Not My Baggage Podcast

This is my baggage… the chaos I lived through, the chaos I caused, and the fallout that shaped me. I didn’t put this episode on hold, because it’s time. Time to reclaim my voice, take back the narrative, and drop the shame once and for all. This story is mine now. Byron sits with me as I unpack the decisions I made early in my marriage, the bridges I burned, the secrets I kept, the money I borrowe...

In Episode Four, my separation lawyer breaks down the legal side of loving an addict, the part nobody tells you until you are in an office hearing, “Yes, you would be liable if he crashed a car high.” Marc explains what the law looks like when addiction enters a relationship: the risks, the exposure, the fine print, and the questions every spouse needs to ask before the next crisis. It is blunt, e...

In Episode Three, we sit down with a woman still in the trenches, married to an addict, raising kids, paying bills, and stepping around emotional landmines every day. BethAnn’s story is not polished or past tense. It is happening right now. We talk about surviving love when it is complicated, holding a family together with duct tape, and why being called “so strong” feels more insulting than inspi...

In Episode Two, we bring in Dr. Audrey, the therapist who specializes in addiction, families, and the emotional triage required when you love someone living in a tornado. She breaks down why addiction turns every family member into an unwilling first responder, why we tolerate the intolerable, and why “just leave” is the most useless advice imaginable. With equal parts clinical truth and dark humo...

 Welcome to Episode One, where we unzip the first bag and immediately wish we had not. This is ground zero, the messy, complicated, darkly hilarious beginning of Not My Baggage. We go back to the marriage, the mayhem, the spectacular mistakes, and the moment I realized loving an addict had turned my life into a full-time crisis management job with no salary, no benefits, and no training. This is t...