - even with close friends and family members. Anything that can trigger shame, guilt or people pleasing in early sobriety can be dangerous, and finding a sober community that can help you through decisions like this one is extremely helpful.
As always, we direct you to the tab above with online and offline recovery resources you can access to ask questions, get information, and find a community who TOTALLY understands how you feel.
Addiction lives in the dark; it wants us alone with our own insecurity and guilt. A sober community helps you crack through the shame, guilt and isolation and find your way down the path of sobriety.
So please listen to the stories these women share of their own experiences; we are five different women at different ages and stages of life, with different stories about our drinking history, but as we so often find out, our feelings are the same.
This week's show is about how to survive those first minutes, hours, days and months of early sobriety.
Our three guests: Angel, Alisun and Amanda each bring stories from their own experiences newly sober, as well as tips and advice that continue to help them today. Each of our guests has a different background, different stories, different ages and stages of sobriety, but as usual so many of the feelings we experience are similar, as are the things that helped us get through the tough early days (and now).
It is also a show for people who have been sober awhile and would like to hear tricks and tips about how others stay sober during the bumpier times of life.
We also share some things that didn't work - cautionary tales, if you will, and offer hope that it does get better.
Through story telling and conversation, we hope that this show can show you that you're not alone, that early sobriety IS hard but is not without a lot of rewards (some of them immediate) and that if you can just hang in there one minute, hour or day at a time, the further you get from your last drink the better and stronger you will feel.
We also offer resources of places online and off where you can find this kind of support - not just in recovery meetings, but also on the internet, which can be a safe, anonymous place to start talking.
As usual, you can email us at thebubblehour@gmail.com if you have any questions, suggestions for topics, or just want to talk with someone who understands.
Thank you for listening, and if there is anything you can do to help us spread the word via Facebook, Twitter or any other means we greatly appreciate it. You may never know who you will be helping, and it could be someone close to you who is suffering in silence.
Together lets continue to break down the stigma of alcoholism that keeps so many people stuck and silent.
Remember to check out the tab above about how to subscribe to our feed on iTunes, too; shows are automatically downloaded onto iTunes and you can listen anywhere, anytime. If you have a hard time at a certain time of day (cooking came up a lot in this show, for example) listening to these shows can be another tool you can use to tamp down those frustrating cravings.
We really appreciate your support, and a big thanks to Alisun, Amanda and Angel for having the courage to share their stories.
Here's the latest episode, but you will also see a new widget at the top right-hand corner of our sidebar that lists all episodes, and you can listen from there, too:
