Ep 192. From “Certified Insane” to 32 Years of Recovery, with Suzi Raleigh

My guest this week is Suzi Raleigh, a recovery advocate and budding author who is now 32 years sober. Suzi started drinking at 13, was misdiagnosed for years with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and survived multiple psychiatric hospitalisations and several near death experiences before her father encouraged her to try 12 Step Recovery in 1993. She has not had a drink since.

In this conversation, Suzi shares what it was like to live with a loneliness she calls the ache, the moment her drinking finally stopped being explained away by mental illness, and how discovering codependency twelve years into sobriety changed the entire trajectory of her recovery. She and Ash explore what it really means to be a recovering rescuer, the boundaries work that continues decades in, and the unique approach Suzi now teaches through her upcoming book, naming, taming and nurturing the different inner personalities that drive addiction and codependency. It is a warm, funny and wise conversation about what it looks like to keep growing long after the drinking stops.

Episode chapters:

00:00 Introducing Suzi Raleigh

06:09 The Photo: Hiding Behind the Smile

07:25 Growing Up in a Pub and the First Drink at Thirteen

10:19 The Ache: Naming the Loneliness Underneath

12:04 The First Hospitalisation and Years of Misdiagnosis

23:04 Her Father's Suggestion and the First AA Meeting

25:01 What the First Twelve Months of Sobriety Looked Like

27:06 Becoming a Recovering Rescuer

28:48 Discovering Codependency at Twelve Years Sober