Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories - Natalee King shares her story and struggle with addiction

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Natalee joined the podcast and shared her first-hand experience with loss and addiction. Natalee is 32 years old and lives in Tampa, FL. She struggled with benzo and meth addiction for about 5 years. She got sober in February 2018 and shares her story with the world on TikTok. She joined the Air Force and moved to Japan and met her husband there, they got married and had a baby boy. Life was good, but in 2013 he was killed in the Air Force. It was devastating. She had my whole life planned with this man and just birthed his son. I didn’t know how to cope and was prescribed Xanax. Check out the episode to hear her story of loss, addiction and sobriety. Follow her story here: TikTok 

Welcome to Season 1 of the Sobermotivation podcast. Join me, Brad, each week is my guests and I share incredible and powerful sobriety stories. We are here to show sobriety as possible one story at a time. Let's go. Natalie lost her sister to an overdose when she was just 18, and then her husband was killed in the Air Force in 2013. After the death of her husband, Natalie went to a very dark place in her life, and her addiction took over.

Natalie struggled with addiction for many years until she was able to reach out for help, and now she is sharing her story with the world. Natalie has been sober since November of 2018, and this is her story. We need to talk about alcohol recovery in the workplace. Talking about sobriety and proving it to your employer can be so difficult, and our friends at Soberlink want to help. If you need a reliable way to present documented proof of sobriety to a boss or loved one, Soberlink can help.

Soberlink is a high-tech portable breathalyzer system that uses Facebook. facial recognition technology to verify identity, has unique sensors to ensure that no other air sources are being used, and sends results directly to your specified contacts. So there's no questioning whether or not you took the test or whether or not you altered the reporting. This is why Soberlink's remote alcohol monitoring system is considered the gold standard. Being in recovery from alcohol does not define the future of your career. Let Soberlink help. Learn more about Soberlink and request an exclusive $50 off promo code by visiting Soberlink.com slash recover. Just the heads up for everybody in this episode.

We do discuss an overdose death and an attempted suicide. Welcome back, everyone, to episode seven of the Sober Motivation podcast. Today we've got my friend Natalie King with us. How are you doing today, Natalie? Hi, I'm doing great. Awesome. Thank you so much. for taking the time today to do this with us.

You have an incredible story that I saw on TikTok, Instagram, some stuff you shared. So this is going to be a really powerful episode, I feel, for people. Did you want to start out at the beginning? So I grew up in a military family. I had a sister and a brother and then my mom and dad, and we traveled everywhere. Both my parents were big drinkers.

We grew up in bars. in and out of bars, my whole childhood. It's real, you know, real big to drink in the military. So that was normal. My sister was seven years older than I am. And she had a drug addiction. She was addicted to opiates. She took Vicodin, Laura Tabs, things like that, orally.

She's never shot up, but I've seen her take a lot of pills orally. And in 2008, my sister died from her a drug overdose. from her addiction. That was a really hard time for my brother and I. My brother was 16 at the time, and I was 18, and my sister was 26 when she passed away. That night, I mean, I can remember them carrying her down in a body bag. They unzipped her head, and my parents went over there,

and just they were screaming, crying, kissing all over her. And I remember the cop turned my brother and I and said, you guys have to look out for your parents from this day forward. You know, I always thought, well, who's supposed to look out for me? You know, I always thought that way. I always felt that way because this was a devastating loss with just five family members in our family. And it was really hard. I had planned to go to college. This was the summer after high school.

but my mind just wasn't there. So I ended up joining the Air Force and moving to Japan. And that's where I got married. I met my husband in Japan. He was also in the Air Force. And we had a baby boy. And life was good at this point. Life was really good.

We moved from Japan to Maryland at Joint Base Andrews. When my son was eight months old, my husband was killed in the Air Force. and that death really pushed me over the edge. It impacted me in a way I don't even understand to this day. I didn't know how to cope with it. I felt like my whole future was ripped from me. That's when I started a real bad drug addiction. That's when my addiction started.

