Episode 93 | Melissa Cheriegate: I Was an Extra in My Own Life

What happens when you spend so long living for everyone else that you forget who you are?

This week on After Hours with Jimmy Thistle, I'm joined by Melissa Cheriegate, artist and creator of the Whoever You Artpodcast, for an honest conversation about addiction, identity and finding your way back to yourself.

From the fashion world and its party culture to marriage, motherhood and life across several countries, Melissa's journey took a devastating turn following the death of her father.

As her drinking spiralled, alcohol became something she needed just to function. Two stays in rehab, relapse and some frightening moments followed before she finally found her own reasons to stop.

We talk about grief, motherhood, ADHD, shame, the dangers of wine culture and the surprising role that art, creativity and podcasting have played in her recovery.

But at the heart of Melissa's story is something bigger than alcohol: learning to stop being an extra in your own life and finally becoming the person who gets to write the story.

An honest, moving conversation about second chances, self-worth and discovering that it's never too late to begin again.

Find Melissa: Instagram @whoeveryouart.podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/033U09Igdg96MTQw9UxMcd?si=02b0f326b3934471

https://www.youtube.com/@whoeveryouart

Find Jimmy: @thesoberthistle

Coaching: thistlefreedomcoaching.com

Choose tomorrow. Stay sober today. 🧡

Enjoyed After Hours? Follow, review and share the podcast!

Instagram: @thesoberthistle

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Books:

Alcohol Explained: https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind: https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces: https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

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EPISODE 92 | SOPHIE HYDE

"I Could Stop at Two Glasses of Wine. But All I Thought About Was the Next One."

What happens when you're the life and soul of the party, but behind the scenes you're absolutely miserable?

This week on After Hours with Jimmy Thistle, I'm joined by Sophie Hyde, the former party girl who's discovered she can still dance, celebrate and enjoy life without alcohol.

Sophie talks openly about her drinking at university, the mental exhaustion of trying to moderate, and the three friends who helped her take her first proper break from booze.

We get into sober weddings, navigating marriage when your partner still drinks, the pressure to be the fun one, and why changing jobs wasn't enough to make Sophie happy.

We also talk about the moment she realised she didn't need to hit some catastrophic rock bottom before making a change.

And there's a special connection to next week's guest, Millie Gooch, whose podcast and book helped Sophie begin questioning her drinking.

If you've ever spent an evening thinking more about your next drink than the conversation in front of you, this episode is for you.

Find Sophie: Instagram @sophiesoberglows

Find Jimmy: Instagram @recovery_jimmy

Enjoyed After Hours? Follow, review and share the podcast!

Instagram: @thesoberthistle

Coaching: https://thistlefreedomcoaching.com

Support: https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Books:

Alcohol Explained: https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind: https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces: https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:

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https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/

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Jonny Crawford joined the RAF at nineteen looking for discipline. What he got was twelve years of what he calls the fittest alcoholics in the world.

In this episode he pulls the curtain back on a drinking culture most people never see. The beer calls that weren't compulsory but absolutely were, because if you didn't turn up you got the worst jobs the next day. The cocaine syndicates. Lads sweating it out in the sauna on a Friday and pulling a sickie on a Monday to dodge the drugs test. Mates binning eleven-year careers over one night at a festival. And the old flight sergeants living vicariously through the young lads the morning after.

It ended on a back road in Cyprus. Jonny got behind the wheel blind drunk, two of his mates in the car, doing 80 miles an hour on his way to the next pub. The car left the road and slid between two trees that would have killed him outright, and into the bushes. All three of them walked out without a scratch. The first car down that empty road turned out to be a pal from boxing. And Jonny asked him for a lift to the pub, and the party ran until the next day.

He should have woken up destroyed. Instead he woke up loved. He calls it his first encounter with the Holy Spirit, and the 18th of September 2022 was the last time he touched a drink.

Jonny talks honestly about what came next: ordering a Bible he couldn't understand, locking his door at weekends and watching sobriety videos with headphones in while the old crowd knocked, and the people back in Scotland asking his mum whether he'd had a breakdown. As he puts it, when he was sniffing coke and wrecking his life, it was "that's just Johnny Boy." When he got sober and found faith, he'd lost the plot.

He and Jimmy get into the identity question too, and don't entirely agree. Jonny won't let the men he works with call themselves addicts. Jimmy makes the case for what the fellowship gave him and what he had to leave behind.

Plus: what men really hide from their families, why alcohol is the gateway, and the morning journal that changed everything.

One word for life now? Clarity.

You can find Jonny on Instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/jonnycrawfordmentor/

Project Knight:

https://jonnycrawford.unforged.me/links/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAaftTeFdIKdJC5U-Q26FI9ETXa6aDQRj84oCFfkZOPk0E6gVUQi4NfUr0YOj9w_aem_tHU4KJuvMX8EfFf1A5VkIg

My Instagram is:

https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…

https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter

https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace

https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:

https://motiv8.im/donate/

https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.