Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories - Alcohol took over Zac’s life early on and the consequences began to stack up. How did he break free and celebrate 16 years sober?

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

In this episode, we have Zac, who found some freedom with alcohol. Alcohol quickly became a close high school friend for Zac when he was struggling with an anxious mind. The more he drank, the more he needed to drink, and this escalated quickly. At 16, his parents intervened after finding alcohol in his vehicle, and he was off to rehab. With so little drinking time under his belt, it didn't make complete sense to quit drinking alcohol. After getting several felony charges for a single car accident while intoxicated, Zac had to take a hard look at his life and choices. This is Zac's story on the Sober Motivation Podcast. ---------- Follow Zac on Instagram Here: https://www.instagram.com/nomadicaddictt/ Follow SoberMotivation on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/sobermotivation/ Download SoberBuddy App: https://soberbuddy.app.link/motivation More info on SoberLink: www.soberlink.com/recover

Welcome to Season 3 of the Subur Motivation Podcast. Join me, Brad, each week as my guests and I share incredible, inspiring, and powerful sobriety stories. We are here to show sobriety as possible one story at a time. Let's go. In this episode, we have Zach, who found some freedom from himself with alcohol. Alcohol quickly became a close high school friend for Zach when he was struggling with an anxious mind.

The more he drank, the more he needed to drink. and this escalated quickly. At 16, his parents intervened after finding alcohol in his vehicle, and he was off to rehab. With so little drinking time under his belt, it didn't make complete sense to quit drinking just yet. After getting several felony charges for a single vehicle car accident while intoxicated, Zach had to take a hard look at his life and choices. This is Zach's story on the sober motivation podcast. Getting sober is a lifestyle change, and sometimes,

a little technology can help. Imagine a breathalyzer that works like a habit tracker for sobriety. Soberlink helps you replace bad habits with healthy ones. Weighing less than a pound than as compact as a sunglass case, sober link devices have built-in facial recognition, tampered detection, and advanced reporting, which is just another way of saying it'll keep you honest. On top of all that, results are sent instantly to love ones to help you stay accountable. Go after your goals. Visit soberlink.com slash recover to sign up and receive $50 off your device today. How's it going, everyone? Welcome back to another episode. I just wanted to say thank you for all of the nice communications and the notes and the messages and the emails on the last episode

about what I've learned from hearing 100 sober stories. I thought it was a really good episode. It turned out maybe even better than I could have drawn it up. So I hope that there was something in there that you could relate to that you don't feel so alone on the journey, whether you're starting out or whether you're hitting six months or a year or wherever you're at because there's always going to be challenges and things to work through and things to learn from. So again, thank you so much for that. And I just want to mention if you're looking for a really cool community to be a part of and some support groups to check out, I can't tell you enough. I can't tell you enough how incredible the sober buddy community is. Some people on the meetings have been coming

for like eight months, you know, and really doing their best. And everybody's at different places in their journey. And our groups are getting bigger as we go along. And we're getting more dynamic with our conversations. And it's just incredible. So if you're looking to be part of something bigger than yourself and you're looking for a community and somewhere to belong and somewhere to share and some groups to join, definitely check out the Sober Buddy app.

I do three groups over there per week. And I would love to see you. Welcome back to another episode of the Sober Motivation podcast. Today we've got Zach with us. How are you? I'm great, buddy. I'm great. Thanks for having me.

I'm excited to be here. Yeah, of course. I'm glad we could jump on here and share your story. What was it like for you growing up? I had a pretty good family lifestyle. All in all, I know that there's a number of people on the show that I've touched on a variety of different things that can be challenging. Various outbreaks. But, you know, my dad's a heart surgeon.

My mom's an artist. They're still married. You know, if I lost anyone already in this podcast because of that, I promise the story gets juicier. But it was a good home, you know. It wasn't anything you wouldn't necessarily seen coming. It's not like my parents were any certain type of way, although I certainly was. So in a nutshell, that's a bit what it was like.

And we had a loving home. We bounced around a lot. But once we got situated, once they got situated, you know, it was pretty grounded. Yeah, no, I love that. Where did you grow up at? Or you said you bounced around a lot. What did that look like? Yeah, so my dad, when he was getting his trainee, we kind of were all over the U.S.

And he was a Navy brat himself. So he grew up in Hawaii for a time, Texas, et cetera. But I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, of all places. So closer to where you are, not totally up there, but we're getting close. I was raised in Monterey, California, just kind of known for its aquariums, and maybe golf, if you know it. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha.

And did you have siblings? Yeah, older sister, younger brother. Younger brother's actually sober too. I lives in North Carolina now. He's part of my story, obviously, me getting sober myself, but then also him following suit a number of years behind me, which is pretty awesome. We get to share that today. Yeah, wow. That's incredible. So middle child. Middle child, man. They say there's a syndrome to that. So I don't know. I don't know much about it. Apparently is the thing. Yeah, that's what I've heard too throughout the years. Yeah. So what does school and stuff look like for you? What about other things in your life? I mean, things at home and in your folks were good. I mean, are you finding your way through school? You're enjoying that process? Yeah, yeah. Growing up, rather, it was like, for the, yeah, long story short, certainly. Like, I think when I was a younger kid, there's definitely elements where it was like,

okay, I don't know that I really fit in. And I hear that a lot in the rooms of AA. I know not everybody's necessarily, you know, sober through AA. And my story kind of involves both. So you hear me touch on that and you'll hear me touch on other ways that, that I maintain my sobriety today. It's sort of a mix. but definitely like a lot of people you hear that in the rooms of like oh you know I always felt different ever since I was in kindergarten and I mean I definitely have a bit of that story but there's also a part of me that feels like you know maybe just being human beings trying to figure life out maybe that was part of it too but yeah I definitely struggle that was super sensitive kid and lots of things that irritate me and I get my feelings hurt all the time hear that with the sensitive alcoholic and that's definitely part of my story and so I would say that's probably the crux of it but to be honest you know I made reasonably good friends and I got by pretty okay. It wasn't until I was about 15 that I got introduced to drinking, you know, with, with like a significant other, like somebody that I was

actually intrigued by and a buddy of mine, you know, a couple of smearing off icees and a variety of different drinking aspects there. But my dad, you know, being a doctor, there was this element of like having the wine cellar and the fancy wine and trying to teach me about like the legs of, you know, just the things falling down the glass. I never got very good at learning about that stuff. But it was like this idea that like, okay, there's this classiness to it, right? Even what I'm doing in my hand, you hold your hand up and you swirl around and you smell it and you don't really drink it. I don't know. Like I said, I got sober 21 so I didn't have a lot of time to learn this stuff. But he tried and testament to him for that. But I think

