Sober, Seen, and Ready for Takeoff

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Hello, and welcome to the Call Her Cat podcast, the show where we talk about addiction, recovery,

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and breaking those generational cycles. I'm your host, Cat York. This is where we get

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real about the messy, complex, and sometimes absurd truth of what it means to heal. If

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you're working to redefine your story, searching for a connection that actually gets it, or

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just need to know you're not the only one who needs a spreadsheet to manage your feelings,

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you've come to the right place. My mission is to hold space for the raw, honest, and direct

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stories of people who have walked this path, including mine. We dive into the generational

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trauma, the personal battles, and the profound lessons we've learned along the way. Sometimes

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we laugh, sometimes we cry, and sometimes we realize we just spent 10 minutes talking about

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our newest fancy coffee obsession. It's all part of the process. Today, we're joined by Pat Schultz.

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Pat Schultz is the founder of Ready for Takeoff, the number four, an international speaker,

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best-selling author, and coach who helps women over 40 transform fear into courageous action.

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Blending neuroscience and real-life experience, Pat reveals how the brain's fear systems can

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either limit or launch our dreams. She is a contributing author to The Rise of Her

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Anthology, a powerful collection of women's reinvention stories that celebrate courage,

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visibility, and second acts. Through speaking, writing, and coaching, Pat empowers women to

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rewire limiting beliefs, embrace reinvention, and design their next chapter with confidence, clarity,

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and bold possibility. To connect more with Pat, please visit her at I'm Ready, the number four,

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takeoff.com, her LinkedIn profile, which I'll leave in the show notes, as well as a link to

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The Rise of Her, where you can read Pat's story. And just a quick note before we get started,

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this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The content

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and discussions are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis,

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treatment, or therapy. Please always consult with a qualified health professional with any questions

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about your individual health. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please seek immediate

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professional help. And with that, I would like to welcome Pat. Thank you so much. I'm happy to be

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here. Thank you. And I'm going to add something to your disclaimer, and my disclaimer is, you know,

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we're going to be talking about addiction and mental health issues, and you know, everybody's

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story is different. And I don't mean to make light of anyone's situation. You know, my situation may

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not be as bad as someone else's, and I want to recognize that up front. Thank you for that. I

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think that's important, because everybody's journey is different, and it's all valid,

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and it's all, it all matters. And would you like to start telling us a little bit about you

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and your journey? I'd be happy to, and I'm going to share that I really thought long and hard

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about sharing my story in the anthology, The Rise of Her. I've shared my story.

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I never included the mental health issues, the addiction issues, and I thought, do I really want

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to disclose that to the world? And of course, it's that stigma that's attached to addiction

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and mental health issues, and I felt that now was the time. I felt courageous enough to let people

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know, and I think as we share this, it makes it okay for other people. But I did have some

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trepidation in sharing my story, and it really goes back to when I graduated from college, which

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is when I first started feeling depressed, and I wanted to drop out of college my senior year.

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Now, back then, mental health issues were really taboo. If you think they're taboo now, they were

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really taboo back then, and there wasn't the variety of drugs on the market, especially for people

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in their high teens or early 20s, and so there weren't a lot of options, but regardless of the

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lack of options or the scarcity of options, nobody talked about it. Nobody tried to give me any help.

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It was just, you know, well, pull yourself up, graduate, go out and get a job, and of course, that's what I did.

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And your story was unique in the sense that a lot of what you hear sometimes, people being

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over-medicated, and your story was one where you either couldn't, doctors couldn't work with you

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to find the right combination, or from what I heard, was you were actually under-medicated.

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Is that correct? That is correct. So what happened is I just bumbled through life

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for about a decade, and when I was out on my own, I went to the doctor and talked about my depression,

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and that was the beginning of this journey from doctor to doctor, medication to medication.

