Lee Anderson grew up inside pubs. His mum was a barmaid who ran her own pubs, and by the time he was eight or nine he was already pouring himself spirits from the cabinet the way he'd seen adults do it. By 14 he was drinking on the bus to steady his nerves. By his twenties he was the life and soul, and nobody ever questioned it.
What nobody could see was everything underneath: the responsibility of being the oldest, the man of the house one minute and a child the next, the shame passed down from a teenage mum raising mixed-race kids alone in the seventies, and the thing Lee spent years terrified of naming — that he was gay. Alcohol was the uniform he put on before pushing open any pub door. It was, as he puts it, both a place to hide and a place to be seen.
In this conversation, Lee opens up about coming out at 22 and flipping a coin on a toilet roll to decide whether to say the word, a toxic eight-year relationship where the drink and drugs ramped up, a breakdown and two attempts on his life, moving to France and drinking three litres of wine a night, and the Saturday morning he finally sat on a step and said enough.
Four years sober, eight years clean, now a life coach and ambassador for the Lighthouse Construction Charity, standing in front of rooms of 500 builders talking about anxiety, addiction, and being gay. Lee's story is a reminder that the version of you underneath the drinking is still there — and it's worth meeting.
If anything in this episode resonates, please reach out to Samaritans on 116 123 (UK and Ireland), or your local crisis line.
https://www.instagram.com/leeandersoncoaching/
https://www.leeandersoncoaching.com/
https://open.spotify.com/show/13Hx2VN9L62ta3nMto5NmH?si=d809bf1d488f45f6&nd=1&dlsi=d2719481e12a4154
If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/
or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/
Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice.
www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services
Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez
Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez
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