just drinking for me always from the moment I try to sip of wine, it just, that burning sensation, you know, it just felt like, okay, cool. Like this is something. thing I want more of. This is something that's exciting. And I never really cared too much about about learning more about the details and how to drink like a like a gentleman, as they say. It was never really in the cards for me. Yeah. And when you picked up on that like when you first started at 15? I would say ever since I was like for the first time I remember really having a glass or like a sip of wine, which might have even been like earlier than that. I call it like 11, 12, 13. Just that feeling I do recall that. And people talk about that in a

a lot and I hear that in a lot of sobriety stories that like the first dip really hit different. And I'm not saying I knew the moment I was alcoholic, although I've had a lot of people tell me throughout my life that I have a quote unquote, like addictive personality. And I never meant anything to me. Like, okay, cool. Thanks, I guess. But that definitely played itself out. I felt like there was something special going on. That warmthness felt like something was happening. But I learned that drinking did calm down my anxious mind. And that's a big problem. part of my story. I started developing a lot of anxiety around like 15, 16 that presented in physical symptoms. Like I would get nauseous and sick to my stomach. I'd actually throw up sometimes.

Really clammy hands and stuff. That was a big part of my drinking story too, was once I learned that I could take a sip and it would quiet this anxious mind and subsequently could sort of quiet my body. That was a big part of why I continued to drink. One thing to drink a little bit, kind of feel cool. I was always drawn towards sort of like that crowd while also being doing some sports as well. And eventually it pulled me away from the things that were good. Like, you know, doing my homework, going to sports, having that sort of life. And then I started bailing and I started going to these other things that were, you know, smoking weed in a hot box in a cave. You can go clip jumping or drinking, obviously being specific to alcohol as well.

but I have other drugs as part of my story too. Yeah, that's, for a lot of people you hear that story, right? Because the mind is racing all the time, these thoughts, whether, you know, that intercritic can become overwhelming. And if you can find a solution to that, which drinking definitely shuts that off for the time being and then maybe amplifies it later on. And then that's sort of like the cycle we find ourselves in. What was bringing about the anxiety for you?

I mean, did you ever kind of figure that out? Yeah, it's a good question, man. Thanks for asking that. I think it took a lot of work. Ultimately, I think it was just not listening to myself, which is a big part of what my recovery is about today. And I know that sounds kind of tacky and maybe like Narnia-ish or something like very fantasy-esque.

Like it's like very far-fetched. But I mean, for me, just for today, it's not anymore. But it's like I needed to, I think I needed to have permission to know that as a younger child, adolescent adult that I didn't learn. I've done like a lot of like what is it, inner child healing and stuff. stuff since. Like, lots of time in my recovery to do these things that I actually think are really cool because it's got me to a point where I've gotten to know myself a lot better. But honestly, just to answering the question directly, it came from just not listening to myself. And, you know,

for anyone out there that's listening, like, if that resonates, like, I empathize with you. Like, there's this idea of this like nagging pain, this, like, uncomfortability. I'm like, maybe I don't actually want to do that thing. Maybe I don't actually want to date that person. Maybe I don't want to do this, whatever it. It is, but like there's this societal pressure. There's this peer pressure potentially and just not listening to myself. I'm not taking good care of myself and not knowing that that was something to do, I think, is a big, big, big impact.

Yeah, I love that part at the end there. I love all of it, but really the part at the end about not knowing. Yeah. It's tough at 15, right? I mean, we're kind of, we're really taking a lot of guidance and people, what people we see around us. And like the school system and the pressure to do this and to fit in the, this box and to do that stuff, that was always a challenge for me.

Like, it was just brutal. It was just torturous to show, to show up and sit still and do this stuff and read these books. I just never, never made sense to me when I was younger. And that was always a big challenge. And that created, for me personally, it created a ton of anxiety. And it was like, kind of comes back to what you're mentioning there about. But at that point in time, I feel like in our life, when we're.

15 and 16, like probably till we're 18, maybe even longer. Like, of course, we're choosing and deciding what we want to do, but there's a ton of those influences on us that we see all around us. So even though we're ultimately in a way making the choice, we're going to be influenced to probably do, you know, some things are encouraged to do some things that might not sit right with us. And I don't know at that age if we have the ability to articulate how we're feeling or thinking about it.

So I'm with you. It's like you kind of get. trapped in this, yeah, this spot to where you're not, you know, you're not feeling fulfilled in a way. And it's not really, it's not helping you. That's a great. That was, I really resonate with that last word, man. You know, purpose driven life is, is massive for me. And I'm definitely, that's not a line for me. I can't remember where it comes from, but I'm sure it's been a number of books. I've heard it flutter around. But it's so like, and when you say fulfilled, I hear those are synonymous. So I fulfilled and purpose driven. And I think so much of us long for

that and just speaking from a place of I, I certainly longed for that. And not having that purpose, not having that understanding, not having that fulfillment, you know, leads to this idea of like, well, I'm just trying to find myself. I'm just trying to fit in. I'm just trying to get by. I'm trying to do whatever the next right thing is. I have so much empathy for youngsters, you know, especially just going through like, and it doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot easier. I mean, that's a separate conversation. But high school is such a tough time. And, you know, and then even into early college days, I mean, unless you know exactly what you want to do, like my dad wanted to be a doctor since he was in third grade he was in the library reading books right and

god bless him for that he did it my cousin was a navy jet pilot and ever since we watched top gun the first one that came out we were kids my grandpa was a navy pilot he just knew he wanted to do it he did rotc which is the college for military and like you know he just just did all the things and then he went and he became a fighter pilot now he's an airline pilot but there are people that have that and again more power to you guys if you're out there and that's been your life but for me gosh man i mean at 38 years old now i i still wonder what i'm going to do when i grow up it's still there's an element i'm like you know it's just like well i guess we'll just keep rolling with the punches here and you know as long as i stay sober it seems to work out but it's just what not a part of my

story knowing what i wanted to do yeah yeah i'm with you 100 percent man i still i'm with you i still don't know what i want to do man but you know it's exciting right i mean i think it's super It's good. We embrace it now, but I think when we're younger, right, we have no idea, right? Because I struggled with that too, with fitting in and feeling left out. This was a big part of my story because I wasn't part of that group. You move into 17. You start applying for schools. Like, it was so uncomfortable for me because I just knew that like I wasn't going down that path. Everybody was celebrating. Like, everybody had their letters and everything like that. Here I am. I never read a book. or did a studied for a test in all of high school. And I just know that I'm not like applying for colleges. And you just feel left out. I just felt left out.

