July 4th Alcohol Series: Reclaiming Joy Through Alcohol-Free Living with Maxine Linehan

Maxine Linehan is an internationally acclaimed Irish singer, writer, and theatrical performer whose deeply personal work reimagines beloved songbooks to explore identity, healing, and emotional truth. Her recordings have earned praise from The New York Times, Billboard, and USA Today, and she has performed sold-out shows around the world.  Now, Maxine is the co-host of the new podcast Happy AF: Joyfully Living Alcohol-Free, where she brings her signature honesty, humor, and storytelling to conversations about reclaiming joy and freedom without alcohol.

https://maxinelinehan.com/

https://www.happyafpodcast.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Thriving with Addiction Podcast, where we explore how recovery is not just about surviving, but about truly living. Each week we'll dive into the science, stories, and strategies that help people and families heal from addiction and build healthier, more resilient lives. I'm your host, Dr. John Avery. Let's get started. I'm John Avery and welcome back to Thriving with Addiction. Today I'm joined by Maxine Linehan. Maxine is an internationally acclaimed Irish singer, writer, and theatrical performer whose deeply personal work reimagines beloved songbooks to explore identity, healing, and emotional truth. Her recordings have earned praise from the New York Times, Billboard, and USA Today, and she has performed sold-out shows around the world. Now, Maxine is the co-host of the wonderful new podcast, Happy AF, Joyfully Living Alcohol Free. For my 12-year-old, AF stands for alcohol free, I'm told. Where she brings her signature honesty, humor, and storytelling to conversations about reclaiming joy and freedom without alcohol. Maxine, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It is so lovely to be here and chat with you today.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I was telling you before we started, your music was the soundtrack to my morning. It's it's such wonderful work you put out.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Thank you. Thank you. You know, singing and making music is the greatest gift. And uh I feel so grateful to have the voice that I have and to be able to use it and do something that I love and feel like there's purpose. So when someone who I've never met before says they've been listening to my music all morning, there's no greater reward for me as an artist than hearing that.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Well, it's wonderful. And tell me how you made your way to both singer and also to this point in your life where you're a happy AF. Walking me through this process.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Oh, okay. Well, we'll have to do the uh the the uh abridged version. Of course, you could probably tell I'm I'm not American, I'm originally from Ireland. Um I uh I grew up in Ireland and uh wanted to be an actor from a very, very young age, wanted to be a singer and and loved the arts and the performing arts in particular. Uh, but you know, I grew up in a country in 70s, 80s, 90s, Ireland, performing arts was not considered to be uh legitimate career paths. Every parent wants success but security for their children. So I was encouraged to follow a more stable, uh trying to think of all the right words that were used to to coax me away from the arts and into the law. And uh I studied law uh in Ireland and then they took the London Bar exam and became a barrister, and uh it was a very um carved out path for me that wasn't wasn't carved out by me. And that that uh that part of my life, which you know, I went on to work in-house with a a firm in London, it eventually took me to New York City working for that firm. And and that part of my life, I was I was very much just focused on one foot in front of the other a little bit on autopilot. But for my whole life, I had for all of that period, I I always had the the the singing, the the music, the artistry in the background. And it never while while it was put on the back burner, it never the pilot light never went out. So I that's the thing that that I speak most about when I when I talk about how to stay true to yourself and stay on purpose, is is it might not always be the front and center in the middle of the stage all the time, but as long as you keep that that drive, that dream alive somewhere, and I'm very grateful now, as I'm able to look back many years later, that that was always that was always there. And I reached a point in my life uh in New York, uh, when I was I had just turned 30, and I had what I refer to as my Sex in the City years uh in New York, making lots of money, uh young, free, and single and living, living it up. But I always knew there was just something missing. It just wasn't, I I felt successful and and I had so many things that people strive for, but I I just felt missing the purpose, like why, and I joke often about the fact that there are plenty of lawyers in the world. I did not need to contribute to that part of the of of of our planet and our our uh existence. And I had a couple of big uh personal moments, parents passing away, turning 30, and and I had just one of those moments where I thought, I I've I've got to find my I've gotta find my way back to what I love, what I think I'm good at, what I'm here for, right? Don't we all just ask that question? Why why am I here? That existential question. What what is my point? What is the point to me?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

