Ep. 35 - What Is Missing In Life Being a Functional Alcoholic

What does it look like when someone spends decades performing function while quietly falling apart on the inside?Brad Walsh grew up in a small Illinois town where drinking was woven into every family occasion, and by sixth grade he was already the ringleader with a box of liquor and a habit of filling bottles back up with water. What followed was decades of being the life of every party and the loneliest person in the room. Ski weekends, bartending shifts, a short marriage, OWIs, a boot camp in Montana, a stint at ASU, and a seizure in the middle of a trade show floor in Chicago. Through all of it, Brad held onto one identity above everything else: functional alcoholic. He could do the work, ace the class, show up. He just couldn't slow down long enough to ask himself why he was running so fast.The intervention that eventually changed things didn't feel like a turning point. It felt like a trap. Brad walked into what he thought was a workday and found his parents, his sisters, a close friend, and a stranger all waiting for him around a conference table. He was furious. He left. He came back a week later, not because he was ready, but because the one thing he couldn't afford to lose was his job. What Pam and her team had set in motion became the thread he followed, even when he didn't believe in it yet.Five years of weekly family coaching calls, treatment at Hazelden's Center City campus, a daily checklist that starts with prayer and ends with Spanish study, and a retreat in Costa Rica that turned into a permanent life. Brad is now engaged, expecting his first child, and living somewhere quieter and truer than he ever imagined reaching.Some people have to go through all of it before they can finally stop running from themselves.Contact Pam Feinberg-Rivkin:Facebook: @FeinbergCareInstagram: @FeinbergCareLinkedIn: Feinberg Consulting IncYouTube: @FeinbergConsulting8059