After my husband passed, they had prescribed me, Xanax. And at first, the Xanax was helping me. However, my tolerance got higher and I noticed it wasn't working the way that it was. And so I ended up having to take more and more. And soon my prescription bottle would, you know, be empty with just a few days time. And I'd have to go doctor shop or find it on the street. And it was getting real bad. I wasn't there as a parent. I wasn't there as a parent. I wasn't there as a daughter. I wasn't even there as, I wasn't there as a human. I was passed out all day long. The back, the rock bottom that put me at rock bottom was I had been in and out of institutions in jail many times. I had a DUI crash that I served time for. I had my license revoked for

five years because of all the accidents that I had been in. The people that, I was with ended up offering me methamphetamine through IV use. And the first time that I shot meth, I felt on top of the world. And when I felt that, I knew that I knew that I was going to be in trouble. I felt I could feel that this is not, this wasn't going to be good. It got worse and worse. I eventually I met I met a guy online who knew my husband that died. He asked me out on a date one day and I went with him.

But I was high the whole time. I was passed out high the entire time. And this guy for some reason he stayed. I don't know why he stayed and he wanted to help my parents get me sober. Well, I ended up falling in love with him. and we've been together for about seven years now, but he got me sober in about two years, him and my parents tapered me down on my meds that I had and got me sober. And when I was just weak sober, I found I was pregnant with this man's child.

And I ended up having his baby. And, you know, life was good again. I was getting through the grief and I was getting through my drug addiction. Life was good at this point. I just, I had a baby and life was doing good. Well, about my dad had called me one day and told me he had ALS. And about three years into his ALS diagnosis, he ended up shooting himself in the head, but surviving it.

and that's when we decided to move him into our home. And I moved him into my home and started taking care of him. He had tube feeding. He had diapers. I mean baths, nail file, everything that you had to do to take care of a person, you had to do it for my father. And it was a lot of work, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything. My father, you know, I was always scared that when,

if something were to happen again, something traumatic, I was always afraid that I would spiral back into my old ways. And I was scared of my own mind, if that makes sense. About three months after I moved my father in, he ended up passing away from ALS. And I don't know if it's a combination of what I'm doing today and a combination of going through death in the past. but I'm really proud to say that I've remained sober in my recovery, even after my father's death, because that was a big thing that I was really scared of. I think it has a lot to do with what I'm doing today to help get me through this. I began sharing my story online about two years after my father passed,

10 years after my husband passed and about 14 years after my sister passed because I was just now ready to start talking about it. And I realized how alone I felt. I felt so alone in my grief that I needed I needed an outlet or somebody else or a community of people to help me get through that at that time. And I didn't have that. So I hope that I can be that person for someone. buddy. Yeah, and I think you have been for some people with the reaction from people on TikTok. So what's the day you got sober? What's the date for it?

If you want to track your sober days down to the second, be sure to grab the sober buddy app, your sober buddy.com or search sober buddy in your favorite app store. And if you need more step-by-step help with recovery, do your sober buddy challenges. Download the app today and sign up for the free third. 30 day trial. It's February of 2018 is my sober day. Wow, that's incredible. And also with everything else that you shared too, to stay sober, is also incredible.

Because that's a lot of stuff, a lot of heavy stuff to go on. What do you do to help you stay on track? What did you do during those hard times to remain so? Yeah. You know, after my father's death, what I do today that helps keep me sober is I am on maintenance medication. I take psych meds and stuff, which I think helps me a lot. It took me years to find the right combination, but I finally found the right combination, and it has helped me tremendously. But on top of that, I meditate and I do breathing exercises.

I kind of mix traditional medicine with holistic medicine to help get me through the days. And that's, I have found that that has helped me immensely through my sobriety. Amazing. What about you said you had another child. Do you have two boys? Two boys, yes. Boys, wow. Your hands are full.

They are 10 and 4. So they're a handful. Yeah. I hear you on that. I have three myself and it's busy. But it's good. Right. What motivates you to stay sober, to keep going, to sharing your story, to doing all of this stuff?

Because before you even answer that, too, I'm just thinking here, sharing this stuff on TikTok, on social media is never an easy thing to do. But I do love the fact about you sharing that it's helped you heal. It's helped me heal. Just talking about it out loud helps me heal. What keeps me motivated is not only my kids and my husband and my family, of course, they motivate me every day. But comments, the comments I get of people that my videos have helped, that's what motivates me. I mean, of course, you're going to get hate comments that saying, you know, oh, you're showing, you're showing, you're sharing your personal life. You know, you want attention or this and that. Or why are you sharing these personal moments? Well, it's the hard reality of life. And people need to see these moments.

