Factory Settings - Getting Real About Emotional Sobriety

Factory Settings - Getting Real About Emotional Sobriety

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? Factory Settings brings Bridget and Jeren into a candid chat about emotional sobriety, long after the last drink is gone. This isn’t about early recovery chaos, but the stuff that creeps in years later: feeling "dry," wrestling with resentments, control issues, and that uncomfortable sense that your brain didn’t magically fix itself once you got sober.

Bridget laughs at her own expectations, saying she truly believed sobriety would turn her into a type A organiser instead of a "mad professor" with scattered, ADHD-style energy. Instead, she found herself still feeling messy and chaotic, just without the substances.

She jokes about her love for Step Two in AA because, as she puts it, "it tricks you into admitting that you're insane" – a playful but honest nod to the way recovery asks you to face your own mental quirks. The conversation touches on their different relationships with AA as they approach 13 and 9 years of sobriety, and how that long stretch of time changes your relationship with the programme, spirituality, and your own sense of sanity.

They talk about feeling "insane" in everyday ways – hyper-focusing on projects, being wildly creative, and doing "crazy" things like getting on stage to tell jokes, when most people would rather "die before being humiliated publicly." This episode speaks to people who’ve been sober for a while and are surprised to find they still feel a bit unhinged at times, as well as those curious about what emotional sobriety really looks like beyond just not drinking.

Expect frank humour, self-deprecation, and a strong sense that you’re not alone if your sober brain is still a bit of a circus. If you’ve ever thought sobriety would turn you into a completely different person, this conversation might make you rethink that — and feel less alone in the process.