Like everybody else had stuff figured out. And I was like the one left behind. So that's where it's like distractions. And you have to kind of distract yourself from that. I used to just beat myself up over it. And I would always ask the question like, why can I not just do this? Like, why am I just not interested? Not everybody was, but a majority of.

People of my peers were probably like they were doing the best they could. I just couldn't get around. I think that was like the foundation for, for me anyway, for the thoughts and feelings and overwhelm of not being good enough because we spend so much time in school. And so much of everything you kind of get is like do good in school, go to college. And then you'll live this magical life afterwards. And I'm like, well, what if I don't do good in school and I don't go to college then, oh well your life is just going to be trash like it's just not going to be good i bought into that so

and then i just beat myself up that that was going to be like my life my self-esteem was like destroyed my confidence was was just garbage and then it started to kind of overflow to home but back to you what does it look like at 15 16 17 what you're drinking i mean how often are you drinking how is this thing progressing for you yeah thanks for the sharing those details about you too, man, and your story. I think, yeah, 1560, obviously, I'm just trying to get my hands on whatever I can at that age. It's my parents are super strict. God love them for doing the best they could to make sure I wasn't getting into mischief. We live kind of up on top of this hill, 20, 30 minutes away. It was hard to like get really anywhere. The only place that was open,

it's not the smallest town in the world, but it's got small town vibes. No place has opened 24 hours except the Safeway, which is a grocery store, if you have those or not. And if you're sitting outside of a parking lot of high school age, you know, past nine, 10 o'clock, that's the only place over. I mean, you might as well just carry a sign in a small town that just says, we're up to no good. You know what I mean? The police is just like kind of circling you, like trying to keep it out. Like, what are these idiots doing? But because there wasn't really much, much else to do, but I think trying to get my hands on whatever I could, at the time, we'd ask people outside of a liquor store, some buys booze. I'd steal some stuff from friends and family, you know,

stockpile my stuff but really from the beginning at like 16 i was getting you know i had a girlfriend at the time that she she would get from her folks they were pretty pretty relaxed about it and you just kind of do what she can but i found myself gravitating towards it a lot like i was skipping football practice funny side story in there my girlfriend at the time lived right next door to my football coach so when i skipped football practice and then my my car was at her place like after football practice he'd see it and he'd just like no and then show up like oh like whatever like they'll never know i don't know what i was just totally like clearly just cared more about drinking and doing something else than football. But that was where my mindset was.

And that's what I gravitated towards. And it escalated quickly. The more I drank, the more I needed to drink. Obviously, the definition of tolerance needing more for the same desired effect. My anxious mind only worked for so long. And again, God love my parents. They interjected at 16 to try to put me a treatment because they found some hard liquor in my truck. I was really getting anxious and throwing up at the time.

They didn't know what was going on with me. I didn't know what was going on with me. They thought I was like hiding a bunch of things. I was trying to explain to them what was happening. So again, if anyone's like, you know, listening that was going through those challenges, I definitely empathize with you. And like I said,

I have so much empathy for people growing up these days because it's just you don't know what you don't know. And like my parents didn't know, the therapist didn't know, I didn't know. It's like there was no direction. There was no real guidance and everyone was doing the best they could. So the best thing they could do was throw me in treatment. It was a nice attempt.

But at 16 years old, when you've only been drinking for like half a year. Like it's like, okay, that's not going to stick. But, I mean, credit to them, they actually told me in the treatment facility, like, you're an alcoholic. I don't think so. But even as 16 years old, man, so I'll fast forward through that a bit if you want in terms of the progression.

But I really, once I got into college and once I really was able to access alcohol better, I was in a four-year college and San Luis Obispo and my friends were in the junior college. And I just didn't have time for school is what it boiled down to. I just said I wanted to party. I wanted to lean into that life more. And I don't even know if it was because I wanted to be a hooligan or anything. I think I just wasn't really ready to grow up. And I wasn't really comfortable with my body. Like I said, listening to myself. I didn't have any tools to like understand what was going on. I was starting to get benzodiazepines colonopin as prescriptions and being told like, you know, to use sparingly and don't mix with alcohol and in all these things that,

you know, of course I didn't listen to. I just thought if I mixed with alcohol, it worked better. So, which eventually led to, I'm not skipping the story too much, depending on how many details you want, but eventually led to me, you know, blacking out of the wheel. And I hope I don't trigger anybody out there by talking about drinking and driving, but that is a part of my story. And I'm not proud of it. I'll make that very clear.

I know it can be extremely triggering for a lot of people, you know, who have been on the receiving end of horrible things that have happened. And I'm, if I can say it, I'm grateful that I, nothing true. terrible happen because obviously drinking and driving can be disastrous and some of it for myself driving on these cliff sides of highway one if you're familiar with that area or or just freeways right highways with other people on the road and so that's why I shared with you earlier on like big part of me getting sober came through the police and their interjection and at the time I felt like I was being picked on like what does the universe have against me right that victim mode like I don't

understand. Why am I always getting in trouble? This is so ridiculous. But the fact of the matter is, like, it just, like, thank God. You know, people were doing their jobs and they were looking out for other civilians because I was, I was a hooligan. I was not a productive member of society. I was doing my best to cope and survive, which I know is a big part of a lot of people's stories and just, just get by. But yeah, man, it was getting downhill really quickly, like, barely able to hold a server job that started at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and they barely able to get there without throwing a few drinks back to start the shift. 50, 50, if I was going to hold that down, because I drank so much the night before and I was hung over, it really did progress pretty

quickly by the time I was 21 and kind of accidentally getting sober here. It was pretty bad pretty quick. Yeah, it sounds like it for sure. Yeah, that college transition too, it really opens up the door, right? Because there's less eyes on us. And you'll hear all the time. I'll do the air quotes here. Everybody's doing it. I know that's not true, but that's the way it appears, right? I mean, we see what we want to see.

It's like the red car effect. If you buy a new red car, if you buy a red Honda Civic, all of a sudden, everybody's got a red Honda Civic. It's that type of effect. So we attract and we see what we're looking for. That's the lifestyle where we're headed. That's the way it's going to kind of appear. And I had that mentality for a long time, too.

Like, everybody's doing it. And then when I, like, really honestly look back, nobody was really doing it like I was doing it. A handful of people were doing it. I wanted to touch on the going to treatment thing. So your folks picked up on that they found the bottle. And then like, yeah, you've got to go to rehab. I mean, how does that? How does that play out?