We all asked that question and then we put it aside in March until our death. What what gave you the courage to to change things?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Uh I it's it's interesting. I I was kind of forced into a decision. So the firm I was working for um wanted to relocate me back to London uh or somewhere on one of their other European offices if I chose, because they were closing the New York office. And I and I just felt this is it, right? This is I spent my whole life as a little Irish girl wanting to be in New York City. And I traveled to America often um with my parents on vacation. And I just I I I had this this desire to be here. And and then at that point in my life, I'm like, I'm here, I have a green card, I'm I'm allowed to be here. I just have to figure out how to stay here without without this job. So I was forced into a decision to either go back or stay. And and that that decision to stay was the catalyst for everything else. Um, and I I did what so many of my friends in the performing arts do, you know, and I went to law school, not to a music conservatory, but you come out of that, you go to New York or whatever city, and you wait tables and you attend bar and you do all of those things. And I said, okay, so I'm just starting 10 years later than everybody else, but that's what I'm gonna do. It's it's um it's not rocket science. I just have to commit to doing it. So I gave up the corporate condo and the big paycheck and and started waiting tables in in New York City, like every other wannabe actor singer. And uh eventually, you know, there's there's there's lots of stories in between about how I got to this career, but um, I've always loved being myself on stage. And so I'd started to do in clubs in New York, started to do some cabaret work in the cabaret rooms and and carved out over the years, and I've done a lot of legitimate theater and and acting, and I was on tour with Lincoln Center and in South Pacific. I've done a lot of traditional theater work, but the singing and telling my story combination was just something I happened to carve out that became really successful. And so all of my focus went to telling my personal story through iconic songbooks, and they vary greatly from Petula Clark, which is one that I have performed all over the world, her magnificent story of her life and how it has intertwined with mine, but also the music of my fellow countrymen, you too, which people are not expecting. Um, but I give it this beautiful treatment with my band that allows the stories behind those songs. It's it's very heavy, very weighty, a lot of what what Bono wrote about, and and we don't get to hear that often, the stories behind those songs. And Andrew Lloyd Weber and Broadway and the holiday songbook. And I take all of these songbooks, these this music collection, and and turn it into sort of a one-woman musical and talk about my life experience. And and so many of those experiences are are universal, and I'm just able to share them and and uh partner with music, and it makes a very unique and special experience. Uh connecting, connecting together through music and story, I think is is an antidote to a lot of what our suffering is about these days.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

So But as I was saying, so many people go through life and they're never able to make that change, and to make such a big, bold one into a field of such uncertainty, it takes a lot of guts. I mean, what was it about you that uh that enabled you to really get up there and not just sing but tell your story and and and sort of realize yourself in in full? That's such a challenging space to get to.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Thank you. And you know, I I have people who are really close to me, like my husband and my mother-in-law. They t they I I remember being called courageous once at an awards show for for um uh trailblazing women, and I just kept thinking, oh, I don't think of myself that way, because I was when you're in it, right? When you're just doing what you what you know is right for yourself, it you you're not necessarily thinking about how you got to the decision. Now, when I look back, I definitely think those moments in those early days in New York where I was so full of doubt and I was so um unsure about whether or not I should stay in America or if I should go back and just stick to the secure path, uh I've always had this voice, and it I think it came from being nurtured in a way in my parents' voices, in in giving me confidence. And and even though that is kind of um counter to the the what I said earlier, which is that you know they were encouraging me into this secure lifestyle, I I was still at the same time always told that I could do anything I put my mind to. And and I and I have kids now, and I I that's a mantra that I never stop saying over and over again. It's true of anyone. If you if you really want something, if you really believe in yourself, you can you can make it happen. And there's lots of different ways to achieve something. It doesn't, you know, I I didn't go to a music school, I I didn't have this traditional background, and yet I found this way to the to the stage and and to to my life. And and the you know, the the other part of your question in relation to how how I do that on the stage, I now also recognize that that's something that's quite unique because a lot of my fellow performers who are extraordinarily talented in in TV and film and stage, they are very great at playing a role, but have often told me they could never do what I do because being on stage as yourself requires so much vulnerability and it requires so much um uh ability to just share. Share. There's no there's no script, there's no fourth wall, you're not, you're not behind a character, you're very much um allowing the spotlight to be shone on on you uh warts and all. Um and and that, but I think that's something that has really been foundational to my success is people connecting. People connect when they hear a true, honest, authentic story. Uh even if they can't relate to the specifics, they they they can relate to the human experience. And uh I've it's often been joked about that I my my concerts should be supported um or sponsored by Kleenex because I make I make people feel and and and I'm oddly proud of the fact that I that I make people cry. But it's it's it's that real just being being in your feelings and being in your emotions in a world where everything is so fast-paced, everything is digitized, everything is being taken over by artificial intelligence, and and our human experiences are so precious and valuable, and being able to bring that into an audience, bringing it to a room where people are feeling this and going on a journey with me, that people love that. I love that, and and I'm so grateful to keep doing it.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

What do you think your parents would have said to have seen you now and this life you chills in?

