Drunk-ish - A Sobriety Podcast · Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

The Sneaky Relapse: Lying, Shame, and Starting Over with Kim Evey

·45 min·2 clips

Kim says driving her son and hearing “you’re acting weird” became the wake-up call.

Stephanie opens by reminding listeners that Drunkish grew out of her book and from wanting to hear other people's stories. She also asks people to rate the show and follow it on YouTube, because seeing everyone matters to her. Then she brings Kim Evie back to the microphone. Kim was on before, but not sober, and the earlier version left pieces out. That missing part is what this conversation is for. Kim says she hesitated before doing the earlier appearance, and now the reason is obvious. She was still drinking and still stuck in the same sneaky logic. The talk goes straight to that feeling of operating high and turning into somebody else. Kim describes it like becoming a teen version of herself, someone who does not have much of a life and does not have much honesty. The conversation stays with the ordinary ways relapse starts. There are leftover pills in the house. If a label says drowsy or dizzy, that is enough to tempt her. She talks about taking a bunch of different things together and suddenly feeling like she might not be able to move. The secrecy matters as much as the substances. When her husband goes to bed, she can keep the party going downstairs. He takes a gummy and falls asleep on schedule, which gives her a private window. At one point he goes out of town, and she decides she is going to drink. Then the reality of having a kid and needing to get him to school pushes her toward another workaround. She goes to a pot store and follows through on the plan. Her sponsor's warning about plans lands hard, because every plan sounds reasonable when the sneaky voice is doing the talking. Stephanie and Kim keep naming the same pattern from different angles. The point is not glamour. It is the slow build of rationalization, sneaky thinking, and the habit of making a private exception that is not really private at all. By the end, Stephanie sends listeners to Kim's Instagram, and Kim gives the handle while noting she has not posted since 2024.

As heard by us

A relapse story about shame, secrecy, and the awkward work of telling the truth.

Drunkish turns a relapse story into a blunt look at how shame can keep the full picture out of reach. Kim Evie returns to fill in what she left out before, while Stephanie Wilder-Taylor keeps the focus on the practical side of sneaking, mixing, and trying to get honest again.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want the messy truth about sobriety, and nobody is sanding it down.

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