Like, explain that a little bit. At 16 years old, man, if you want me to go back that far, I'm happy to, like, I had three bottles of liquor in my truck, which I was so happy to. have gotten because it's not easy to come by. It's 16, right? So I'm stockpiling from my girlfriend and my friends at the time feeling like, okay, I get to be the cool guy that shows up with the booze because I have it. And, you know, mom just happens to go outside and check my truck for some reason. Maybe she's worried about me. I don't know. She always kind of had that like that bloodhound kind of vibe to her. She sniff things out. But so, you know, of course, I think for the end, they're just like, oh my God, three bottles. Like this guy has got a problem. And, you know, again,

I'm kind of sickly. And just because I'm, I'm not really holding down a lot of food because of my anxiety. And I'm not really talking about it because I don't even know what's going on. I just keep saying like, oh, I think I have an ulcer. There's something wrong in my stomach. And I think, you know, they're just trying to make sense of the pieces, like, you know, what's going on. And they see all this booze. So yeah, I remember my girlfriend at the time I was a barista at a coffee shop.

And I remember telling her, like, we're going to Mexico. Like, get your stuff. Like, we're packing up. We're going to 16 years old. I was like, like $100 in my name, $200 of my name. And we're going to go drive to Mexico and live happily ever out. after I guess. And you talk about just like your own best thinking like where it takes us. And I give my parents credit, you know, for, for intervening and putting me in a, you know,

it was like an adolescence treatment facility. It was only like 20 something days. And I was able to like do school while I was there and stuff. But it was, it was not. I mean, again, I'd been drinking for, you know, consistently for six months now. There's no way I was going to wrap my head around like, okay, I'm an alcoholic. And this makes a lot of sense. you so much for this life-changing opportunity. Yeah. Like, yeah. Yeah, no, for sure.

Yeah, it's going to probably take a little bit more. Yeah, it's interesting, too. I mean, I went to rehab when I was 17 for a year. I didn't get the gift of the 28-day program. I was there for a year. Oh, wow. Yeah, I was in the psych ward for the second time with these suicidal thoughts and stuff. Oh, my parents.

Yeah, my parents had this guy come in, right? This guy came in. And my parents, we need to get some help, right? Interestingly enough, I wasn't even doing drugs or anything at the time. My life was just complete chaos. You know, my life was complete chaos before stuff even entered. Alcohol, drugs even entered my life. It was just chaotic.

But this guy comes in, right? This is more of like, they're trying to get me some help with the behaviors because, like, school, I'm getting suspended from school. I've already been around. I got my first time I was arrested with 16. I was on probation. And I had this real hard ass. I had this real hard ass probation officer. But I see, I think the reason I didn't get into it to even get off that story is I used, I had to do drug tests.

And like then, you know, somebody watched you do. Yeah, they would have busted me obviously if I was doing stuff. So it never really crossed my mind, honestly. But they had this guy come in. He does this interview. And it was one of those shorter programs. It was like a couple months. And it was like 90 minutes from the house.

And the guy was like, yeah, just come to the program. We live in a cabin and everything. But like, you have to be willing to. And at the time, I was so far into. the denial of anything being wrong in my life. I mean, when I look back now, like, literally the house was on fire. It was really, really bad. I couldn't see it, though. I couldn't see it. And I didn't believe it. And I wasn't willing to get any help. So I told this guy, like, where to go? I'm not interested in the program. So my parents sort of had a plan B. So then they brought me to

this place where you don't need consent. They take people that don't give consent. So it was a, it was a lockdown basement for four, three to four. months. I was locked in this basement to do this program and then we went to graduated. But yeah, I just related to that story of like that early intervention of things. People around us trying their best. But it's like when you're young like that, even after I did that one year program, I really got into stuff afterwards. Like I did really well. But I just think it's so tough. You know, a lot of people want the answers and solutions for young people. It's so tough to to connect the dots, I think, at the time, right?

Like six months in, I mean, six months in, like, you're just kind of getting at it, you know, like to give it up for the rest of your life. And we grow up and this stuff is just glamorized. I mean, it's the cool thing to do. Everybody we look up to in the world, they're on the commercials, they're doing it in the movies everywhere.

Back to what we're talking about here. So your parents are bringing into that program. And yeah, I mean, it's hard to connect the dots. I'm with you, 110%. I went for a year. And I mean, I did well, but it was still, it was tough. I felt like I was just kind of learning things and experiencing some things still, you know. It's interesting you say the anxious mind because actually when I quit my job like six years ago to kind of do all this stuff, like this, where we are today was never part of the plan.

But I wrote this blog article. I wrote this blog. I was like, oh, maybe I'll just write a blog or something. I don't know, a paper. It was like, it was cool at the time. Right. And it was called The Anxious Mind. And I shared, yeah, I shared this little, I shared this thing on Facebook. And it was really, really vulnerable. I didn't know what, I really don't know what I was thinking,

putting this out there. And I shared that. And it was talking about that, right? Like, there's no relief from the anxious mind. Like, the anxious mind just runs 24-7. It's an intercritic that just kind of beats you up and beats you down and tells you you're not good enough. And then, like, the solution was definitely like drinking. It just turned, it's like an off-swit. and then, you know, temporarily. But yeah, it's interesting, you kind of brought that up, just made me think about this article. And then I had other people reach out to me, and they were like,

oh, like, they enjoyed it. And I was like, oh, well, that's kind of, like people you don't expect. You know, when you put something out there and people are, people, they kind of come out of their shell a little bit. And they're like, oh, I can relate with that stuff. And so just made me think of that. Actually, you. Yeah.

Actually. I know I love hearing about you, man. I know your listeners do too. that's a beautiful thing about these engagements, these back and forth. I'm sure it prompts certain things. You're like, oh, wow, I forgot about that. I remember that. I'm going to touch on that.

Yeah, it makes sense that the 16-year-old piece would resonate. And, yeah, if you're under 18, I mean, that's definitely, like, legal and allowed. I know my parents explored that. I think for whatever reason they chose not to. I certainly could have, and maybe I just staved them off enough or showed up well enough. Maybe they didn't want to disrupt my life. maybe that's what their thought was. I don't know.

I can't speak on their behalf, but I bypassed that, but what did it buy me? It bought me a few more years of drinking and a bunch more legal interventions. Yeah. Walk us through that. So you had this impaired driving where you blacked out. What did that look like? Yeah. So as, you know, needing more for the desired effects goes, I was basically turning into a blackout

drinker. And then when I was prescribed, the benzos, told not to drink and drive. at the same time. For the most part, I listened because I didn't necessarily take them at night. I truly was trying to take them as prescribed. But there was the carryover. And when I decided to drink, as I would like to drink, and I had it in my bloodstream, man, there's, I, to this day, I still is just like, I can taste the dirt in my mouth of that car flipping. Like, it was, it was like one minute, my eyes are on the road. And the next time, just, I don't know what's happening. Yeah, I've had a couple, this one school I went to, which is actually a true facility called Hazelden, now Hazelden, Betty Ford, but I had a teacher there that one of my degrees is in addiction counseling.