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I always talked to my general practitioner, and I believe they were hesitant to prescribe anything

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with a higher dose than perhaps just the, well, let's try this and see if this helps,

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and I tried everything on the market over that decade, and nothing worked. Nothing worked,

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and I discovered decades later that the reason none of those worked was that the dosage was so

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small, because again, it wasn't their field of expertise, and nobody suggested that perhaps I

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should see a psychiatrist who specialized in depression. I just kept going to my GP,

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explaining how I felt, even going to therapists, explaining how I felt, and no one suggested,

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well, maybe you really need to see a psychiatrist who would be able to help you with the medication,

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so I sort of gave up on the medication because it just wasn't doing anything, and the reason

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was that the dosages were so, so small, and I imagine back when you were seeking help from

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your GP, there was still, like you said, that stigma that I wonder if it carried over into

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the medical practice, because only for people who have severe mental illness,

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not that depression can't be severe, but those who are maybe in psychosis or something,

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and so I wonder if maybe they didn't take you seriously enough. Would you say sometimes you

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didn't feel heard when you were talking? Absolutely. I don't think there was an

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appreciation as to the extent that it was impacting my life, and on the surface,

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I may have looked like I had it all together. I had a nice job. I was functioning. I was taking

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care of my son, and so people look at you, and they think, well, if you were really,

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really depressed, you wouldn't be able to do these things. Now, there were times where it

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was very difficult to get out of bed, and in that particular instance, it was really my son

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who saved me because he was young, and I had to get out of bed to take care of him, get him up,

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get him to school, take care of his needs, and I am aware that some people who are so depressed

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cannot do that. For me, I was able to use that as the motivation to drag myself out of bed,

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but yes, on the surface, I looked like I was functioning, and perhaps I didn't know how to

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explain how much it was impacting my life, but it was, especially the quality of life. I was

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surviving. I was functioning. There was really no quality of life, and I think that's an important

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distinction. You're not just, you don't, you were, you were really, it was taking all you had to get

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through most days to be a mother, to work, to be a wife, and so at the end of the day, you were not

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only doing all those things, but battling severe depression, and so where did, where did alcohol

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come in for you as? So, like many people, I tried to self-medicate. The medication, the prescriptions

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weren't working, and I discovered that alcohol actually made me feel better, and of course, that's the

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the illusion of alcohol. You know, you, you think it's making you feel better, and it may for a very

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short period of time, but it really makes it worse for you, and then, of course, you drink more

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to make yourself feel better, and you do for a little while, and then you feel worse, and it's

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just this vicious circle where you're drinking more and more because you're feeling worse and worse,

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and my understanding is there is a lot of comorbidity, people who have addictions,

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and who have mental health issues because it is a way to

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self-medicate, make yourself feel better for a short period of time, and that's what I was doing.

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I was self-medicating myself, and the alcohol seemed to do the trick until it didn't, and you'll

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probably hear that in many rooms of AA, that the alcohol worked until it didn't. Yeah, it can have a,

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it can make you feel good, and there's this awful rebound effect.

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It's a temporary relief from debilitating symptoms that depression can bring, or anxiety, but then

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what one drink did, you now need six to do. That is correct, and so the one glass of wine turns

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into two glasses of wine, do a half a bottle, a bottle, or more, and it just keeps going,

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and it's a downward spiral, and it really wasn't until I saw a psychiatrist

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that I was able to do something about my drinking.

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How was that moment for you when you met with a psychiatrist, and he or she was like,

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you're just not on the right dose at all.

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I can picture this scenario, so I moved from Florida back to Ohio with my son after my divorce,

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and I went to the family doctor, the doctor my mother and my sisters were going to.

