Remember Your Why

Greg's alcoholic and addictive behavior manifested in ways before it manifested in alcohol. In his early 30's the drinking began and he got sober at 39.  Greg drank throughout college but for him, he never felt comfortable in his own skin. He never felt comfortable in his own skin, so he would seek validation through different ways. Early on it was steroids and the gym, then it was neede...

Michael has been sober for over 3 years following a 20+ drinking career. Alcohol was his drug of choice. He knew he had the disease of alcoholism before he even took his first drink. Alcoholism ran in his family and he was scared to be like his dad. His earliest memories were of him passed out in the bathtub and those are tough images for a kid to see.  During the ages of 18-40, Michael spent much...

Jordan has been in recovery since 2022. He has suffered relapses, gone to many institutions, detoxes and sober houses. His drinking "career" first started around age 15 due to wanting to fit in, like many of us begin. Then pills came, and the harder drugs followed. Paired with his mental health, the road to sobriety did not come easy for him.  Hear Jordan's story here...

Barry has been sober since 2013. He is originally from New York but currently living in Italy where he has experienced both the bottoms of sobriety as well as the gifts of sobriety there.  His drinking career began back in the sixth grade. He grew up in chaos, and both his parents drank alcoholically. He became the stereotypical "bad boy" and did a lot of acting out which landed him in s...

Millions suffer from mental illness. It is so important to talk about because there is help available and so many are afraid to share their true feelings and emotions. It can be a matter of life and death.  Michael has been suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts, anger, and anxiety. He has been in therapy on and off since the age of 12. He grew up with an abusive father which he speaks about...

Dennis first drank when he was 10 years old. Sure, it started out as just sips. But things, as they do, progressed as time went on.  It went from drinking to smoking cigarettes and then weed. Fitting in was something Dennis wanted because he never felt comfortable in his own skin, or good enough for himself. Feeling he was a part of something was so crucial for him. Anything to fill that void was...

Laureen is a mom to two boys from New York. She has 31 years of sobriety.  She started drinking at the young age of 11/12 cleaning up after her parents parties and downing the drinks. She thought the taste was disgusting, but she enjoyed the fuzzy feeling. Alcoholism did run in her family- four out of seven of them are in recovery, while they are praying for one who is still suffering. Her mom sta...

Lisa has been sober for 12.5 years, married & a mom of three kids. She can honestly say she drank for more than half her life. Her first drink was at age 10. It started with parties because her older brother was a popular kid so they tagged along. Back then it was easy to obtain alcohol so it made things simpler in getting inebriated.  She knew things were bad when she didn't want to eat...

For Blake, alcohol helped him breathe when he was just 12 years young. That's how he felt. He drank and drove at that young age. It started early for Blake. Alcoholic drinking from 14 years old on was how he lived. Things, as they do with addicts and alcoholics, quickly progressed to drugs at age 16- weed came first, then coke, then pills and mushrooms. The progression goes so fast.  It was a...

Quentin has been sober since 2018. He picked up his first drink around 11/12 years old but growing up he was big into sports and started out as just a weekend warrior. All through high school he wouldn't necessarily say it was manageable but he was just in a cloud and continued on.  Once he picked up cocaine it all went downhill. He started using it, selling it and ended up getting arrested w...

Annamarie has been sober since 2009.  She started drinking in her early 30's. Up until that point, she was using food as her addiction. Following a surgery, she started out doing great and felt good about herself until the day she didn't and that void was then filled with alcohol. Things progressed quickly with her addictive personality.  She began to drink to the point of oblivion and w...

I met Jorge back when I was in rehab down in Florida and he was a mentor. He helped me a lot along the way and it was special having him on my podcast.  He has over 28.5 years of sobriety. He works in residential treatment, where they handle substance abuse and mental health amongst other things, and has been in the treatment field for 10 years.  When he was a child, he experienced trauma that wou...

