My heart hurts. 💔 It’s an agonizing feeling that is so familiar, yet still so uncomfortable. It comes from loss of connection with another person- usually romantic, but also friendship, or loss through death. This feeling has followed me from youth. When I was 11 years old, my family moved from Texas to South Carolina, …
Diary of a Dry Drunk
HOPE IS HERE. Prayers do get answered. If you need hope that you can recover – please read my “Diary of a Dry Drunk” below, written in 2008 at almost 10 years sober. It is sad and unsettling for me to read how I was suffering and in self-pity that I couldn’t see. I was …
Last Chance
It was my senior year of high school, two Thursdays before Thanksgiving. I was slouched in the rear bucket seat of my mother’s red Camaro, headed to my second rehab in two months. Nine hours and an entire pack of cigarettes got me to Nashville, to Last Chance. I had just finished thirty days in …
What’s Different This Time?
Lately I've been talking with people about their primary addiction - the one that precedes alcohol or drugs. Of course, in my work with helping people overcome sugar and food addiction, I have heard many say food is primary. But it wasn't food for me. It was boys. At five years old, I was called …
A Twist on “One Year, No Beer”
1 YEAR NO SUGAR, 20 YEARS NO CIGARETTES This month marks 20 years no smokes, and 1 year no sugar for me🤩 My foto was taken last weekend and shows how I feel living in freedom🎉 I've had numerous substitutes for beer since I gave it up in 1999 at 22 years old. Cigarettes, though …
TINDER DATE Part 2 – The rest of the story
6 months ago I met a guy from Tinder who gave me some back-handed compliments about my looks and my age. (See Tinder Part 1 here - https://nataliemspeakman.com/2021/07/29/tinder-date/) As a result, I made a declaration to embrace myself as a 44-year-old woman. I shared an authentic-not-airbrushed selfie. (See above.) I got a lot of wonderful …
Continue reading "TINDER DATE Part 2 – The rest of the story"
Digital Detox
I'm taking a few days away from screens. Here's why. I had a moment of clarity last week when I tried to read a book. A book I'm really interested in, that when I saw it on my friend's shelf, I immediately got it down from the shelf and wanted to start it. I sat …
Tinder Date
Last night I went on a Tinder date with someone a lot younger than me. He said the following things:"I bet you were pretty 20 years ago." "You look good, for your age." "You look the same now, except for the wrinkles" - when I showed him a photo of me 20 years ago. Ouch …
This is 45.
Up until a few months ago, I was ashamed of my age. I never wanted to tell people how old I was. I worried and wondered if people could guess that I was in my 40s by looking at me. I hoped that I looked younger. Then in February I went on a Tinder date …
The Power of Secrets and Lies
July 15, 1998, is twenty-three years ago today. Almost half my life has gone by since then. Still, I remember it every year. Here’s why. In late 1997 when I was twenty-one, I hatched a cowardly suicide scheme. I was too afraid to take direct action to kill myself, so I came up with an …