An All Night Place - Secular AA

In this deeply personal episode, Monica joins us from Chicago to share her lived experience of long-term sobriety through secular recovery. Speaking candidly as a dual-diagnosed atheist, Monica reflects on more than a decade of struggle with alcoholism, drug-resistant bipolar depression, anxiety, repeated relapses, homelessness, and a near-fatal crisis that became a turning point in her life.She traces her journey from years of trying to make traditional recovery models work, through discovering the world of secular recovery during the COVID era, and ultimately building a sustainable, life-saving path that works for her. Monica speaks openly about Intensive Outpatient Programs, electroconvulsive therapy, alternative 12-step approaches, SMART Recovery, Recovery Dharma, atheist and agnostic AA spaces, and the importance of choice in recovery.This episode is also about connection. Monica shares how service, volunteering, community, and staying out of isolation have been essential to maintaining her sobriety. She offers thoughtful encouragement to newcomers, people who have relapsed, and those who are sober-curious, reminding us that recovery is not one-size-fits-all and that showing up matters more than perfection.A powerful, compassionate conversation about persistence, honesty, secular support, and why it’s never too late to find what finally sticks.

Recorded on 7/17/2024Speaker : Dave WDave also shared about a year later. Might be interesting to listen out for the changes?https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qQtpMeNPUhjWToamgn2FW?si=BVpOWxQHQzSpGviYv7gggw

From Scotch and Crotchless Panties to 5,944 Days Sober – Linnie’s StoryIn this deeply honest and often funny share, Linnie takes us through a lifetime of addiction, chaos, and recovery. Growing up amid alcoholism and family turbulence, she moves from Catholic boarding school to New York burger joints, Manhattan nightlife, iron work on Hudson River bridges, and high-pressure sales—with alcohol and drugs woven through every chapter.Linnie talks about:Discovering hard liquor as a teenager and falling in love with the chaosWorking in Manhattan and blowing her cash on cocaineReinventing herself as an iron worker and then a high-earning salespersonMoving to Florida, tending bar, managing a lingerie shop, and living for after-hours clubsHitting bottom with health scares, DUIs, jail, and a marriage born out of griefFinding AA, getting 8 years sober, relapsing, and then coming backGetting pregnant at 35, raising her son in recovery, and navigating sponsors, home groups, and traditionsStaying sober through the pandemic, wrestling with Zoom vs in-person meetings, and what long-term sobriety looks like todayWith raw honesty, sharp humor, and zero sugarcoating, Linnie shows how a “garden variety drunk” can build a life in recovery—and why staying connected to other alcoholics is still the key after thousands of sober days.Recorded on 6/26/2024Speaker : Linnie Z