They need to see it. If we keep hiding it, people are going to keep dying from it. And that's why I share those hard moments that I've shared, those pictures and videos that I've shared online. It helps people. Yeah. And that's the truth. The truth. It's so powerful. And because there's other people that might not be sharing that exact same story, but there are people that are going through a lot of those same emotions with people with loss, with addiction, with a lot of different things. So I think it is, and especially ALS, my wife's grandfather passed from ALS. And it's just a very terrible experience for people.

So I think even to bring that in and then you having the courage to bring your father in, and help him out. You know, I think that's incredible. And then plus on top of that, your sobriety, without your sobriety, do you feel like you would be able to be present for these situations? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Not in the slightest would I have ever been present. I wouldn't have been able to take care of my father. I wouldn't have able to enjoy those last few months with him alive. I wouldn't have to enjoy any of that. And because of my sobriety, I have those memories and I have that. It's all because of my recovery. The sobriety offers an opportunity for us to show up and be present, even though a lot of times it can be uncomfortable,

especially at first because we're used to numbing things, escaping. And then now we're kind of here. But there's really something beautiful about it, to have memories to be part of it. And just to feel like, For me, like I have a purpose instead of. Right.

And when things get hard to deal with them in a, in a positive way, other than just retreating into what was comfortable. I'm really proud of you. Thank you. Of course. Thank you so much. It means a lot. Yeah.

So the two years where your family and you're now husband, right? Right. Well, he's not technically my husband. He's my fiance, but yes. Beyonce, okay, so soon to be, hopefully. Yes, hopefully. There you go. So during those two years, what did that look like for you?

Because you're on the Xanax. I mean, the Xanax carries its own handful of withdrawal symptoms can be very dangerous, deadly, even. Right. What did that look like for you in the two years? I just want to drop a little advisory before we continue on with Natalie's story. Although she has her own story, it is definitely not suggested that you detox from benzodia use at home. So definitely consult with a medical professional. If you're struggling with this, do not do it by yourself at home.

Now, back to the story. It was horrible. I mean, it was rough. So I was tapering. So my withdrawal wasn't as severe. My fiance, my parents, they had done their research on Xanax withdrawal. And I had been in and out maybe institutionalized, maybe like nine times throughout those five years of my addiction. When you say institutionalized, what is it that you're referring to?

Baker acted, like Baker acted. Okay. Things like that. So when I was Baker acted and stuff, I would. always detox and then go back to it. And this was different because I was tapering. And at the end of my, like it was really rough. I had to go to jail one time, I think in between that, because I had a warrant. I had to go to a mental health institution. I had to voluntarily sign in due to my court thing. So I had to go into these places, even though I was tapering off. And at the end of my taper,

is when I found out I was pregnant. And that's the day that I stopped taking it all together. But I was so low at the end of my taper that it was easy for me. It was easy to get off of it since I was so low at my taper. Got you. But it took you a lot of work to get there. It did. Yeah.

A lot of work. And then you brought up to that you got a DUI? I did. I got a DUI. I got in a car wreck and got a DUI. Thankfully, I was by myself in the car. And I turned a corner and I hit a car head on. And I was arrested for that crash.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt. I'm so grateful for that every day because I think to myself, oh my God, what if, you know? Yeah. I didn't get a DUI for one of my wrecks. I don't know why, actually. I woke up in the hospital because I had tried to commit suicide. I had crashed my Mustang into a light pole.

And I woke up in the hospital and they and they baker acting me that time as well. Yeah. And what's that experience like, the Baker Act? I mean, the cops take you and they take you to a mental health institution. And you're in there for three to seven days or you're on a hold. And if you're Baker acted, you could like try to get out of it. but you have to go to court or something. So I always just signed in and voluntarily and then they would let you go in a few days.

Okay, gotcha. Okay. I had that when I was a teenager. I don't know if it was a baker act then, but maybe it was. But a 72-hour hold at a psychiatric facility. Yes. A hospital that you're not free to go from. Gotcha.

Yes. Is it helpful? Was that intervention helpful for you at all? Like, did you learn anything throughout that? You know, at the time, I didn't think it was helpful. But now today, looking back, I think that all the times that I was Baker acted was helpful. I think it gave me tools to use in my future and help with my recovery. I do think it was helpful.