I did that for a bit, but on my sober side, but he used to say he had a back problem. And I love this analogy. I love this scenario that the way that he worded. He said, you know, the cops were on my back, my parents were on my back. You know, my spouse was on my back, whatever. And that's why he got sober. He got sober because he had a back problem. And I really, I don't know, I was resonated with that.

And so I passed that on on his behalf whenever I get these opportunities because that was true. That was the truth. Like there wasn't a lot of internal motivation, as they call it, you know, the professional realm. It was all externally driven. It was legal. It was parents. It was all that, you know, trouble in relationships, not that I had many at a young age. I mean, long story short, I got a minor possession at 18 for alcohol.

And then they were kind of politely took my license. away but drove me home. I don't really understand how that worked out, but whatever, lost my license. It was the strangest thing. I didn't go to jail, but they took my license for a year. I don't know. Anyway, it doesn't that. 20 years old, I get a DUI. I go to a liquor store trying to get booze. They weren't going to sell to me. They knew I was under the influence. They must have known I would go to the next liquor store. They called the police. Again, everyone did exactly what they're supposed to do. At the time, I was a victim of everything, but, you know, now I look back and I'm really thankful for these people. And they called the cops right away. I got pulled over, just inching out of the

parking lot. You know, just, just like rolling my window up like, oh, nothing's going to happen. And no, just bloop, like, pulled over. I'm like, man, again. And, but I remember that that last one really hit me, like, flipped the car, was trying to be a good older brother. My brother wanted a cheeseburger at this burger joint that was down the road. I had it in my mind. Just to remember the logic. I'm drunk. He's drunk. I'm like, oh, this would be great. I'm going to go, you know, go take my little brother to get his cheeseburger. And I'm a good brother. you know and just blacked out at the wheel and went off the road landed upright flip the car was a tiny little Mazda meada like can opener's car just you know tin can thing and as a result

of the way that it wrecked it fractured his neck and which i shared earlier thankfully not paralyzed but it was a c1c2 so if you're familiar with the christopher reeves accident when he fell off of a horse the former superman like if you fractured your c1c2 it severed your spinal cord i mean at best you're living in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, unable to really do anything. And at worst, which is what usually ends up happening, people pass away because it's just, there's no ability to communicate with any part of your body. So I look back on that, and it really, it really hits me hard, although sadly not that much in the moment. Like, you know, I barely got us off the road, a couple tires popped, door dragging in the street, and I'm getting off the road

because it landed upright and trying to drag my brother. Like, we got to get out of here. I don't want to go to jail and yelling at him. He was like, my neck, my neck. And I'm like, hurry up, you know. And anyway, I tried to get away. Thankfully, didn't. Again, I was a victim in the moment, but today I'm grateful. And yeah, got popped. And I remember that I was so used to people liking me. I was just like, even as a drunk, I was kind of a likable guy. And the cop didn't handcuff me. I just told him the truth. Like, I'm drunk. Oh, I'm sorry. Brother went to the hospital when I sat in the front seat. I remember playing with the radio and having a conversation with this cop. Like, we were buddies and it hit me when I got to jail that like in the in the in the in the cop told me the next

morning it's when it really hit me like uh I was okay I'm basically I'm ready to go home now like it's been a night I slept it off and he's like no man you're a jail like you don't go home like this is a thing like there's multiple felonies against you like you're we're waiting for a bed to open up you're going to go live with felons in jail I'm like oh shit like excuse my language but that's when I was like, oh my God, like there's consequences for this thing. Like you don't just sleep in like a padded room because you told them that you might kill yourself hoping that they'll feel sorry for you, which they don't, or anything like that. They just, you're there.

And it was a rude awakening for me for sure. I started this thing. Of course, I had this idea in my head. I was going to write these stories titled the jailhouse journals. They still had to this day. It's only an accumulation of like, you know, two weeks of writing. writings, but with a little pen. But you know what's beautiful about that, Brad? Like to this day, I can read you journals from those moments in that mindset. And when I go back and I read the

police report, man, it almost brings me to tears because it's like I don't recognize myself. And at the same time, it's my responsibility to take ownership for my actions. And when I look back at that and I own that as a part of my life today, it's wild. I don't know if that's a part of your story that you relate to or anyone out there that hears it's just like and most people like meet me these days are like I never would ever expect that I do kind of pride myself on being like a quote unquote like nice guy for all intents and purposes and I like to be that for people I like to be a supporter I like to be an encourager I like to be motivator a bit of an empath so yeah it's hard to read that. And it's factual, printable, like in the paper stuff, look it up. That, you know,

that's what I did. It broke my brother's neck. Flipped the car. I went to jail. I was a felon for five years on felony probation. And sadly, you can guess what the first thing I did when I got out of jail. I mean, you probably figure it out based off the type of podcast that we're on right now. Like, I got out of jail at 11 o'clock at night. And I got out with another guy that was a couple DUIs, and we went right across the street, and we got a bunch of 40s, and we got drunk. And then I called my parents, because I had nobody else, and said, they just released me.

Two o'clock in the morning. They just let me out because it's cold, and I got nowhere to go. And I talk about the epitome of selfishness, and it's wild to think that even in that moment, Brad, a guy with three DUIs wasn't even drinking as much as me, and I didn't even remotely cross my mind that what I was doing was a problem. I was just in jail for two weeks, got bailed out on some weird excuse. They didn't put me in front of a judge fast enough or something.

I got this pending sentence over my head. I got my brother in the hospital. God knows what happened. I got everyone mad at me in the world seemingly. And the first thing I do is go and get two and a half, like I pound two and a half 40s. You know, steal reserve if anyone knows what those are. I mean, at 21, man, that's where I was headed. I was literally, that was a taste of sitting by the dumpsters.

drinking 40s. I think a guy felt bad for me, gave me his jacket because I didn't have a jacket and it was cold. And like, that was a taste of like where my life was going fast. There's a lot to that story. And thank you for sharing it too, you know, because I think that those are, I think those type stories are the ones that help other people kind of unlock where they might be stuck at. You know, that we, that there's a lot of stuff that can be involved in the decisions we make, but that like we can start to make better ones today and moving forward and over the years.

