Barbara P. Age. 63 Sober: 4/10/94Barbara P. Age. 63 Sober: 4/10/94
Keep Coming Back: Real Stories of Sobriety & Recovery
Barbara P. hit the 20-year mark in sobriety and became scared by what she saw. Friends she'd known in sobriety for years were leaving the program. She said at that point it was necessary to re-double her efforts and today considers her program stronger then it's ever been.
56:12•21 Oct 2020
Barbara P: Pills, Red Wine, Family Chaos and 26 Years Sober
Episode Overview
- Reaching out for help after a humiliating drinking episode led Barbara to her first AA meeting and her last drink.
- Early sobriety can involve long periods of cravings and depression, but regular meetings and simple actions like changing your activity can ease the pressure.
- Partners may struggle as their role shifts when the alcoholic gets sober, but trust can grow over time as recovery stabilises.
- It is possible to distance yourself from deeply harmful family-of-origin dynamics if staying involved threatens your sobriety.
- Focusing on "one day at a time" and refusing to "pick up the future" helps manage anxiety, especially during crises and uncertainty.
“I feel like I had one recovery in me.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Mike S and guest Barbara P offers a grounded, funny and very honest look at long-term recovery, relationships and family. Barbara, 63, has been sober since 10 April 1994.
She talks about her "bottom" at age 38 – a night of red wine, pills and humiliation that ended with her being dumped at home "covered in shit" and finally admitting, "I think I have a drinking problem." That call led her to her first AA meeting at St Luke’s in Greenwich Village, where the well-dressed, gym-going crowd shattered her stereotype of what an alcoholic looks like.
You’ll hear Barbara describe years of round-the-clock drinking, a secret Percocet addiction and how the scariest moments weren’t arrests or lost jobs, but the times her young son was put at risk while she was passed out. She’s frank about being a "thorough sham" professionally and using alcohol and opiates to feel like the smartest and sexiest person in the room. The chat is especially helpful for partners and families.
Mike shares how many spouses and parents use the podcast to understand the "language" of recovery that they never hear in meetings or rehabs. Barbara talks about her husband’s shift from resentful caretaker to someone who now trusts her to travel the world sober, and how her son casually uses AA phrases like "one day at a time" when helping friends. Long-term sobriety isn’t romanticised.
Barbara recalls a year and a half of cravings, being "bouncing off the walls of AA", and why hitting 20 years made her double down on meetings after seeing people with decades go back out. Her current mantra? "I’ve been praying for God to help me not pick up the future." If you’re counting days, loving someone in addiction, or wondering what life after the pink cloud can look like, could this be the conversation you need today?
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