#80 – Win Charles: A Winning Cup#80 – Win Charles: A Winning Cup
Recovery Survey
Brett Morris talks with Win Kelly Charles about her journey through alcoholism, cerebral palsy, abuse, and grief. Their conversation highlights counselling, adult protective services, and the importance of speaking up for disabled people facing harm.
29:09•15 Sept 2021
Breaking Sobriety Stigma and Speaking Up for the Voiceless with Win Kelly Charles
Episode Overview
- Sobriety can be a daily choice, especially when combined with a lifelong disability and complex trauma.
- Family patterns of heavy drinking and abuse may push someone either deeper into addiction or firmly towards sobriety.
- Counselling and anger management support can be vital tools alongside personal recovery efforts.
- Adult protective services exist for vulnerable adults and can be contacted when abuse is suspected.
- Bruises, broken bones, and sudden behaviour changes in disabled children or adults can be key warning signs of abuse.
“I want to be the spokesperson for the voiceless, because nine times out of ten, the caregivers will say everything's perfectly fine.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation with Win Kelly Charles offers a raw, honest look at sobriety, disability, and abuse, all intertwined in one complex life story. Win, host of the podcast *A Winning Cup*, lives with cerebral palsy and describes herself as "a recovering alcoholic with cerebral palsy" who became sober in July 2019.
She talks about how alcohol crept in after her mother’s death, how family abuse intensified her drinking, and why her father’s approach to quitting pushed her to stop alcohol and even coffee completely. Her line, "I want to be the spokesperson for the voiceless," pretty much sums up her mission. The episode spends plenty of time on the reality of living with a disability in abusive environments.
Win shares deeply uncomfortable experiences of emotional and physical abuse, explaining how abusers in her life "drank like fishes" and how she chose sobriety to break that pattern. She also highlights something many people have never heard of: adult protective services, stressing that disabled adults and children have legal protections and that bruises, broken bones, and sudden behaviour changes should never be ignored.
Both Win and host Brett Morris talk openly about grief, anger, counselling, and the slow, often messy process of recovery. Counselling, for Win, isn’t optional; she explains how anger and trauma pushed her into therapy and how that support now underpins her sober life.
Her move to an independent living community in Phoenix shows how she’s rebuilding autonomy with "minimal help and minimal assistance." This is a conversation for anyone who’s juggling sobriety, disability, trauma, or all three—and for those who want to better support vulnerable people in their lives. It might leave you asking: whose voice could you help amplify today?
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