And we can't necessarily like change obviously what happened, but we can try to show up in a way to like bring value to the world and be an example of what's possible and that we can turn things around. Because it's very easy. I mean, like you mentioned, after you get bailed out, right? You're back to it right away. And it's very easy to continue. And I'm glad you didn't, but it's very easy for a lot of people, I think, to continue beating themselves

up and, you know, that carry on for 10 plus years, you know, to keep, keep doing it, right? And the cycle just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. So that would that accountability from those charges, how did that look? Like some of these cases, you know, sometimes take a while to pan out. I mean, what are you doing in the meantime? What did the resolution look like there for you? Yeah, I'll try not to be so long-winded in this response. But I, because there's a lot of solution to the story, too.

guys. You know, you're hanging in there. Like, I do a lot of cool stuff today, and I'm grateful for my sobriety as well. But definitely a big part of my story is obviously, like, what happened and why I'm sober today. But yeah, it took a while. It probably took a couple years, a year and change. And I remember thinking, oh, the judge is going to feel like I'm a good guy. Or the judge is going to think, like, okay, like he did what he's supposed to do. That did not happen. That was not my story, man. I went back to jail after I done treatment. I dealt a couple months in patient, six months outpatient. And I was in sober living for a number of months as well. And doing all the quote unquote right things, which I'm grateful for. I needed that. I think that's what, especially at that age.

And then I got sober in Los Angeles and there was a fair number of young people too. So I think that was a part of it. There's young people's meeting man where they're 16, 17, 15, 15, 18 year olds, like everywhere. And I'm just like, wow, this is wild. So and at 21, I was definitely a quote unquote young person, but seeing a lot of teens was, I guess, encouraging. They did things like icky paw and like, you know, all these conferences and conventions for young people and alcoholics anonymous and stuff. So there was a bit of camaraderie there. Anyway, I'll touch on that later.

Yeah, the long story short, I got a bit of a resolution, but it was not the one I was looking for. It was one I needed probably. It was not the one I was looking for. And the judge, I remember him clear as day saying during my sentencing, they postponed it for a while to build the case. like I don't see what's so special about this kid you know he and he listed off all the things I had done and I had even gotten the public defender or the excuse me the prosecuting attorney I forget district attorney whatever they're called I'd even gotten them to basically like recommend that I just keep doing treatment and not to interrupt my life and and kind of drop all the charges and the judge

single-handedly was like no like there's nothing special about this kid like he doesn't get special treatment. Like this is this is it. And again, it's probably, you know, as they say in the room, God doing for me what I can't do for myself or higher power, universe, whatever you want to call it, because at 21, it was not easy to get sober. It was definitely not easy to stay sober. And Lord knows I needed every bit of accountability and structure. And that was what happened. You know, that's when I got my five-year felony probation with some time served. They sentenced me to 120 days with credit for a one month's serve, so I still had to serve 90. And they allowed me to do that on house arrest, but no one was allowed in.

So it was really strange circumstances. Like I had friends that were sober that'd bring me a coffee and I'd sit with my door open. They'd sit outside, but they couldn't come in. It was odd times, but thank God for those people, man, and my sober friends at the time and sponsors that would do the same. That accountability is what kept me sober. In Los Angeles, oh my God, Los Angeles felony probation. No joke.

I mean, rapists, murderers, the whole gamut. Like, that was who I was checking in with. That's who I was with. That was where my drinking took me, Brad. And, like, when anyone else out there, like, that's where it took me, you know, was to be with felons in Los Angeles. So it's, I got to own that, too, you know. It's not like, judge is right. Nothing special.

That's a thing. Yeah. No, that's heavy. But at the time, yeah, that I can only imagine that probably hit heavy, right? when you hear that, when you hear that, like, you're not getting off. Because you shared a little bit in your story. What I kind of picked up is you were a very charismatic,

you got along with people type person, right? So, like, and I was a lot like that too in a sense. I weasel, weaseled my way out of a lot of situations because when I needed to, I could flip the switch and be different morph into different people. That was like my survival technique. And then, yeah,

ultimate accountability when somebody sees through it, when that first person, you don't never forget it. It was, it was probably, it was probably my first probation officer when I was on probation at 16, because in North Carolina, at 16, you're an adult. If you get these charges, right? So you get felony charges. Yeah, you go to, you know, you follow through that same process. So that's what she was used to dealing with. And I mean, she was hard as a rock. And she would come to the school with her sidearm on and her big jacket. It's a probation in the back. She'd be waiting outside the classroom door. I mean, it was humiliating.

But, you know, looking back, I mean, it just is what it is. That's the way it was set up. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't anything necessarily against me, even though it's like we get stuck in that. You've mentioned it to that victim role, right? Like, poor me, why is this happening to me? And what was happening because of the choices I was making. But at the time, we don't.

Yeah. It's like those dots, right? So you get, you have this ultimate accountability, five years of felony probation. I always thought too, man, and we're going to move into like the whole sobriety and what the heck you're up to now and everything like that.

But I always had this thought when I found myself in these situations because I got my first convictions at 16, then I got charged again at 18, then I was charged again in my 20s, tons of felonies. And, you know, at the end, man, I found myself in like 10 by 10 cells

with murderers and stuff. And I was lost, man. I wasn't. necessarily a criminal lifestyle type person. You know, I got wrapped up with the wrong people. And when we got together, we just did, you know, we made bad choices. Yeah. But a lot of people, you know, some people, it's like their lifestyle, right?

That wasn't me. But I would ask myself, like, dude, at the end, I'm like, I look in the little mirror. You can barely see yourself like the thing. It's just like this metal, shiny little metal mirror. And I looked in that mirror and I kind of asked myself the question of like, how did I end up here, man? And when I reflect back on it, man, it literally, I was really impulsive because I had ADHD and I stopped taking my medication at all a couple years before. And when I did that, my filter, my ability to make rational decisions was gone. I had a hard time connecting the dots.

So it would literally just be me making impulsive decisions without thinking them through with a little bit of peer pressure that ended me up in places. and it wasn't even my character or how I was raised or what I even really wanted to be doing. And I just thought back. I'm like, man, how did I end up here? You know, at the end, I just couldn't help but ask myself that question. And I was blown away about how I had every opportunity in life to do well to succeed. My folks were good. I mean, they intervention.

I mean, I had so many interventions and I did that one year-long program. I did, you know, probation and I did time in jail and I went to learning centers and I went to therapy and I seen psychiatrists. I had every intervention and I just, I guess I was kind of surprised at the end about that question. How did I end up here? Well, it was really strange, but yeah, man, congrats. So when, so when do you get sober? Right after, because you mentioned while you're waiting for this case and everything you're doing, sober living and stuff. So is this when you get sober this period here? Yeah, yeah. So I want to brush over what you said too quickly, because I really appreciate you touching all that too, man, and just a quick note on that.

