Comfort Becomes A Cage —Episode 6 – Spoken sticky notes on anxiety and alcoholism. Short, real stories from my life. No filler, just the moments that matter. 2–4 minutes. New episode every Wednesday.

What starts as relief can quietly turn into routine. In this episode, I share how alcohol stopped being something I used and became something I lived inside—and how avoidance slowly replaced direction.

In this episode, I continue Chapter One of The Trails and Trials of Addiction and Anxiety and talk about how my first drink felt like relief — and how that relief slowly became a way of avoiding life.

I reflect on how anxiety, loss, and the need to fit in shaped my relationship with alcohol, and how uneventful days quietly turned into years I didn’t know I was losing.

This is a story about trading one set of chains for another — and what it takes to find courage again.

"I used to think that the first drink I ever took was a mistake. But looking back, it didn't feel like a mistake at all. It felt like relief."

"When you’ve lived your whole life with constant noise in your head, silence feels like safety. But for me, that silence was a trap. I thought I was learning how to survive, but really, I was just learning how to disappear."

"In Episode 5 of Tripping Over Myself, we’re going back to the beginning—to the moments where relief turned into reliance. If you’ve ever used a 'safety zone' to hide from the world, this episode is for you. Join me as we untangle the knots."

"Click the follow button on Spotify to catch the full episode. I’m Gerard Bradbury, and I’ll talk to you soon."