At the time, I would have said no, but today I say yes. Yeah. What did they say? Hindsight's 2020. Hindsight's 2020, exactly. Yeah, looking back, even in my story, too, there was a ton of interventions over a long span of time. I wasn't one of those people who got sober after a rock bottom. Like I went to jail and felony probation and lost a lot of stuff in life and rehab and detox, but I never got sober after any of these rock bottom type situations.

I woke up one day and decided to get sober and it wasn't because of a rock bottom thing. But I still do see all of those things adding up to kind of get me to where I was. Did you have sort of a rock bottom thing that happened and then this was a decision or what was it for you? No. No. Every time that I overdosed, I went back to it. I even overdosed one time. and I was in a three-day coma and then I was baker-acted after that because every time that I

overdosed, I was baker-acted. And so, yeah, there was no rock bottom like that for me either. It was just, it was days. I had multiple days and weeks and months of feeling like I wanted this to end, but I didn't know how to do it. It wasn't like one day I woke up and I said, all right, I'm doing it today. It happened slowly over a period of time. Gotcha.

How was that experience for you when you were in a coma for three days? And what was that from? I had taken some volume. I overdosed. And my fiance and my parents called the ambulance. And I woke up three days later in the hospital. And I was fine, but they, you know, Baker act me.

I mean, I didn't remember anything. I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I didn't mean to overdose, but they still Baker acted me. Gotcha. Yeah, that is, I taught with a few people on the podcast episode two. Megan shared a little bit about this. I have a very small experience with X.

In the two times I did it, I blacked out. And I had no idea about this was possible. And it was really scary because I had, I had went to my job. And I showed up for a job. I drove there and everything. And the next day, I woke up and I had been sent home from the job. And I didn't remember any of this stuff. And then I went back in the next day not knowing any of this stuff.

And it was really scary because then people tell you. And they don't believe you. Like, I get it. I didn't expect anybody to believe me. But I was like, I don't remember from 4 o'clock until the next day. Did you experience that a lot? Absolutely. I experienced that every time I took it. And that is why I took it. I wanted to, I wanted to forget. I wanted, I was numbing my pain from my husband's death. And I didn't want to remember anything. I didn't want to think about the past and I didn't want to think about the future. And so Xanax, when you blacked out and days would go by and I wouldn't remember, I was happy about it. I was like, thank God. You know, all these days went by. But after a while, you know, it starts to wear on you.

I feel that my brain and my memory is affected to this day from the blackouts from Xanax. I have memory problems to this day because of that. Yeah. It becomes very dangerous. What were you thinking about going through your own sort of story if we reflect back on your sister? Were you ever worried that a fatal overdose could be a possibility for you? Yeah, I knew it was a possibility. And at the time, I don't think I really cared.

I had signed custody of my son to my parents. And I felt like I had nothing left to live for. I felt like I couldn't be a mom. My son was already signed over. And my parents thought I wasn't going to make it out of my addiction. They said that they didn't want my son to go to the state. So that's why I signed over. And at the point, I just didn't care if I died or lived.

I really didn't. I hear you on that. That's definitely a scary place to be, though. But let's flip things around here because we talked a lot about where you were. And now you're in an incredible place and you're glowing and you're happy. So what is life like for you now? that you're in recovery and you're celebrating your sobriety every day. It's amazing. I cherish every memory, every moment, every photo, every video. I cherish it now. Before, you know, I wouldn't

care if I remembered somebody or something. But today, I can go to a party and everyone is party and they're drinking and I can be the only one sober and be happy and having fun. And And I'm the one that can remember these memories. And it's amazing. I mean, my recovery looks great today. I'm on a great path today. I mean, it's hard work every day. You have to work on yourself every day.

But I'm really at peace with myself. And the people that you see with the most enlightenment or peace have gone through the darkness to get there. And that's just an important thing. to remember that you can get there too. Yeah. And you definitely have went through a lot of the darkness. And then come out the other side doing really well and sharing your story and stuff is super just super empowering for people.