And I'll get into your question because I did get sober in treatment and have stayed sober since. But, you know, thankfully, and we'll touch on that. But one thing that really comes to mind when you say that I really resonate with a lot is, is not necessarily being like, I don't think you said it directly, but I don't know if anyone else out there resonates with it. but like just starting to feel like am I a bad person? Like why am I drawn towards these things that are producing bad outcomes? Or like whether it's good or bad or whatever, it doesn't really matter.

William Shakespeare says nothing is good or bad. It's thinking that makes it so right. So it just kind of is without being too philosophical. But one thing I really wrap my head around in that space is it's just this like sort of confusion or lack of awareness of not even just like I don't know what I don't know, like you said, thing of like a baby step almost the wrong direction or not necessarily that the right like you know the straight and narrow as it were you know or for me like the football practices and the studying

and the college and the things like we talked about but just this baby step to the right of like okay well this is helping me take the edge off or this is helping me cope with life or whatever the reason is that we went for that step and then it's like okay then we take another step we take another step without we realize it where we're 45 90 degrees off to the right and thinking, at least for me, speaking from a place to buy, kind of thinking that, like, I know I'm a little off, I know I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do, but I don't realize how far off I am

and how fast maybe I'm going completely the wrong direction. And it feels more like I'm doing something like this and I can still get back on track. So there's almost that delusional thought pattern that might not even be aware that it's delusional, thinking like, oh, okay, it's just going to take a nice weekend or something. Maybe a camping trip with some buddies, you know, I don't know if that resonated with you or anybody else, but this idea of like, I'm not that far off.

Like, I know what I'm doing is not great. But actually, I've baby stepped my way way over here, end of the screen. And the good news is we can baby step our way back. But of course, the bad news is we took a lot of baby steps to get there, which means we've got to take a lot of baby steps to get our way back. And that's, for me, what segues into like my sobriety was that awareness of, oh, my gosh, I'm at a cliff over here. I'm way over here and looking back, like, I was way over there. And I don't understand what happened. And you touched on the interventions reminded me of that as well.

Like, I had all these things. And I didn't know it was so far off. So anyway, specific to your question, yeah, I got sober November 28, 2007, 2006, excuse me, a sobriety date. And that puts me in 16 years in change. And the holidays in treatment at the time. And yeah, man, that's a date that has fluctuated. for me in terms of its gravity of its meaning.

But today I'm really grateful to say that it means a lot. There were times where it didn't mean anything. And I just was like, well, whatever. It just happens to be the day I stopped drinking. But I really hold on to it because sometimes just stacking that time up is the only thing that keeps me sober, just my own stubbornness in a good way. I just don't want to start back over. It's too much time now.

I don't have to go back and say day one. I just, I want to just keep it. But I definitely have had relapse as a part of my story too. And I know you've touched on that previous podcast and on your most recent one, which I really enjoyed, the things that you learned from 100, 100 stories. But you touched on that as well that a lot of people don't get it the first time. Majority don't.

And I definitely empathize with that too. That was a part of my story, even at a young age. Like, I was definitely not a one and done. It took me a period of time. And thankfully, from that point on, I've stayed sober. But it's kind of by accident, man. Like I said, it really was at felony probation. I wanted to go back to drinking.

Lord knows it was 21. I didn't know what to stay sober. Yeah. You're just allowed to now in the U.S. to start drinking in you. Well, I mean, it's always that blessing in disguise in a sense, right? It's those things that happen. But you know what the, man, what the tough part is,

is that like any one of these situations I think in your life, in my life, I was involved in a ton of risk. A ton of risky situations. Like, something had to be looking out. Something had to be looking out because for a lot of our stories, too, things could have went the other way in a lot of different situations. I never even told this story on the show before, but I got robbed one time with this.

It was by this guy at a gun. And we were at this party. And we wanted to get some ecstasy. Like, we were just long gone drinking. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, we can make this happen and stuff. So we went to like this neighborhood and oh, was the scariest thing ever.

It was so terrifying, but it really could have went, really could have went the other way. And that's just one story of like a fee. Like I think it had $40 on me and like, and I wasn't really living that kind of life, right? Yeah. So that was just like,

whoa, what did we get ourselves into? But it's, it's strange. The next day, like it's a cool, becomes a cool story in a sense. And you just kind of move on.

Like, whoa, you know, wow. That was, It's like you don't even, I don't even know if I even thought about it really in a bad light after like the next day. It was so strange. But it's when you hear the people's stories, it's almost like things could have went the other way and been like really, really, really bad, even though they were still difficult. But one little adjustment here, one little adjustment there. Things could have changed, you know. I always think about that with my story.

One little adjustment, I mean, two seconds sooner here. you know, five more seconds brushing my teeth here. I mean, things could have turned out completely different and it can't help but wonder what the heck is, you know, going on. But dude, that's incredible since 2006. And since then, I mean, you're in Bali now. Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah.

So walk us through, man. We've got like, I'd say another eight to ten minutes. Okay. Tell me the story from here. Yeah. I'd love to touch on some of the fun parts. of sobriety. I feel like we got pretty heavy in the meat and potatoes of like kind of what it was like and what happened, which is totally cool too. But definitely, definitely not all doom and gloom.

I mean, if anything, I, so what I do now, and I think this is kind of how we connected was, you know, kind of this name fell on my head of this idea of like nomadic addict, this like traveling nomad, you know, addict. I don't have any shame attached to, you know, having struggle with addiction and being in recovery and alcoholic or addict that a lot of people do and and you know my if you do no problem like whatever you want to attach yourself to is fine for me it doesn't have any negative connotation matter of fact it's a really interesting time to get sober so many people seemingly are alcohol free these days and more and more celebrities every day are coming out saying they're sober sober is almost becoming the new cool thing which is ironic but that's another it's another story for another

time but yeah i mean in the course of my using and drinking i never traveled and i think i always had this desire to. I love meeting new people. I love cultures. I just have this like insatiable curiosity for life that has been reflected back to me by lots of other people and just this desire to live life to the best of my ability. It really does feel like a gift to me, especially my sobriety. Not always that way when I was using. That's for darn sure. But so I started working in treatment. I started like just kind of stacking good things together. You know, I tried to relearned how to go to school. I told you A.A.A. is a part of my story. And part of A.A. They say you sit up, front, you stick with the winners, you ask questions, you get there early, you stay late.