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She was an internist, and apparently I had

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spiraled down enough that I really didn't look like I was holding it together anymore,

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and she actually gave me, again, a very low dose, and she admitted, I'm giving you a very low dose

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to see if this will work. Well, when that low dose didn't work, obviously, and I was even more

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depressed and presented myself in her office, she was very concerned. She said, you need to see

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a psychiatrist. I'm not really qualified to deal with this, and she sent me to a psychiatrist,

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and it was like, why did I not think of this? Why did nobody think of it? It seemed like such

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a natural referral to make, and I went into the psychiatrist's office, and she looked at my

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history. I told her what I had taken. She could see the medical history and the dosages, and she

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said, you're not getting enough medication. That's why nothing has been working for you,

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and so she recommended a particular medication and prescribed a dosage that was enough that it

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should make a difference, and then, of course, she monitored it to see if it needed to be increased,

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which it did, and these were things that would never have happened with the general practitioner

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or an internist. She knew what she was doing, and when she said that, it was like, oh, my gosh,

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you mean for all this time, I could have been feeling better if someone had just given me more

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of the medication, probably any number of them. I could have been feeling better all this time,

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so I was extremely hopeful that, wow, I finally found someone who knows how to help me deal with

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this, and it's a great feeling. I can picture that scene with the doctor when she said, you know,

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you need to see a psychiatrist, and I remember meeting with the psychiatrist and her saying,

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you just didn't get a high enough dosage, and we're going to take care of that, and it was like,

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where have you been all my life, and really all my life since I was 20 years old, and here I am 50.

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That's three decades. Yeah, and you know, I hear your story, and you're someone who actually went

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to the doctor and was seeking help, and there's so many who have a hard enough time going to the

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doctor to say, like, depression is real for me, you know, anxiety is real for me, or I just had

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a baby. I'm struggling with the hormonal changes that come with that, and they won't go back

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because they don't feel heard, right, and I think of you continuously going, like,

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you know, something's not right, you know, and I think that's a true testament to your strength

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to want to find a solution, knowing somewhere inside that you just weren't getting what you

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needed, you know, and there's a profound point in your book, in your book, I'm sorry, the chapter

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from the book, where you speak on, you wonder what would have happened had you been able to get

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the proper interventions, like, before, and that's a very tender point, right, because it's, like,

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that's heavy. I struggled with that. I still struggle with it, so in A, there's that saying,

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we do not wish to, we do not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. I can't help wonder

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what my life would have been like if those 30 years between 20 and 50, I had gotten the help

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that I needed, but I can't dwell there, and rather than looking back and regretting that,

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which I admit there's that tendency to do, measure it more as to how far I've come

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versus how much I may have missed, and everything happens for a reason. We're always where we're

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supposed to be, and maybe my life would not have been any better. I can't help but wonder what it

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might have been like, but who's to say it would have been better. I'm here where I'm at, and I'm

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making the most of what I have, and I'm extremely grateful for that, and I want to acknowledge that

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there are some people, and this happened to me too, it is difficult when you are depressed to navigate

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finding a doctor, finding a psychiatrist, scheduling an appointment, are they taking

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new patients, oh you can't see them for three months, and you're like on the edge, and you're

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ready to throw in the towel and say to heck with this, I'll just be depressed. I mean the impact

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on someone who has mustered up all her strength to make a phone call to a doctor's office, and they

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put you on hold, and they can't see you for three months, it's devastating, and who wants to go

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through that again? You just figure the heck with it. It is hard because I don't think it's gotten

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really any easier and or better. The wait times sometimes can be three, four, six months. You know

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I think of somebody who's in maybe not a full-blown crisis, but is just getting through the

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day with everything they have, right? They're trying to be a parent, a spouse, work a job, and then you're

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handed, you got to call these numbers, do they take your insurance, the co-pays, the forms, and like

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I don't know about you, but when I was at my lowest, like looking at a form to fill out,

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I have a form phobia. I hate to fill out forms. That'll put me into stress and anxiety just looking at the form.

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Exactly, and once you got on the right dosage and combination for yourself,

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how was your journey to sobriety?

