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Episode 1 | Jo Hartley — The Episode That Started It All: 10 Years Sober, Hiding Bottles in the Washing Machine & The BBQ That Changed Everything
This is where After Hours began. Recorded in a cafe in Douglas, Isle of Man, with plates clattering in the background and borrowed equipment, Jimmy sat down with Jo — his first friend in sobriety, the woman who was five years sober when he was on day zero — and just had a chat.
Jo’s story starts in the mid-80s, a shy teenager who discovered alcohol gave her confidence and never really stopped chasing that feeling. Through university in Leeds and a year abroad in Milan — where she discovered that cartons of wine flush flat and are easy to dispose of — the secretive behaviours that she now recognises as problematic were already taking hold. Hiding. Buying in bulk. Never quite feeling like the drinking was the issue.
By her early 20s she was drinking every day, working in an off-licence, and doing a month off just to prove to herself she didn’t have a problem. The month off worked perfectly. It became her green light to carry on for years.
A move to the Isle of Man for love, a banking career, a small flat with limited hiding places — and then a house with a washing machine her husband has never opened in 25 years, a freezer he never raids, and a separate kitchen where nobody could check on her. The addiction found its spaces.
The wake-up call came at 28 — a barbecue, a sunny day, and a decision to slow down and pace herself. She looked up at the blue sky and heard nothing else. She had a seizure. Coming round on the ground, she could hear the paramedics asking “Is she an alcoholic? Is she an alcoholic?” and her friends saying “of course not.” Inside her head, Jo screamed “of course I am.” She went to hospital, detoxed, had hallucinations. The consultant cleared her liver results three months later and told her to stick to NHS guidelines. She walked out furious.
Years of attempts followed. Relapses, home detoxes administered by her husband, five or six medically-assisted detoxes in total. Eventually she found SMART Recovery at Motivate on the Isle of Man — terrified of walking in, convinced she’d see someone she knew. It took a year of going, learning, and relapsing to find her last drink: locked in a hotel room in Benidorm on a yoga retreat, her friend breaking the door down to find bottles hidden in every cupboard.
That was 10 years ago. Jo is now a recovery support worker at Motivate — sitting on the other side of the desk in the same SMART meetings she once attended in fear, helping people who are exactly where she once was.
This is Episode 1. This is where it all started. And it might just be the most important one to listen to.
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My Instagram is:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy
And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle
Buy me a coffee…
https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt
Alcohol Explained - William Porter
https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB
This Naked Mind - Annie Grace
https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z
A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
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Donate:
https://motiv8.im/donate/
https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/
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