The Next Episode Features Dating and Addiction and a Winner!

Next up on the Wild Side Podcast, I interview psychoanalyst, Marc Azoulay. His psychotherapy practice specializes in addiction, aggression, coming of age, anxiety, and trauma. After going through the conflict of how to date sober, Marc developed a program for single men so they could still go out to the bars.  He’s a super humorous guy. I think you’ll enjoy his wild stories!

How did I meet Marc? Ha! Funny story.

But it starts with a sad story.

The death of my brother, Joe. He sat in his chair chillin’ in front of his computer and had been reading inspiring stories for Women’s History Month on Flipboard. I couldn’t wake him up. He wasn’t breathing.  I tried mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR. He had died of a blood clot.

When I told a few friends about my trauma, they suggested seeing a therapist. Less than two weeks after Joe’s death I sat across from a kind lady. She asked me to tell her what happened and what I wanted from this therapy session. I wanted to expedite the loss. I didn’t want to waste time. Our family had been through a lot of death and this time, it hit me hard. I wanted to get the grieving over with. She told me it didn’t work that way.

So I continued to talk and went into the irony of coming home from the funeral and discovering the ceiling in our spare bedroom had caved in while water poured through the ceiling, adding all the water metaphors like “When it rains, it pours.” She asked what I did for a living and I told her about writing books and the Wild Ride blog. Then I opened up my cranium’s Boob Report file. Once I start, there’s no stopping me. I have so much material, I could do standup for an hour!

After babbling on and on about my double boobectomies and how I liked my alien nipple-less boobs, she cut me off. My face heated and I realized I had been giggling for the last thirty minutes, maybe for an hour. I had booked the appointment for my trauma, for God’s sake! I glanced at the clock and my time had been up for a while.

“I have to stop you,” she said. “I need to refer you to someone else.”

My face fell. I went too far.

“There’s a psychotherapist who deals with addiction down the hall who could really help you.”

Oh, my God. She thought I was high! I sucked in my lips and my hands perspired.

“You need to write about death just like you wrote about breast cancer. People need to hear your voice.”

What? I didn’t get it.

“You’re really funny and there’s nothing funny on the shelf to help people get through death.”

I still didn’t understand.

“Marc is a social media guru. He can help you grow your blog so you can build a platform and sell your books.”

A smile broke out on my face as she handed me his card.

Well, the rest is history.

I had been thinking about starting a podcast. Marc helped me transform The Wild Side from a vague notion to interviewing inspiring people about their wild side!

Tune in next week when I upload the podcast. It’s all about dating while recovering from addiction. Marc is a super fun guy and has some wild stories to tell!

I took off my hat and threw in the names of the commenters from August McLaughlin’s interview. We have a winner for her book Girl Boner Journal: A Guided Journal to Sexual Joy and Empowerment,

*insert drum roll here*

Kevin Brent! Congratulations!

Please email me at susielindau@gmail.com and I’ll hook you up.

My interview with Marc will go live later next week. In the meantime, check out my interview with health and sexuality personality and writer August Mclaughlin, 101 year old man, Jim Cram, and discover the inspirational wild sides of some fabulous people at the Bloggers Bash in London. You can listen to The Wild Side on your podcast platform of choice: Soundcloud, Stitcher, Google Play Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.

Click for more adventure on the Wild Ride!