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I don't know this for certain, but this is what I think may have happened. I think once my mood

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started to stabilize a little bit, I could realize the alcoholic spiral I was in.

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And again, as you'll hear so often in the rooms of AA, I got sick and tired of being sick and tired.

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I woke up one day, hung over, and I got up, and I looked in the mirror, and it was like,

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this is not the life I want. And I had a book of AA meetings, and I decided at that moment

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that I was going to get dressed, and I was going to go to the first available meeting, and I opened

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the book, and I found a meeting, and I decided that that would be the one that I would go to.

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And I never stopped. That was the beginning. But I think the fog was lifted just enough

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for me to see the remaining fog I was still in. And that is why I call that my turning point,

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and when healing began, because I think the depression was relying on that alcohol to help.

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And when the depression was being helped by the medication, and I could feel more in control of

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my mood, and that wasn't weighing me down so much, it was like getting hit in the face with,

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well, now what are we going to do about this alcohol? Because it sure isn't helping you either.

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Yeah, because fighting two monsters like that at once is almost insurmountable for most people,

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right? Mental health and sobriety. Trying to achieve both at once is,

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you know, and so what I'm hearing from you is once you're able to

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get a hold, get your depression more stable, then you could look and see where alcohol fit into your

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life, and, you know, what was feeding off of what, like you said, like the alcohol was feeding off

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the depression, and you could think more rational. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Not that

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you think real rationally when you're an alcoholic, but everything is relative, okay? Everything is

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relative, and again, I was very fortunate. I was late to that meeting. It was a little bit further

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away than I thought because I had just moved back from Florida to Ohio, and I saw this meeting,

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and I thought, okay, I can get there by 10 o'clock, and it was a women's meeting, and I was

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late, and I remember walking in. The meeting had already started, and I saw all these women,

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and I thought, oh, wow, I want to be like them. They all seem so happy,

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and I had a very good experience with Alcoholics Anonymous. I had a good experience with my

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first sponsor, and it's just been a blessing ever since, but as you work the steps of Alcoholics

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Anonymous, you can see what the alcohol was doing, and you can also understand its relationship to

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the depression. Yeah, because Alcoholics Anonymous is a big proponent to handle your mental health.

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It's not at all trying to be a substitute. It never tries to, you know, say, don't get help,

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don't get help, and how did that feel for you when you went into your first meeting, which is a

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women's meeting, and like not only to want what they had, but to maybe not feel so alone?

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I cried the whole meeting, and I think it was crying of exhaustion and relief, and that there

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might just be hope for me. I mean, I walked into this church parlor, and there's all these ladies,

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and some are knitting. It was like a tea. All they needed were the tea cups, and I thought, man,

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this is really great, but I cried the whole meeting, and I did get a sponsor by the end of

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that meeting, and it was, this is something I can do that's going to help me, and there's a tremendous

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amount of hope and relief in that. Not understanding why, there's a lot of faith.

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It's just like meeting with a psychiatrist. Here's somebody who can help me, and I put my faith in

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her, and it's so interesting because the prescription she prescribed for me, that medication,

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is the same thing. The evolution of it is the same thing I'm taking today, and it's just amazing.

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I haven't strayed far from the formula that she came up with 20-some years ago.

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When you were listening to the women speak at that meeting,

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did you hear bits of you resonate, like what they were sharing or what they were saying?

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That particular meeting is a total blur, but one of the things I have noticed

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whenever I would go to an AA meeting, I really, I don't want to say loved, but I really did love

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the stories, the leads that people gave, and I would see myself so many times in their stories.

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What I think is important, though, is even if somebody's story is very different from mine,

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what they were feeling is exactly what I was feeling, and we all come from different

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backgrounds. We might have a different story. They may have gone through things that I never

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went through, but the way she felt was exactly the way I felt as a result of the drinking,

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and that's what always hit home.

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Yeah, and sometimes I want to say it can be very intimidating

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as someone who's new to sobriety to walk into a first AA meeting.

