I spoke to the author Sophie White about recovery from addiction, about the decision to stop drinking, the first year of sobriety, and why sometimes the later years are even more challenging. The first half of this episode is available to everyone, the second half is available to paid subscribers of my Substack, How to Fall Apart, where you will find more episodes and some of my writing. I would be absolutely delighted if you wanted to subscribe.

https://open.substack.com/pub/howtofallapart?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=i982n

XLia

Dr. Nicola Fox Hamilton is an Online Psychologist and in this episode we discuss her fascinating findings on how we behave online and how we find love amidst the endless swiping. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to hear more, or read the How to Fall Apart column, you can go to my Substack, How To Fall Apart.

I talked to author Betsy Cornwell about being a single parent, finding a home for herself and her son, about creating your community, burnout and financial pressure as a single parent, and her beautiful NYTimes Modern Love essay

How To Fall Apart is a podcast about picking up the pieces.

This is our first episode in quite awhile, so maybe just a reminder, this is a podcast of conversations with people who have been through something challenging, about how they coped, and also the times that they struggled to cope, and what that felt like.

From now on I'm going to be putting this podcast out first and foremost through my new substack, also called How to Fall Apart, where my writing will also sit. Most episodes with be available on all the usual podcast platforms, although some episodes may partly, or entirely, be behind the Substack paywall and available only to my Substack subscribers.

So with that business end of things out of the way, I'd like to introduce my guest this week. Sooby Lynch, who you may know from her beautiful instagram account, @Standingbythewall, talks to me about getting a diagnosis of ADHD in your forties. We discuss what led her to the point of getting a diagnosis, going through that process, how it gave her a new understanding of herself, and learning a new way to live and not be too hard on yourself.

If you know Sooby, you'll know she is the most generous, supportive of people, and I am so grateful to her for sharing her story here for the first time. I hope you enjoy our conversation

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to hear more, or read the How to Fall Apart column, you can go to my Substack, How To Fall Apart.

In this episode I chat to Sophie White about her beautiful collection of essays, Corpsing. We chat about how often times, personal work can begin as one thing and transform into something else, the need to protect the truth and still portray the truth, the tension between needing to create and needing to mother and the process of writing such personal work. 

I’m lucky enough to get to work with Senator Lynn Ruane regularly through her column for rogue, and she is one of the most emotionally intelligent people I’ve ever met. We talked about the experience of writing her 2018 memoir People Like Me, about revisiting traumatic experiences, and learning how to protect yourself in the present when revisiting the past, about the responsibility that comes with writing about other, especially your children, and also when you are writing about experiences of your own that then can become a voice for your community, about switching off from the comments section, getting into a flow state when writing and how that helps with not self editing in the first draft, and how writing can help you process anger but then learning to leave that anger there on the page and move on.

Episode one of our latest series of How to Fall Apart - the putting herself on the page series

This series was inspired by a conversation Liadan had with writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa, in which Doireann talked about being asked of her book A Ghost in the Throat, it is very exposing, to write about yourself so honestly, how does hat feel? Doireann explained how she feels that in asking that, what people really mean is are you ashamed, to be be seen so fully on the page. To present such an honest version of the messiness of life. She also talked about writing parts of her own life, her own experience, that she had not seen elsewhere on the page.  

The two ideas, the experience of writing about yourself, and the recording of parts of your life that you don’t necessarily see elsewhere, will be what we explore in this series, as well as telling the story of each writer.

Liadan talks to Holly Carpenter about her depression, about retreating from life when you’re struggling, how friends can help in those moments, toxic positivity on social media, the effect of modelling on her body image, and finding it hard to reach out when you’re struggling.

Tw- this conversation covers eating disorders

This episode of How To Fall Apart with the Irish Cancer Society aims to be a support for all those who are living with loss. I speak to Irish Cancer Society night nurse who talks about the support she offers families in those final hours. Orla Judge talks about how the pain of losing her mum is easing over time and Tríona McCarthy opens up about the loss of her sister ten years ago and finding the things that helped her cope. 

Conor Ferguson talks about his wife Keelin Shanley; meeting as teenagers, their life together, her memoir A Light That Never Goes Out, how they coped with her breast cancer diagnosis, and managing grief. 

This series of How to Fall Apart with the Irish Cancer Society aims to be a virtual support group for this currently affected by breast cancer.

We will talk to women who have themselves received a cancer diagnosis on coping with treatment, living with cancer and what happens in the aftermath. We will also speak to a number of health professionals – GPs, consultants and nurses, for advice on different stages of the process.