Speaker: Natalie, Affect member
Natalie: Hi, my name is Natalie, and I have 15 days sober today. Yay. You have no idea that is a miracle period.
Natalie: Period. I started this working with a fact, um, back in, I think around August, and then I had gotten sober, uh, sometime around September, I believe, and I got quite a few days. A sober under my belt, but I think I still had some reservations about wanting to stay sober. And so, um. I would get thoughts and then I would get the cravings and then I would drink and then I was doing this for a while with um still coming to effect and still trying again every single time that I would drink, I would just come back even though I didn't want to because I felt embarrassed, but I would just keep coming back because I really did want to quit drinking. And finally, I just got to the point where I was um learning so much from the EFT program and working with the counselor and that for some reason I had this. A miracle happened,
How would you describe Affect?
Natalie: The three words I chose to describe Affect. Are:. Encouraging. Accepting and responsive.
What was surprising to you about working with Affect?
Natalie: What was surprising to me about my experience with the fact was that um it works. Um, I was impressed by the platform, all the helpful challenges, uh. All the tools, um. I was concerned that there would not be any connections or I wouldn't get any. Um Uh help or I wouldn't, I wouldn't have any progress, but. But honestly it's worked for me and I mean all the challenges that they do. I mean they have so many tools in the effect app that are amazing in themselves but then you add uh the counselors and stuff on top of that and the caring and. It's just a surprisingly successful experience for me, and I hope the same for you.
What is the most valuable thing that you have learned from working with Affect?
Natalie: I think one of the most valuable things I learned while working with fact was when I was working with my counselor one on one and we were talking about the, you know, wanting to stop drinking, like to completely want to stop drinking, but then yet, then there's these thoughts that come in and it's like you have no idea where they come from and learning that that's coming from the monkey brain and uh. Just knowing that it's like the monkey brain wants to seek out that dopamine hit for and this is how I got it. So this is what we're going to do. And so just learning that that's the monkey brain and it's not our actual brains doing it, um. I don't know, it was helpful for me. Um To be able to name it and and shut that. Noise down in my head. Um, it's the liar, you know, it's the. The um monkey brain the. The disease of alcoholism. I don't know. It's the alcohol, the spirits, like the whatever's those things that are talking to me and telling me, oh yeah, you should have a drink or, you know, like that kind of stuff. Learning about that and learning how to shut that off and learning how to use tools to get that from going from a thought to a craving to a doing. Um. That's what I've learned with working with fact and also um just learning about the the process of addiction and disease and and the um withdrawal, um, the reasons why we have withdrawal and what our body does. It's been very helpful. It's been very educational. And I really appreciate all that I've learned.