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The feelings of shame or guilt or anxiety or I don't want anybody to see me, I'm going to sit in

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the background, and you highlighted something that I think is important, and that was crying,

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that release of letting it out because I think so often in society when somebody cries, we panic.

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Oh my God, stop crying. How cathartic was it for you just to be able to be in a place

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surrounded by other women and just be able to cry?

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And all they did was let me cry and give me a hug and support me,

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and that is the greatest feeling in the world, just that support to know I'm going to be okay.

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Yeah, I have the possibility of being okay. They're okay, and if they can do it,

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maybe there's hope for me, and it was very cathartic. I cried that whole meeting.

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I don't even remember the meeting. The meeting was a blur, but I walked out of there

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with a sponsor, with a big book, and with hope.

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Yeah, and that's, I think sometimes, because AA is a big program, and you're not going to get it

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all in one meeting or ten meetings. It takes a lot, but I like what you said, that you walked

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out with hope, and as long as you have hope and faith that there can be something on the other

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side of this, you'll keep trying. You'll keep coming back, as long as you don't feel alone.

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And you do feel very alone when you're depressed, when you're drinking. You do feel very alone,

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and I don't know if it was my upbringing, but I'm one of those people. I like to follow the rules.

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Maybe it's my Catholic upbringing. I don't know what it is, but I went to the psychiatrist.

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She said, this is what you do. That's what I do. I went to the AA meeting. They say,

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this is what you do, so that's what I did, and so I thought to myself, in each of those instances,

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they're giving me something to do. They're telling me what's going to be done,

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and I'm going to put my faith in them that if I do that, there's hope for me. I'm not going

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to try to outsmart them. I'm going to just, okay, you're the doctor. This is what you're saying.

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I'm going to believe that it's the answer for me, and I'm going to follow the program,

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whether it's from the doctor or for AA. Do you think that there's a

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heavier stigma attached to women over 40 who are seeking sobriety?

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I think women over 40 carry a heavy burden. We are judged, first of all, much more than men are,

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and we're judged by our outward appearance, and so things that affect our outward appearance,

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we're going to be judged more heavily, and when you get to be 40 or older, there's this

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expectation you've got things all together, and to admit that it's all been an illusion,

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that it's been smoke and mirrors that I'm holding this all together, and it's been going on for a

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long time, and I really need help. First of all, I think it's very difficult for someone to

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acknowledge that. My gosh, everybody else has got their life together, and look at me,

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and who wants to admit to their peers that I've been faking it all this time, and I'm holding it

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together with rubber bands, and they're ready to snap. Nobody wants to admit that.

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Wow, and was that a push for you to become a speaker, to help women?

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Yes, and it was the motivation for sharing any part of my story.

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Women over 40 often think that life has passed them by, and it's too late to do anything,

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and my life sort of in a way started at 53 when I got sober, and when I got on this

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antidepressant medication, and it was a gift, and although I could say

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wow, I got a bum deal, all those years were wasted, you can't focus on that. You have to

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focus on the present and what you can do with the gift that you've now been given. So at 53,

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I got sober. At 59, when a lot of people are thinking about retirement, I started my own

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business, and of course, like many people, I should have done that a long time ago,

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starting my own business. I started my own business, and then at 67, I flew out from

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Cleveland, Ohio to Palm Springs, California to attend a Transformational Speakers Summit,

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because I wanted to be a transformational speaker from stage, and I was so excited about it,

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and here's what goes through an older woman's mind. I want to go to this, but I'm too old.

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I'm 67. Nobody's going to care what I think. I'm too fat. I got to lose 20 pounds before I get up

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on that stage. What am I going to wear? And all these things, it's going to be a lot of money.

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I'm flying all the way out there, but I went, and you know, when I got there,

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I wasn't the oldest one. I wasn't the only one with a little bit of gray hair, and I wasn't

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the only one who could lose a few pounds, okay? But all these things are going through my mind,

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because as women, we're judged so much by these outward appearances.

