noticing in one of those photos was a
picture of this book that's probably
because the freshly published author
Tracy Collins our good friend we call
her Tracy calm is a new author as I
mentioned mark good I'm glad you're
joining us Tracy so you're involved in
this
I am I talked about I will be reading at
Jacksonville magazine at 3:30 4:30 and
5:30 so come by and say hello and yeah
I'll be reading from the book and the
book being the one I just held up
because we read the magazine Tracy is an
author congratulations we know you've
been working on this a long time
stumbling into sobriety not a fiction
work yep it's the true story and
actually even makes an appearance in
like the first page I believe so
bringing it home to my family Yeah right
so tell everybody your story okay so my
dad called me last year and he talked to
me about the fact that he thought I had
a drinking problem and I had been aware
of it for a while so I thought oh
somebody else knows and ten days later
not to be a spoiler alert but my father
passes away so that's probably what
caused me to really take it serious and
so from there I wound up coming clean
with my family I went to treatment at
the Greenfield Center and ten weeks
later looked like a completely different
human being now the majority of my
friends including you Eden did not know
what was going on behind closed doors
because like I I like to say with enough
hairspray and makeup I was able to cover
it up really well and you know I I do
want to because we are here on your show
I do want to tell everyone in the
audience that even that you see on TV is
the Eden in real life and you would pick
up the phone every single time I called
probably not even realizing that I was
in the darkest days before the DAAD but
I appreciate you so much for doing that
because alcoholics need people to stand
by them as friends but they also need
tough love so this you'll hear stories
about where people got tough with me
you'll hear stories about my aha moments
after getting sober one of the reasons I
decided to write the book was because I
did not know what sobriety looked like
and that fear of not knowing what was
waiting for me on the other side that
fear of you know am I gonna be a boring
person I would meet people who are sober
and they would say oh my gosh I love
being sober and I'm like really though
really how hard was it for you to put
that on a on paper and then acknowledge
like this is the reality of my life well
I worked with an editor who stayed on my
behind the entire year it took me to
write it and this book would have not
got gotten done without her for a couple
of reasons honestly I got sick of myself
by the time the book was done and so you
know she stayed on me like I would I
I almost confided in her on a daily
basis about things that were going on
and she would say you need to write that
down this is going to be a good story
and Linscott Carlin is my editor and she
is well-known in the community and she
also is somebody who recovered from
alcoholism 20-some years ago so she not
only understood the content but she
understood the mentality of it and
Teresa I think this would help out
people too because you are no pun
intended an open book when you're with
us and you talk about yeah so and I feel
like that's gonna come through in this
and help other people was that part of
the reason behind the motivation to do
this it really was it's always been my
motivation that's why I only do happy
news with you guys it's always about
helping local nonprofits local
businesses and in in helping people so
when it came to this it was my sister
who actually said well why don't you
just continue that path and help people
through your story and so it really was
about squashing the stigma and stomping
the shame because alcoholism is like
having a peanut allergy or breast cancer
you know if you had one of those things
would you hide in silence behind closed
doors no you would go to a doctor the
best doctor you could find and say
please cure me
well this is the same thing there's no
shame in that alcohol metabolizes
different in my system than it does in
anyone else at this table so when it
goes into my system my brain
automatically goes more and more and
more and more more where most people go
that was a lovely glass of wine to pair
with my meal that's all I'm gonna have
tonight I cannot do that it does not
work that way and there's no shame in
that I was just born this way so I got
help and I want to help others so here's
the book it's stumbling into sobriety
and the things I learned on the way back
up thank you for what you were saying
earlier right there were times when I
had no idea what you were going through
and when you came out of it I think
everybody thought okay is Tracy gonna
still be the same bubbly out-there girl
that she always has been and true to
form you have been even sober and I'd
say to that we have a silent auction go
to stumbling into sobriety org and
Maggiano's is providing a lunch for one
of the items eating Kendall and her
morning crew at Gator country are
providing a breakfast for one of their
fans just a whole lot of really cool
things that you can bid on and it helps
my nonprofit the crushed-velvet project
foundation which is an alcohol awareness
and education campaign so that's what we
use our money for us to get the word out
stumbling into sobriety dot-org Thank
You Tracy we love you so much we'll be
right back
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