SPEAKER_00 12:52

I know that they would be so proud. And a pa and I don't ever I don't look back on anything with regrets, and we'll talk about my alcohol experience in a moment, but it it's it's what you learn from it. And my parents didn't have the the information available to them that I have now as a parent. Uh, and and they only and ever wanted the best for me. And and that that um that the having that feeling of secure love is an important part of my overall happiness and success is knowing that I had that as a as a child. And I think they would my mother was was someone who would have loved to have been a singer. Um my dad was so proud of me. And I and I know that they would both think, wow, if they're up there somewhere, able to see that that they would be they would be insanely proud of me. I know that.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Of course they would. And let's jump into into alcohol and its role. I mean, was it around growing up with your parents? I mean, you grew up in Ireland where certainly, you know, alcohol is is a bit embedded in in social life there. Uh walk me through your story with with alcohol as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Well, that's an understatement, isn't it? Um, our Irish uh nationality and alcohol are so intrinsically linked. And even before I removed alcohol completely from my life, uh I I always just felt a little annoyed about how that was always the first thing people referenced about the Irish culture. Uh oh, you're Irish, you must be such a big drinker. Oh, you're Irish, you must want a beer right now. You want and look, stereotypes come from somewhere, don't they? And we and we absolutely have had um a big uh association with alcohol. We're we're community builders, we're storytellers, we're that's who we are as a nation. But the but the drunken Irish stereotype came from a very painful history of colonization and and how our people as as completely suppressed and oppressed nation for hundreds and hundreds of years, um, that was a tag that was was put on our nation as being a tool to dehumanize us as a people and make us seem um unintelligent, rowdy, boisterous animals. And, you know, if you've read anything about immigrants in this country, there were very many uh signs for very many years that said no blacks, no dogs, no Irish. I mean, we were very much a part of that um uh brutal uh stereotype. And and so, you know, when St. Patrick's Day comes around and people start that you know leprechaun hat wearing green beer drinking ridiculousness, it it's such an offense to Irish people all over the world. We're a country that is, you know, has produced some of the greatest singers, songwriters, actors, playwrights, novelists from a tiny little country. Um, you know, our output is so extraordinary. And that it it hurts me that that gets overshadowed by this drunken culture. Um, but but for me, I grew up in an environment where alcohol was ever present from the very moment as a you know, as a young Catholic student um being being you know exposed to the altar wine. And and then my parents were very much party hosts, and we always had h parties in our house, and there was a lot of drinking. I also was exposed to serious addiction um in my close family, in my immediate family, in my extended family. So I was super aware of what what alcohol was. And on one hand, it's forbidden, right, in the Catholic Church when you're when you're young and and you're asked to pledge. We have this thing called the pledge where you pledge to not drink alcohol um until you're uh a certain age. You can be 18 or 21. And and I took that seriously, and I'd seen a lot of pain in my family around alcoholism and addiction. And I thought, I don't, I don't want this thing, this horrible thing in my life that's make that makes people sick. And um, so I committed to not drinking. I didn't make it to 21, but I made it to 20, which, of course, when you look at statistics, that's a really long age. It's a really old age to get to without ever having consumed alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