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I went, I got up on stage, I told my story, and I actually hired a speaking coach to help me

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learn to be a better speaker and how to relate my story so that it would have a greater impact

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on the people who heard it, and I still compete with the young, beautiful women who also share

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their stories, but I admire them for their guts, because when I was their age, I would not have

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been able to do that, and good for them. I find, though, that when I do share my story,

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women relate to it, and not just older women, but younger women, because they're feeling the

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same things, because we're all women, and we're all in this position, whether it's addiction,

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whether it's imposter syndrome in our professional lives,

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whether it's a mental health issue, and you'd be surprised how many people struggle, and

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I want to be able to help them in a way to see that it's okay, and there's hope,

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and I'm out there doing stuff at my age, and I think one of the greatest compliments I ever

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received after a presentation, a young woman came up to me, and she said, I want to be like you when

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I'm your age. I overlooked the at your age part, okay? Her heart was in the right place, and I took

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it for what it was worth, but that is a huge compliment, to be able to inspire someone that

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if you start now, you're going to be able to make your dreams come true, regardless of what

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your history has been, and it can be very defeating when you're facing these

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challenges, because they're challenges that other people don't have.

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I think it's beautiful that you didn't just, I don't want to say just get sober, but you could

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have got on the right medication, you could have achieved sobriety, you could have stopped there,

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and your life still would have been beautiful. Oh yes, absolutely. But you didn't. You said, I'm

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gonna, I, you know, I know, I know it took time, but you got sober, you got your mental health,

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you know, in a stable place, and then, you know, you built, you know, Ready for Takeoff, which I

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think is a great name, you know, and you showed that you can start at any age, really. Your life

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doesn't end at 40, because you're not a millionaire, right? And I think that's beautiful, because

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I think what you're saying is the message that women often receive is after 40, you know,

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you're done, you know, gray hair, you're a little overweight, and you,

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in your own way, are shattering that stigma that

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you have to look a certain way, or be a certain age. But when you, when, when I hear from someone

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who's lived the amount of life that you've lived, there's a lot of lessons to be learned there,

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you know, and I think it's beautiful that you're taking these lessons, and you're

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trying to help women move forward in their lives, right? And what is it, what is it being

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what does it mean for you now to be, and have like the roles reversed, where

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you're the women kind of in the AA room, seeing women transform?

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Repeat that question again. I'm the woman in the AA room, and I'm seeing women transform.

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What does it mean to have the roles reversed? Like you're not, you're not now the newcomer

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Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes. So,

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you don't realize how shattered you look when you first enter an AA room. And I remember early on,

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people saying, Pat, you look so much better than you did when you first came in. Your skin is

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clearer, you know, you look happier. We don't realize the the physical toll that drinking takes

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on us. And so when I see a newcomer in the AA rooms, or even at a networking event that I'm

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speaking at, and a young person approaches you, they're in a very fragile state. And it took

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courage for them to come to where they are, and to approach you. And we need to recognize

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how fragile they are in that moment, and give them the support that we received,

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and that they so badly need. And it is a wonderful feeling to be able to know that

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I can be of service to someone, and that I can make a positive impact in their life.

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I remember, perhaps not their names, but I remember the women who reached out to me.

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And I'm forever grateful. I'm grateful for that psychiatrist, for that internist.

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I'm grateful for the mentors in my life. I'm grateful for the coaches that I hired to help me

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get better at the things that I wanted to do. And there are all these people who gave of themselves

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to help me be a better person. And what a wonderful feeling to know that I can now reciprocate.

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I mean, that's like icing on the cake.

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What is next for you? Is there anything that you haven't accomplished that you'd like to accomplish?

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Well, yes. So I have a solo book that just was released in digital format,

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called Does Your Bucket List Have a Hole in It? And it will be released in paperback on March 24th.