What's the reaction that you've gotten from people from sharing your story? Most people really enjoy seeing, you know, the the transformation and, you know, I get a lot of sympathy and stuff, but that's not what I'm looking for when I share my story. I'm looking for people who've gone through complex grief and that I can help. And my messages are always open for whoever to ask me questions or advice. I think that's beautiful. The transformation is incredible.

and I feel like people are able to relate with that in their own sort of story. Absolutely. Yeah, we can see that, you know, somebody, Natalie's been through all of this stuff. Like, this is a lot of stuff. And if she can figure it out, then maybe it's possible for me. And I think that's one of the most beautiful things about sharing a real vulnerable story that you have to share that. Yes. Absolutely.

Yeah. So I love that. And how is your sobriety played into your healing journey? So I know there's probably a lot of aspects that have went into you healing. How has sobriety specifically helped you with that? You know, sobriety has helped me meditate. I've tried meditating in the past because my brother had suggested it to me. But I was in my addiction and I noticed I couldn't meditate.

Well, meditation has changed in my sobriety. I'm able to now. It's almost like as if addiction was a block for my meditation. And I can notice now when I meditate, you almost get your body gets like a, I don't know how to describe it, a high feeling. It's like a, it's a good euphoric feeling just from meditating. And I wasn't able to do that before. It's helped me a lot in my recovery, my sobriety has helped me. and my healing journey immensely.

I love that. A lot of people are really about breathwork too. I see is coming up. There's like a tapping sort of thing that people are talking about. Meditation too. I think meditation kind of really jumpstarted all this other stuff to come out to these other ways that we can connect in other ways that we can feel good about ourselves and ground ourselves.

Like with the addiction. It's just a chaos. is just like 24-7. It's really hard to take a second to think about stuff. So what was your experience in the Air Force like? Yeah, I had a good experience. I really loved it. Like I said, I came from a military family.

So it was in my blood. My mom and dad were both military. My sister was military and my brother's military. So it was a lot of fun. I really loved the military. If my husband didn't pass away, I would probably still be in it today. Gotcha. And you were in Japan too for some of it.

How was that? How was Japan? Japan was amazing. It was fun. Tokyo was great. My husband proposed to me on top of Tokyo Tower. It was just beautiful. It was a beautiful experience.

That's cool. Earlier you also talked about using meth. Was that something you were working on getting off of? during those two years as well. And what was that like? It was a little harder. So the methamphetamine, you know, I took it during the day to wake me up because I was so sedated with the Xanax or the benzos, really, any benz-a.

I was so sedated with that. So I would take it to wake me up. And I went on a binge for like, I don't know, six months. And it was horrible. I mean, I was seeing stuff. I was hearing stuff. And it really scared me. And that's when I told my parents what I was doing.

And they were like, okay, we need to get you off of this. This is like next level type of stuff. You need to get off of this. I mean, I had withdrawals for like three days. But really the Xanax was the big one to get me tapered off of. Xanax is powerful for sure. Yeah, extremely dangerous. And, you know, people should definitely look at, you know,

professional hellable to like talk. Absolutely. With a doctor and a medical detox too for, I don't want anybody thinking that that listens to this. Yeah. Going to be a good idea to do a detox at home and stuff. Definitely get that. Yes. If I could go back, I would probably do a detox because my, like I said, my parents and my

fiance helped me. They did suggest a detox, but I refused. I'm glad you said that because I wouldn't want anybody to listen to my story and do this and something happen because Xanax is an extremely or any Benzo is an extremely dangerous withdrawal and you should have medical professional help. Yeah, for sure. So what would you say to somebody else who might be struggling with getting sober or staying sober?

What advice would you have for them? Questions like these, similar questions like these, they're real hard to answer because if I did have the answer, you know, my sister would still be here. You know, I could help somebody. But what I would say is do not be afraid to ask for help. You need a support system to get sober. You have to have a support system. Somebody you trust, somebody that loves you and that you love them.

And ask for help. Do not be afraid to ask for help. I went to my parents. I showed them the baggie that I had and I asked for help. And that was the first step. Yeah. That's amazing too. that was the hardest part for me to picking up that 3,000 pound phone or whatever it is

and asking people for help and then being willing to take the help that's offered to. Absolutely. I think a support system is really incredible. I mean, if we're trying to achieve any goals in life, too, whether it be sobriety or other stuff, a support system of people who are going to pick us up when we fall down is so incredible. Absolutely. I love that. So how do you want to be remembered?

We talked about this question before we started. If anything in life, I want to be remembered as a kind person. For me, I want the world to know that I'm kind. And I want anybody that I interact with to remember how I made them feel. And I hope that I made them feel in a good way. And that's how I would like to be remembered. I love that. For an on the spot question, that's a big one.