But I did it it speaks to a lot of those early experiences. There's enough there that made you worried about alcohol as much as it was all around you.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yes. And also I am uh I am absolutely someone who plays by the rules. So once I committed to not drinking, um, I was all in. So I didn't feel like I needed to excuse myself. I didn't um uh actually it's very funny, I'm only putting this together on this podcast about how I ended up removing it completely, was probably for the same reason. But but I when I drank for the first time, it was it was a horror movie. It was so bad. I went I went on vacation for the first time as a 20-year-old without my parents, overseas to a resort in in Portugal. I got having had no exposure to alcohol, drinking, drinking with all of these different friends, I was so drunk, so sick, later, many years later, realized what happened to me that night was absolutely sexual assault, but I didn't know how to like it was it was the worst introduction to alcohol a human being could have. And that I didn't wake up the next day or even a week later and say, okay, never doing that again. But I didn't. I didn't because we live in a society where it's everywhere and I wasn't aware or strong or whatever it is enough to say no to it in my life. And I rode the roller coaster relationship I had with alcohol, and it's the best way to describe it because it was a roller coaster for 30 years of drinking, not drinking, drinking, not drinking, not anywhere like my family members who were in and out of rehab and um and very sick and near death and all of those things. I was just one of those drinkers that when I started drinking, I would always, almost always drink too much. But then I would happily not drink for long periods of time. I don't drink, uh I didn't drink for Lent for my whole life, like when you give up uh during the Lenten, Catholic Lenten season. Um, I would happily not drink, didn't drink during pregnancies, didn't drink for dry January, sober Octobers, all of those things, never lost a job, never didn't turn up for work. So there was none of those big bad moments. It was just a relentless roller coaster of hangovers that that can just just got worse over the years and and and led to um now 18 months ago a decision to take a real serious look at my health. I I turned 50 and I realized that hangovers were now lasting days instead of one day. And I decided I wanted to reset. And so I gave myself, and this is the link I just made to my Catholic pledge, and I did the 75 hard challenge, which is this health and fitness challenge that went viral during um COVID, where 75 days of very, very structured working out, hydration, you have to drink a gallon of water, absolutely no alcohol, you have to read a certain portion of the day. And I did it for 75 days and realized after that how good I felt and and how healthy I felt. And I thought, oh, this is exactly what I needed. Uh it it finished, however, coming into the holiday season, um, not this one, the one before in in uh 2025. And all of my friends kept saying, We can't wait for you to be off this stupid 75 hard so you can party for the holiday season. And it filled me with anxiety and and fear because I didn't want to get back on the roller coaster and I couldn't figure out how to not get on and how to not disappoint everyone. I, you know, throughout those years of drinking, I was the party girl, last party girl standing, throw huge parties, people would plan to go out with me and know that they would be out all night. Like that's that's the vibe that that that the drinking maxine brought to the table.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

And I was gonna ask about that. Was the drinking pattern over the years and this sort of sounds like sort of a binge pattern? There were weeks, days you you won't drink. Was it all in the setting of partying, or was it was there a self medication or uh other roles that drinking would play for you?

SPEAKER_00 21:56

I absolutely, absolutely. I think it was In every aspect of my life, uh unbeknownst to me. You know, we live in a society where celebrate, you drink, mourn, you drink, and uh you got you got the role, drink, you finished a huge concert, drink. It's it was just so there. And there was definitely moments where I would feel sad or depressed, and I would think, well, of course, what do you do when you feel that? You should have a drink. Um, and so yes, it was it was in every aspect big parties, um, plenty of lone time drinking, uh, all of it. It was it was pr prevalent. It was in every aspect of my life, but never to the point where anyone would say, Oh, she's a problem drinker. And I think that's the problem, is many of us are problem drinkers, but we don't think it's a problem because everybody's doing it. And it's not until you stop doing it that you realize, ooh, wow, I can't believe that was the pattern of my life. And it's I'm so very happy to not have it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

So before the 75-day challenge, you hadn't tried to stop drinking beforehand, or you or had you not even said it was a problem for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 23:19

No, I mean, I've always I always thought, oh, you you need to drink less when I had a bad hangover. And I think many of us have said after a really bad hangover, I'm never drinking alcohol again until the next time that you do. And and so that very much happened over and over and over again. But going into 75 Heart, I had no intention of quitting alcohol. I was going into it thinking, I need a health reset, I need to recalibrate my body, I need to lose a little weight, I need to feel productive and energetic after a long summer. And and then the anxiety going into the holidays, uh, because I started feeling that and recognizing, oh my gosh, I don't, I don't want to have the pressure of of being the party girl. I don't want that right now. And so instead of addressing it in that moment, I decided to do the 75 heart again. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna double down, I'm gonna do 150 heart. And that took me through the holidays again, giving me structure and giving me what I now realize was uh an easy way to explain in society why I'm not drinking. Instead of just being able to say, I don't want to drink, I needed a reason. And it gave me a reason. But during, and it was good enough because during that second 75 hard period is when I realized I never wanted to drink again. It was a New Year's Day when I was uh on vacation with my husband and my children, and I recognized after my daughter had asked me to go watch the sunrise on New Year's Day, I realized it was the first New Year's Day in 30 years that I wasn't tired and hungover and grouchy. I watched the sunrise on a beach in Miami and I cried with joy and gratitude. And I I had it was one of those light bulb moments. It just went off in my head, and I said, This is it, this is the rest of my life. This feeling, this feeling of presence, of not poisoning myself and not putting myself in a situation where I am causing myself to feel unwell when when we age, and there's so many things coming down the pipeline as you age that you have to be uh concerned about and and um attentive to. And here I am adding to that by choice, and now done. And it was that was it, and I've never looked back. That was 18 months ago.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