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I have a TV show called Fearless After 40, but I haven't recorded any sessions yet. And so I need

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to start recording those sessions. And one of my dreams is to have a TED Talk. I really want to be

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able to do a TEDx Talk. It doesn't have to be the TED, it could be the TEDx Talk. But I really

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have a dream to do that as well. And you know, renting a chateau in France for a month,

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that would be nice. Or a villa in Italy, that would be nice too. Okay.

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Just putting it out into the universe.

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Just putting it out into the universe.

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I can't blame you because both of those options sound equally lovely.

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And I would not mind either of those myself.

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One thing I am curious about, because you are a mom.

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What was it like for you as a mom to have your son see you sober? And to see you accomplish all

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these things?

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Well, he's very proud of me. In fact, he was so excited when he found out that I was going to AA,

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he started telling everybody. So much for anonymity, all right? I said, oops, you know,

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I said, oops, you know, you're not supposed to be, but he was overjoyed. He was overjoyed.

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And he does tell me that he's proud of me. And I want to be a role model for him.

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That no matter what life throws at you, you can still meet the challenge. And you can still go

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after your dreams and to think that things are always possible and to believe in yourself. And

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I want to show him by the way that I live so that that can become the way that he lives.

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I love that.

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What would you say to say to someone who's,

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who's struggling, be it with mental health or

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addiction? What would you say to someone who's just like really just in the place that you were?

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And, and again, this is the caveat, you know, if somebody is really, really in a, in a depressed

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in a, in a depressed state, it could be difficult.

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If somehow you can drag yourself somewhere to get the help you need,

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do it. If somehow you could reach out to someone who could help drag you.

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If you don't think that you have the energy, if there's someone that you could reach out to,

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who would, would help drag you to where you need to go. And I realize how difficult that is because

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you just don't want to do anything. You just don't want to get out of bed. You don't want to

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go out the door. I mean, even today I laugh. One of the books I'm going to write is 101 reasons

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not to leave the house. You know, I can come up with all kinds of reasons why I'm not going out

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today. All right. But, you know, someone who is really, really depressed that that's monumental,

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but you're not going to get better staying where you are. And somehow, some way you have to figure

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out a way to get to someone or someplace that can help you. And one of the little tricks that I,

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I still play with myself is, okay, I'm only going to do one step. So I'm only,

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I'm only going to get out of bed. All right. I'm out of bed. All right. I'm only going to get dressed

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and I get dressed. I'm only going to eat breakfast. I'm only going to get in my car.

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And then if I feel like I want to take the next step, I'll take the next step. But to tell yourself

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I'm going to get up, get dressed, go to the doctor, do it. It's too much. So I say, all right,

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I'm just going to do the one step. And then if I feel like I'm ready to take the next step,

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I'll do that. And if I'm ready to take the step after that, then I'll do that. Maybe I'll call

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someone and leave a message. Could you call me back? I really need somebody to talk to.

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I actually asked a friend if she would just call me every day in the morning. I said,

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you don't even have to say anything. I just need to know that somebody knows I'm alive.

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I said, I just need you to call. She did not understand, but she was a good friend. She'd

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call me every morning just so I knew somebody was touching base with me. So a lot of times

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these things are difficult to figure out when you're feeling so down and you're mired in

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addiction or mental health issues. But if somehow you can muster up the energy just to

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take one little step and then see if you're ready for the next one. But you got to get to somebody

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or someplace that can help you. Because you are worth it. You are worth it. Yes, they are.

