In this deeply personal episode, Monica joins us from Chicago to share her lived experience of long-term sobriety through secular recovery. Speaking candidly as a dual-diagnosed atheist, Monica reflects on more than a decade of struggle with alcoholism, drug-resistant bipolar depression, anxiety, repeated relapses, homelessness, and a near-fatal crisis that became a turning point in her life.

She traces her journey from years of trying to make traditional recovery models work, through discovering the world of secular recovery during the COVID era, and ultimately building a sustainable, life-saving path that works for her. Monica speaks openly about Intensive Outpatient Programs, electroconvulsive therapy, alternative 12-step approaches, SMART Recovery, Recovery Dharma, atheist and agnostic AA spaces, and the importance of choice in recovery.

This episode is also about connection. Monica shares how service, volunteering, community, and staying out of isolation have been essential to maintaining her sobriety. She offers thoughtful encouragement to newcomers, people who have relapsed, and those who are sober-curious, reminding us that recovery is not one-size-fits-all and that showing up matters more than perfection.

A powerful, compassionate conversation about persistence, honesty, secular support, and why it’s never too late to find what finally sticks.