During the month of May, Chapter 3 Stigma will be partnering with numerous brands to promote the podcast and newsletter. As such, there will be giveaways run on Instagram. Below are the restrictions that apply to each giveaway. May 1st - MTNTOUGH Tough Fest 2024 Paid Trip Giveaway Restrictions - winners must be 18 at the time of drawing, the winner and their partner must live in the contiguous 48 states, trip is restricted to June 12th-14th (additional days added can be covered by the winner) and winner must respond within 24 hours of being contacted to receive prize. May 8th - Stone Glacier ..read more

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. … Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it - then you are ready to take certain steps. -Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 58 [emphasis mine] I have been challenging myself to think deeply about the motivations, vision and finally the execution and delivery of Chapter 3 Stigma. By nature, I am a fairly cautious and conservative person when it comes to exposure and action. I actuall ..read more

Alyssa and I sat down and recorded our story from May 14th, 2023 to today and released them as a two part series that you can find on your platform of choice. It was emotional. Today’s newsletter details an aspect of Lucy’s story that wasn’t covered in the podcast. I still can’t get through the telling of this aspect of Lucy’s story without being overwhelmed by grief and awe. YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify Lucy was born on December 20th, 2023. She passed away peacefully between Alyssa and I late in the evening on December 27th, 2023. As we have navigated through the past week and a half livin ..read more

Lucy, we refuse to get over you, we’re just learning to live without you. Lucy Pieper Zibrowski arrived three months ago into this world this past Wednesday the 20th of March. It is truly hard to fathom all that we have been through in such a short time period and how much this little bunny has altered our lives for the better. In her short time on earth she showed us how to be strong, how it was alright to feel weak and of course how to fight with everything in your soul. Lucy’s impact on me, and on others, continues on well beyond her time here on earth. I had a conversation with a follower ..read more

In the previous post and associated podcast, I described my journey of crossing the threshold to being an alcoholic and the 10 years spent trying to fight and figure out my control over alcoholism. This insight into when I crossed the threshold was not revealed to me until I spent time in rehabilitation after entering recovery. The knowledge and awareness of this next part of my story was no mystery to me as I was trudging through this time period in my life. I was unequivocally in my own self-created hell and I had no idea how to get out and save myself. The Lie It all started at the end of 2 ..read more

I have gone back and forth on the best way to share and layout my story of becoming an alcoholic and the 12 years of struggle that followed before my eventual self-acceptance of the disease. Instead of going into details about each and every story, I feel that it is actually more impactful to talk about the categorical flow of myself from introducing alcohol all the way to accepting that alcohol was making my life unmanageable. In this manner of telling the story, I feel like there is the greatest chance for others with completely different backgrounds and personalities from me to still connec ..read more

With a topic like alcoholism and addiction (used interchangeably in this post), it is difficult, if not impossible, to point a finger at a specific moment in life and declare, ‘that is when I became an alcoholic’. Given that I have been blessed with an incredible amount of time to sit and reflect on my story and relationship with alcohol, I have been able to get as close to pointing out a specific date as I feel is possible for my story. That’s not said as a boastful claim, but to give readers hope that they can understand their path to addiction if they want. There is a way that I discovered ..read more

I’ll tell you something that makes me cringe. Our culture’s general obsession and focus on happiness. As I write this out, I don’t even really know how to properly define the word happiness. It always seemed to me that it meant just having a stupid smile on your face. When I was at my lowest lows in my battle with alcoholism, I never thought I could find genuine happiness again, and what I meant by that is that I would never laugh again, never enjoy music again and never feel deep and genuine love again. Never is a strong word in this case, but that’s what it felt like… an absolute. During my ..read more

I have no predictions about what my life and the years I am blessed to have on this earth will bring. The only thing I can confidently say is that 2023 will go down as a year that likely will not be repeated. For those of you new to my story, you can cozy up for 2 hours and get to know me a little more if you so choose. There is no denying that the two largest aspects of the year were the acceptance of myself as an alcoholic and the loss of a daughter. On May 15th I checked into a 28 day intensive inpatient rehab for my alcoholism. It was the first time I ever said, ‘my name is Kyle, I am an a ..read more