I love that because there's a quote I heard one time and people won't remember what you say but they'll always remember how you made them feel. I don't know who said the quote and I probably didn't get it right, but hopefully we get the idea. And I think that's so important and that's really something that I'm trying to do

with this podcast too is to have people leave here no matter where they're at in their journey, whether they're not sober, they are sober, they're curious, to have them leave here, hopefully feeling like wherever they're headed is so much more possible, whether they're sober and they're trying to push for their one year, or they're 30 days or their two days,

just to let people know that a lot of us are out here trying to put out a positive message, get vulnerable, share our stories in hopes that people can be inspired to like keep going and to maybe do the next right thing and to maybe pay it forward, to maybe help somebody maybe they otherwise wouldn't. Yes, absolutely. I agree 100%. Yeah, so we're on the same page there. Perfect.

I wanted to wrap things up because this has been great. We've covered a lot of ground. And I really appreciate you sharing this stuff. Thank you for having me on. I just want to share my story. And I hope it can help somebody. And I want people to remember, like, I'm coming up on five years this February of sobriety.

I was at two days at one point. I was at one day at one point. And you can get there. You will get there just one day at a time, like they say. Yeah. And that's amazing too because a lot of people I see early in recovery, they feel a need to put only in there.

I'm only seven days. Those seven days are sometimes the hardest days to get. Hardest. Those are the hardest days. The first few days are the hardest. And that's only putting only in there minimizes it. Yes, I agree with that. Yeah.

You guys can't see it here, but Natalie just jumped off the bed here. And that fired her up. So she's with me on that one. But that does. I am. Yeah, it's, you know, be proud of yourself. No matter what you have, no matter what you're doing. And how many days you have, even if you don't have any days,

I still want you to be proud of yourself, even if it's something you're considering, if it's something you've tried, if you're working on it, if it's part of what you're thinking about every day, because I went through five years and I didn't even think about it once. But once I started to think about it, and once I started to maybe believe that I could figure this out, that snowball built up over time. I really encourage people just spend some time on it. I know it's not the thing you want to be doing if you're still struggling and you're still out there. But like spend a little bit of time on it. Write down what your life would look like, write down how you want your life to look. I mean, did you ever think that your life would look the way it does now? Absolutely not.

No, no, nothing like this. I had no idea that I would even make a TikTok and it would blow up and help people. I had no idea when I mean I was sober for three and a half years and then I made my TikTok. And those three and a half years, I never thought, oh, I want to make a TikTok and help people. That's not what I thought. I made a TikTok and my videos blew up. And that's when I was like, oh, wow, I could really help people. So it takes time.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, it does. But it is hopefully people can gather that. I know this is possible to do, especially with your story. This is, you've been through a lot and you're still, you're pushing on and you're sharing it and you're encouraging other people. So did you have anything for closing for us? Just like I said, ask for help, have a good support system. Be easy on yourself.

Forgive yourself because that's a hard part of recovery and your healing journey is to forgive yourself. Even if you did a lot of bad things and addiction, I did too. I used to keep me up at night the things that I've been that I've done. But forgive yourself, you know, move past it. It's okay. The forgiveness part is huge because we do do a lot of stuff in the addiction that we're not proud of, but we can't go back and change. So, you know, what I try to do for that is I just try to live today the best that I possibly

can, just show up the best that I possibly can, not to take away what I've done or try make it better, but just try to give back because I took for so long. I just took from people and took from the world. Now I'm just trying to give back. This was another incredible episode on the podcast today. Be sure to give Natalie a follow on TikTok, Natalie with 5E's King. I really hope everybody enjoyed today's episode. Natalie really opened up for us and shared a lot of really hard things with us about her story.

I think it's incredible with everything that happened that she was able to get sober, stay sober through some very tough times. If you guys are enjoying the podcast, don't forget to leave a review on your favorite streaming platform, whether that be Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you're catching this at.

Be sure to take care of yourself, be good, and be sure to pay it forward out there. The holidays are around the corner. If you see somebody struggling, help them out. stick your hand out and let people know that you're there if they need some support in their sober journey or just in life i'll see everyone later in the week with another episode until then enjoy your week stay out of trouble