It's sort of like going from lawyer to international superstar to drinker to not drinker. You did it in your own way. Yeah. You know, so many stories. Your story is almost notable for the things it's it's not, it's not a story of of rock bottom or a 12-step or going to rehab or the family intervening on you. You really, and I think this is true for a lot of folks, and it's a narrative that often is underrecognized. You've figured out in your own way how to get there in a way that felt very true to who you are.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Exactly, exactly. And that that mantra of there's always different ways to get to to your destination is is an important one because I've heard in the last year and a half so many people say, Oh, you know, I I've never had a rock bottom. I 12-step program is not right for me. And and that is preventing the the idea that that's all there is, that you've got to hit rock bottom and you've got to do this program. That's so not true because so many people have a different experience. I talk about the spectrum of alcohol all the time, from from people in my family who have been close to death and in and out of rehab for many, many decades, to my my adorable aunt who has one glass of wine a year. And then there's everybody in between. And it's where are you? You have to recognize your own place on that spectrum. And when I quit and decided to to never return to alcohol, it surprised so many people in my life. And then what surprised me was how many people wanted to talk to me about my experience. And that's what that was the catalyst for the podcast to be able to talk about not drinking. And and I met a woman in my town here in southern Vermont who had quit drinking a week before me, who's French Canadian, and we laughed about two women in their 50s who spent their lifetime drinking, who come from these cultures where where drinking is such a part of our identities. And to be able to just walk away from it and tell our stories and the ups and downs of walking away from it, because you know, it's not a walk in the park when you suddenly remove something that was so present in every single aspect of your life and you take it away, there's a void, there's there's there's relationships that get lost, that change. And so we decided to to start a podcast to talk about it. And we are not wellness gurus, we are not psychiatrists, we are not, we are entertainers and and we want to inspire people uh in a way that allows them to hear our success and and our and and and our traumatic experiences too, but to be able to look at it and think, wow, I that I could do that maybe. And and if you want to, then you know, the whole sober curious space is is growing and growing and growing. And we speak very specifically to women who are at a point in their lives where they're can they're focused on health, they're focused on the next chapter. You know, when my mother was 50, it was the beginning of the end for her. You know, that's how that's how that generation, certainly in in my mother's life, thought about it. And now I think about 50 is the beginning of, I don't know, maybe the best chapter of your life. I've never felt better. I've never felt clearer about who I am as a woman, as a mother, as an artist, and having to having the ability to remove anything that clouds my judgment or dampens my enthusiasm or my productivity is a gift I gave myself. And um being able to even inspire one other person to make that choice for themselves is uh is important to me.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

I'm I'm sure you have and and you will. And the podcast is it's you guys are happy AF, you're joyful in the title, you're funny AF. It's a it's a it's a it's a great podcast to hear hear about your journey. And it sounds like, but correct me if I'm wrong, that uh everything feels better on the other side. You just listed all of them. It's it's um your family relationships, physically, mentally, and even creatively, you feel it you haven't lost too much for quitting drinking, or is there felt or has it felt like there's things you've lost along the way?

