Ever wonder if you can actually have fun traveling without drinking your way through every destination?

Teresa Bergen joins Dr. Sarah Michaud to share her incredible journey from drinking rubbing alcohol as a child to becoming a sober travel expert who's kayaked through Arctic icebergs and rafted the Grand Canyon. With over 40 years of sobriety starting at age 20, Teresa breaks down the real talk on navigating airports, resorts, and adventures without liquid courage. From avoiding wine country with your drinking buddies to finding your tribe of fellow adventurers, this conversation reveals how sobriety opens doors to experiences you never imagined possible.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Start with group trips and guided activities when beginning sober travel to avoid logistics overwhelm
• Choose destinations based on your genuine interests, not what others expect you to enjoy
• Bring accountability support and maintain your healthy habits while traveling
• You don't have to be perfect at new activities to enjoy incredible experiences
• Sometimes the best adventures happen when you step outside your comfort zone (but keep the hotel room)

NOTABLE QUOTE

"You don't have to be good at all of them. I'm not saying that all these things I'm really great at, like when I'm kayaking in every state, it's not like I'm kayaking 50 miles out of the wild by myself. It's like I'm renting a kayak and paddling around for an hour or two and looking at birds." — Teresa Bergen

GUEST BIO

Teresa Bergen is author of The Sober Travel Handbook and a writer for Sober Curator Online magazine. With over 40 years of sobriety beginning at age 20, she's turned her passion for adventure into a mission to help others discover the world without alcohol. Teresa is currently on a quest to kayak in every US state and Canadian province while sharing practical tips for sober travelers worldwide.

Leaving CrazyTown is a raw, real-talk podcast hosted by Finn and Dr. Sarah Michaud, two recovering addicts turned relatable guides on the wild ride of codependency healing. With a unique blend of humor, honesty, and clinical insight, this show tackles the chaos of dysfunctional relationships, identity loss, and boundary disasters — while offering practical tools, powerful storytelling, and a roadmap for emotional freedom. Weekly episodes on YouTube (@leavingcrazytown) and all major podcast platforms.

Do you realize you're still carrying grief from 20 years ago?

Sarah, Amy Liz Harrison, and Erin Lane break down The Grief Recovery Handbook by John James and Russell Friedman in this vulnerable Boozeless Book Club episode. They explore how unresolved grief shows up in codependency patterns, relationship addiction, people-pleasing, and chronic activation. From childhood friendship losses to miscarriage to sexual assault to empty nest, the Crazy Cats share what happened when they actually wrote completion letters and made their grief timelines. This episode is for anyone who thought they didn't have anything to grieve or has been white-knuckling their way through loss for decades.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Grief isn't just about death. It includes job loss, friendship shifts, miscarriage, divorce, empty nest, career changes, and even losing who you thought you were.
• The Grief Recovery Handbook recommends creating a timeline of losses from birth to now, then writing completion letters that include positives, negatives, emotional impact statements, and unsaid things.
• Unresolved grief can show up as depression, addiction, relationship addiction, compulsive busyness, fear of intimacy, detachment, physical problems, and a general lack of aliveness.
• Women especially carry unprocessed grief from childhood friendship losses, which can activate us when our own kids experience rejection or exclusion.
• Completing grief doesn't mean forgetting. It means creating space for new life without being haunted by old pain.

GUEST BIOS

Amy Liz Harrison is a writer, speaker, and recovery advocate. Mother of eight, she brings honesty and humor to conversations about faith, family, and healing.

Erin Lane is a writer and storyteller navigating grief, motherhood, and recovery with vulnerability and grace.

RESOURCES & LINKS

The Grief Recovery Handbook by John James and Russell Friedman

Notable Quote

"We pathologize grief. We don't make space for this normal process. All human beings experience it, yet there's no space for it." — Sarah

Connect With Us

Dr. Sarah Michaud, Author of Co Crazy

Follow @leavingcrazytown on YouTube

Website: https://drsarahmichaud.com

If you loved this conversation, subscribe, rate, and review Leaving CrazyTown.

Hosted by Finn and Dr. Sarah Michaud. Codependency healing with humor, honesty, and hope. Subscribe and buckle up.

For educational and entertainment purposes only. Not a substitute for professional mental health treatment.

In this episode, Sarah shares how the death of her 20-year-old goldfish Joe triggered a full codependency relapse as she obsessed over whether his tank mate Jeff was lonely. Finn and Sarah dive into how we project our own unprocessed feelings onto others including our pets and create suffering where none exists.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Codependency involves obsessive thinking about others similar to how addiction involves obsessive thinking about substances

• We often project our own unmet emotional needs onto others including pets and make up stories about what they need

• The question to ask yourself when you start obsessing is what am I feeling right now and what story am I making up

• Our codependent behaviors usually start with our own unprocessed emotions not the other person's actual needs

• Projection can happen with anyone in our lives from romantic partners to children to pets

NOTABLE QUOTE

"The thing why codependency is awful is it doesn't work for either person. All it does is affect the relationship and it kills us. We go down the tubes with them." — Dr. Sarah Michaud

Connect With Us

Website: https://drsarahmichaud.com

Buy the Book: Co-Crazy

If you loved this conversation, subscribe, rate, and review Leaving CrazyTown.

Hosted by Finn and Dr. Sarah Michaud. Codependency healing with humor, honesty, and hope. Subscribe and buckle up.

For educational and entertainment purposes only. Not a substitute for professional mental health treatment.