Don is sober 20 years.  Had his first drink at 12 and got wrecked. He went fishing with a buddy, went home and slept it off and woke up feeling horrible. But he couldn't wait to do it again. That launched him into his journey of drinking. For a long time he was just a weekend warrior before, at some point, it crossed the line.  It was a moment looking at himself in the mirror, not too long af...

Jill has seven years of sobriety and cannot even imagine where she'd be if she hadn't made the decision to get sober and live a life of recovery. It saved her life and she'd love to help the struggling addict, and pay it forward.  She started drinking at 12 years old, and she felt as though she found this thing to help her get out of herself and feel comfortable in her own skin. Jil...

Nigel started experimenting in high school... weed and drinking. Wanting to fit in and get invited to parties. Once he went to college, everything took a back burner to his drinking and partying. He continued to spiral out from there. Drunk driving, harder drugs like LSD and ecstasy, no accountability and denial... just a few parts of how Nigel's addiction progressed.  Hear Nigel's story...

Terry is a peer counselor at an outpatient clinic in New York but his main job, like he says, is being a sober man.  He was in 7th grade when he first tasted alcohol, and though it didn't get out of hand at that time, a pattern was formed.  Anytime he picked up alcohol he went "go hard or go home." He hated the taste but loved the feeling.  Things did not get awful until later on fo...

Sarah's last drink was in July 2009. She picked up her first drink around age 13. It just happened one day- started going to parties and then it was off to the races, like everybody else around her at the time. Moderation was not a thing and she couldn't understand anyone who could have a beer and just go home. That wasn't in the cards for her; it wasn't how her brain worked. ...

Carl is in recovery and has been sober and clean for 24 years. He is a yoga teacher and meditation teacher and carries the message of recovery in his classes, as well as in a podcast he has called 'Close to the Bone,' which is on Apple and Spotify.  As far as he can remember he was a bit lost and uncomfortable being social and he came across fellow musicians and through them he started h...

Mark is a 60 year old alcoholic who found that out about himself later in life.  He walked into the rooms of AA 8.5 years ago and was sure of two things: that he wasn't an alcoholic and was also positive he was not going to stay in the program. For decades he had drank from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep and no one had ever said tp him that he was an alcoholic. Not his w...

Michael grew up in Yonkers, NY and came from an Irish Catholic family with eight brothers and sisters. He is currently married with two kids and 33 years ago he chose to get sober and it saved his life.  Mike liked alcohol and drugs and he felt they found him. He truly never thought he would stop drinking and using drugs because those were the things that kept him together. It allowed him to be a...

Craig has come a long way and really believes he is living in the second half of his life. Craig's first drink was at 7 years old and he realized that the funny sensation he got would eventually subside in his stomach, and he did this for another 30 years. He started to get arrested at age 15/16 and his PO would send him to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and at that age he actually believed th...

Cydney's addiction came out through self harm at a young age. She had her first drink at age 16 and when she drank it became a form of escapism and there was no controlling the quantity... it was lets see how far we can go so I don't have to feel the way I am feeling. She started cutting herself in eight grade and it was a release for her. When she felt she needed to punish herself for e...

Daniel had to learn a lot of lessons to get to day one of sobriety.  At 15, he discovered marijuana. Despite it giving him crippling anxiety, he continued on thinking maybe it would make him feel better. Because of the addiction,  that became the pattern with every substance that ever touched his lips. He recognized his patterns were destructive and kept telling himself that this time would be &qu...

Kenny believes it is important to give hope to people who need it, because at some point in his life, that was given to him. He got sober at 21, which shows you can get sober at any age. Now, with 30 years of recovery under his belt, he discusses how growing up within an alcoholic household and the destructive path he later took shaped his addiction.  After going through a lot of turmoil,  he got...

Raised with alcoholics, Jon was age 6 the first time alcohol touched his lips. By age 12, he was drinking with his older brothers and just fell in love with it. It was the best medication he ever found. He found what eliminated all of the noise, fear and trauma.  Alcohol was the only thing that worked and he wasn't sure how he could live without it.  Following multiple DUI's,  and a poss...