180 Straight Talk No Sugar Added with Neena Perez180 Straight Talk No Sugar Added with Neena Perez
You're Sober! Now What?
Neena Perez shares her journey through abuse, teen pregnancy, domestic violence and poverty, and how faith and mindset work helped her move from victimhood to ownership. The conversation focuses on shame, forgiveness, and finding beauty and purpose in a messy past, especially for women in recovery and high‑performing roles.
57:18•14 Feb 2022
Straight Talk, Hard Lives and Finding Faith with Neena Perez
Episode Overview
- Owning your past behaviours and choices is a crucial step in moving out of victim mode.
- Separate the shame of what was done to you from the shame of what you’ve done yourself.
- Faith and a higher power can become tangible through specific experiences, especially in crisis.
- High performers often carry hidden blockages; working on goals, accountability, mind‑flow and energy can unlock change.
- There can be genuine beauty in a messy past when you use those experiences to help and uplift others.
“Shame will make you hide. And of course, along with shame comes depression and anxiety – they're all best friends.”
What drives someone to seek a life beyond sheer survival after trauma and addiction? This episode puts that question centre stage with Neena Perez, host of *Straight Talk No Sugar Added*, whose story spans childhood abuse, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, poverty and eventually deep faith.
You’ll hear Neena talk bluntly about growing up with a violent stepfather, being pregnant at 14, and surviving a relationship where, as she shares, "He put a gun to my head, he pulled the trigger, but the safety got jammed." She describes the years of shame, unforgiveness and victim mentality that followed, and how those patterns quietly drove depression, anxiety and self‑sabotage.
Faith becomes a major thread as Neena and host Tamar Medford compare their journeys from "Where was God?" to recognising moments of protection and grace. Neena recounts praying in desperation after her flat burned down, being told her insurance was cancelled, and then hearing a knock the next morning: "I said, okay Jesus, if you're real... and the next day Allstate said, 'It was our error, you're completely covered.'" That experience marked the start of her relationship with God.
The conversation doesn’t stay in the past. Neena breaks down how she helps high‑performing women master their "G.A.M.E." – goals, accountability, mind‑flow and energy – using NLP and mindset work to move beyond victim mode and own their "stuff." There’s plenty of straight talk about cleaning up your mess, separating your own shame from someone else's, and the "beauty in the mess" that can emerge when you finally believe you’re worth more.
If you’re sober and feeling stuck in old stories or victim thinking, this candid, faith‑centred chat might be the nudge to ask: are you ready to own your story and see the beauty in your mess?
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