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Unfortunately, what happens is that you do that and it doesn't pan out. You get the voicemail,

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you get the bureaucracy, and that sets you back. It's not just something you can get over easily,

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but to just keep trying, to just keep trying. Because what's on the other side of that could

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be a whole new life for you. And it is a whole new life. It is absolutely positively guaranteed

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to be a whole new life. You might not be able to see it, but of course it has to be a new life

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because it's going to be so totally different from what you're used to. Of course it has to

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be a better life. And it's worth fighting for. It is because it's so easy to give up,

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right? All the bureaucracy and paperwork and just the... And it's easier because the challenge

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is magnified for someone who is struggling with depression or anxiety or an addiction or

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all three of them. Right. And sometimes what I found is those in the rooms also struggle with

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maybe a learning disability. Yes. So then you put that on top of everything.

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And it's like, even if you can just get someone to bring you somewhere,

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you know, then just get to a hospital, get to a doctor's office, wherever, but don't just

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don't think that's all your life can be, you know? And there's a saying that I love

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and I hope I say it right. It works if you work it, so you're worth it, so work it. Is that correct?

384
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:17,760
Oh, I hadn't heard that extra part. Yes, it works if you work it and you're worth the work.

385
00:48:18,399 --> 00:48:26,159
Yeah. How cool. And it's true. And it's true. I love that one. But you're not feeling worthy

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at that moment. And so you have to take it on faith and you have to take it on

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the fact that all those other people in that room felt the exact same way as you.

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And look at them now. They felt the exact, they all came in wounded. They all came in fragile.

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And we could just as easily go back. So we're all there with you.

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10 years of sobriety or 20 years of sobriety started with one day.

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And it's always one day at a time.

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Would you like to remind everybody where they can find out more about you?

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Well, you can go to my website, www.imreadyfortakeoff.com. And it's I am ready. And then the

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number four, takeoff.com. And I have a newsletter or they can find me on LinkedIn. Or if they want

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to try one of my anthologies or my books, that would be great too. But I think my website's the

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best and the easiest way to reach out to me because then you can sign up for my newsletter

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and get in touch with me. And I'm going to put all that in the show notes, as well as the link

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to the anthology of her, which the whole collection is amazing. It's a wonderful

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00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:55,360
anthology of women's stories and strength. I think it's a beautiful.

400
00:49:55,360 --> 00:50:02,080
And a trauma that some women have gone through. And it's not just addiction and mental health.

401
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:09,120
There are a lot of deep traumas that these women have experienced. And they tell the story of how

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they were able to work through their trauma and overcome it. And I think that's a wonderful

403
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and they tell the story of how they were able to work through that trauma and what their life

404
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is like today. And I think there's got to be a story in there that someone can relate to.

405
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And just a big, you know, and just a lot of admiration for the women sharing their stories,

406
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including you, because it's not easy to go to those vulnerable places.

407
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I'm working on my vulnerability.

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I saw your vulnerability today, and I saw your strength.

409
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And I want to thank you for sharing your time with me today.

410
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I appreciate the invitation. I think that I was ready. And you know what they say,

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when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And I think that I was ready to share this story

412
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at the time that I read about your podcast.

413
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Well, I'm very happy and very honored that you came and you shared with me today and everybody.

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Because I think it's very important to put, you know, to shine a light on women

415
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in sobriety in general, and to shine a light on mental health around women as well, too.

416
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Because it's real. It's all very real. It's all very connected.

417
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Yes, it is.

418
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And I thank you for sharing your story and for not giving up when, you know, it got hard.

419
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And for a long time, it sounds like it was very hard for you.

420
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And I'm happy that you're on the other side of that and now

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seeing all these beautiful transformations with the women that you're helping.

422
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And I think that's lovely.

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So I want to thank you for joining us today.

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And I want to thank everyone who tuned in and who sticks with me on this journey.

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And for all the show links and notes and information on today's pod and today's guest,

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Pat Schultz, you can visit my Podbean site at unityyork.podbean.com.

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You can also connect with me on social media. All the links are in the description.

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And the best way to support is by hitting the subscribe button and leaving a positive review.

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And once again, check out Pat at I'm ready, the number four, takeoff.com.

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I want to thank everybody. And we will see you on the next one.