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Uh I I mean, certainly there are I always I talk often on the podcast about the the first year, the first year of removing alcohol for your life where you have to do things for the first time or for the first time again. We've all had sober birthdays until we drank, but it the the getting through that year and being able to stop and look back and the the FOMO absolutely is real, you know. When you see your friends and and my co-host uh Isabel talks about that the sadness of not being invited to something because people say, Oh, she doesn't drink because there's no point in inviting her to this. That that's gonna happen, right? But what really happened for me was a clarification of the most important friendships, the most important relationships. And the relationships that were based in in binge drinking, they fell away. It's it, you know. I like to compare it to if you take up or or drop a sport, you're not hanging out with your tennis friends if you don't play tennis anymore. And and and that's okay. So it is a loss in some ways, but the gain, I certainly have lost nothing creativity, create create creatively. Um, I I gained more clarity and more range in my voice, which I didn't think was possible. I um that the I work in an industry where absolutely alcohol, you know, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, it's it's it's intrinsically linked that you're you get high and drunk and you write an amazing song. That's absolutely not true. Um you're you're you're just dampening things. So I I have gained stability in my weight. I have gained, I was a yo-yo uh dieter my whole life as well, which was absolutely linked to drinking, because when you're hungover, you just eat all the wrong foods to make you feel better. Um my weight stabilized, my my clarity, my anxiety just was almost completely removed over the course of a year. We still have anxiety because look at the world we live in. But but and I talk about it on a micro versus a macro level, the micro anxiety around who I am and how I live my life just went away. Um, a lot of my symptoms in as as a woman with body changes disappeared. Um the the the benefits it it they've just been so enormous. Um, and and again, that's the message I want I want to spread is that if you don't give yourself enough time to experience it, you'll never know. And and I love dry Januaries and sober Octobers, but it's not enough time. It's not enough time for you to truly feel the benefits of removing this toxin from your life. And after a year, uh there was, I mean, I I just from from for every month that goes by, I am more committed to it. Uh, but the first year is is uh big commitment to get through.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Right. But it's you know, I've never met someone at the end of their life that says, you know, I really wish I drank more. And and to to take this time off, but to really take it off, I think is a is a great take-home point because you're right, neurobiologically and physically, 30 days isn't enough to get that total reset to understand how you'll feel. And then the other big take-home is do it your own way. Like you don't have to do it in any way that's prescribed to you. There's some wisdom just in your own story about how you might be able to do it now. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Yeah, I that's I think that's a big message. Someone at at a party the other day, a friend of mine who I've known for many years, and he works in hospitality and is has been a a wine connoisseur and a wine buyer, and like it's z it's in his job, it's in everything. And he said to me, Do I congratulate you on your sobriety? And I said, Yes, you you can, absolutely. It's worthy of congratulations because I'm really happy and feeling very successful in this journey. And he looked at me with a mix of anxiety and fear and was so honest. And he said, I really want to try, but I don't know how. And that that many, many people have that in the back of their mind. And my aunt, who who um another one of my family members who quit drinking, I don't know, maybe more than a decade ago, she said that the the litmus test is very simple. If you ask yourself, should I be drinking less? the answer is yes. If you've even had to ask the question, and when I look back now, I think how often I said to myself, oh gosh, should I be drinking this much? Maybe I should be drinking less. Then the answer is yes. But then find how you're going to do it. And for me, it was just giving myself 75 days. And and whatever the amount of time is, give yourself a like a good chunk of it. And there's an amazing program out there called One Year No Beer, and those guys are fantastic. There's many programs that can help you it figure out a structure. If you need a structure, you need a goal, and then see how you feel and reassess. Uh, as long as it's progress. The other thing we have now that my parents' generation didn't have is the abundance of information that is available to you about why this is not something you should have in your life. And then there's the abundance of alternatives. We we don't live in a world anymore where if you don't drink alcohol, you have to drink orange juice or diet coke. I mean, it's exploding. And in in the last six months since the podcast started, I have met so many founders of organizations of these alternatives to wine, to gin, to whatever it is you want, um, and nootropics and it's uh functional beverages. There are so many alternatives, and I think that's that's been a big help, certainly for me as someone who loves a beautiful glass with a nice beverage in it at the end of the day, or to celebrate. And now you can do all of those things um with without it being alcohol in your glass.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Well, Maxine, you are an inspiration for too many. And I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and to share your story. And and everyone should tune in to Happy AF, Joyfully Living Alcohol Free. It's a it's a great podcast, and you're a great person. I appreciate you taking the time to share your story with me today.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Thank you. What a pleasure to chat with you, and thanks for having me. And I hope our paths will cross again soon.

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Thanks for listening to the Thriving with Addiction podcast. If you found today's episode helpful, please follow and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast and share it with someone who might benefit. You can also connect with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, or visit thrivingwithaddiction.com to learn more. Stay tuned for next week's episode and remember Thriving is possible.