And when I kind of had a sponsor, I talked to people about how do I go to school again, they said the same thing. You get there early, you sit up front, you stick with the winners, you thank the speaker, you know, you get the early, you stay late. And I just applied that logic and I started getting good grades. I also have ADD, and like I didn't know how to do that. And I just started to learn. And I started stacking that together. I thought I might be a doctor as well, my dad, all that, but it wasn't in the cards for me. I explored the Navy life, but, you know, thankfully that wasn't a thing. We weren't, they weren't, you know, taking people with DUIs to fly jets. So I was, which would have, which is another, talk about

something looking out for you that I don't think that would have been my lifestyle. So fast forward, I find myself working in treatment, thinking I'm going to help people, you know, five years sober. So getting into taking care of myself, doing some triathlons, doing some like jogs and runs and crossfit and just learning how to be, you know, to how to take care of myself. And that's like to go back to what we talked about in the beginning of the show, like listening to my body's needs, listening to my mind's needs, like get up early, eat decent, go to bed at a decent hour, try to do the next right thing. Basics.

Basics that for some reason, I think my dad tried to instill at me at a young age. I completely didn't listen to him. But it was just like, it's amazing, the impacts that that has. I was able to learn a little bit of the ropes of addiction treatment. I was a counselor. I went and I got a couple masters, so that's like, that's a couple, that's a part of my story these days. Hold on. You got a couple of masters. Just breeze over that. Like here, here I am, like, struggling to get through, like, grade 12 and you just drop in there. That's incredible, man.

That's incredible. Thanks, buddy. I say that only on this part of it because to me, it is, and it's incredible because the testament of recovery, and that's why I tried to preface it with, like, I tried to preface it with, like, I learned how to go back to school. Like, I didn't know how to do that. They taught me. Like, I said, go to school early. release, stick with the winner, stay late, ask questions. And I did that. I got my master's in business and then I got my master's in addiction counseling with the focus on co-occurring disorders. And so I was a counselor, equivalent therapist for a number of years and then I built some treatment facilities. And unfortunately, not to gloss over that too much, but that industry for me was just

a bit tainted and I just couldn't find a facility that I really genuinely felt like I was sending a friend or family to, let alone want to work there. And I'd bounced around a lot. And it gets back to the space of like feeling like, well, what's wrong with me? Like, why don't I want to stay at any of these places? But listening to myself, which comes back full circle to the beginning of like, no, like, there doesn't have to be something wrong with me. Like, if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't right. And I don't have to stay here and just turn a blind eye to things that don't feel right. If they're not compliant or if it feels like they're encouraging clients to relapse to come back in so they can, you know, get more insurance checks.

higher return on investment. I don't always be terrible about the industry. There's plenty of good stuff out there, right? But plenty of good programs as well. I'm sure you know of plenty. But that said, there are those other ones too. And so I got into a different line of work. It's a little bit more digital content oriented now.

Still semi in the addiction space with blogs and web pages for a company called Addiction Recovery, which I love. And so we get to do some work there. And that affords me the lifestyle that I do now to travel. But nomadic addict is my passion project. And I'm barely going to sneak this in our last couple of minutes. But what I've been doing with it is a very, very, very small piece of like what you're doing in the sense of just trying to share with people that like I don't stay sober today because I just go to a room once a day for an hour in AA or because I just read out of a book, like some nice things or listen to a motivational speaker. Like I do all of these things, different periods of time throughout the week.

But I stay sober because my life is genuinely better, dude. I've been to, and that was a testament to why I mentioned the master's degrees briefly. Like, I even learn to fly helicopters at one period of time. And an airplane, I scuba dive. I've been to over 46 countries. Like, I've been to 50 states, you know. I don't say any of that to brag. I say that because it's literally a testament to my sobriety.

And the wild thing is, man, my sponsor that I have these days, is an agnostic. He doesn't believe in God or whatever, and that's fine. And that's great, because there's lots of people that don't. The reason why I say that is because he's instilled this idea in my head. Like,

you can still live in faith. And his simple definition is like, you know, if you're opposite of fear is faith, and the simple definition is faith is not needing to know. Like, you just walk forward. You don't have to have the answers. You don't have to know.

Like you said with your podcast and what you're doing now, You probably didn't know what this was going to turn into or what it looks like. And so for a nomadic addict, just to end on that note, I one step at a time started really embracing this idea of sober travel. And, you know, I put together a few blogs and I'd love to do a sponsored trip for a couple people. I got to figure that out. Maybe a nonprofit one day where I could sponsor some sober travel trips. You can get the word out there to people through this or something. But travel.

You can sponsor me. Yeah. Answer me. Yeah, yeah. Bring the kids out to Bali, but travel has opened my eyes to, I still go to A&A, I still connect with people, I still embrace sobriety. But there's so much joy and there's so much freedom. There's so much peace out there. And it's just another reminder that we live in this, yeah, the world's small, but it's also massive.

I mean, there's so many things out there for us to go explore. I mean, I've just been blessed to swim with like humpback whales and tiger sharks and and run into these like incredible people like Ocean Ramsey and Kaylee Grant and if you guys are ocean people at all then those names might mean something but I say that again and I'm going to wrap up right now but I say that because sobriety this is the part I really was excited to get into I'm stoked we talked about what we did but it's like there's so much and just at least ending on a passionate nose there's so much joy in living and so much of that I never realized I was depriving myself of thinking that this was helping.

And by not drinking and not drugging, it's opened me up to my ability to feel feelings, which is scary at times, but really appreciate what it means to be a human and to live a human life. But also to like, again, have these extravagant things happen when I'm just completely blown away. How is this happening? How am I on this trip? How did I, you know, do this mile? hack thing and get a free flight over here. You know what I mean? There's so many cool ways to live life that we are exposed to. And you meet these people. And it just goes full circle to this idea of faith

is not needing to know. Just take that blind step and just trust the process. And man, they say you'll be amazed before you're halfway through. Like, my life isn't perfect today. I'll make that super clear. But it really is something that just blows me away. I meet the coolest people. And I get to talk to people like you. I get to connect with other people out there and I get to do things that I love today. And it just totally reinforces me in this idea of like, like, what would drinking or drugging ever add back to my life? Yeah, I still have anxious moments sometimes. Yeah, my stomach churned sometimes. But as a result of what I've learned, I can listen to myself. I can tap in and I can live life on life's terms without having to drink or drug. And I guess I'll just end with that.

But I just love life today, man. And I just, if I could give any spec of motivation or encouragement or support to anybody out there on that last little bit, like, that's put nomadic addicts about. That's why it's not called Zach's power. Like, it's not about me. It's about this idea of like just trying to give people living their best life, their best opportunities. Yeah.

Dude, that's incredible, man. And a lot of traveling and a lot of stuff. And, I mean, you've earned it. You've worked hard for it, right? To be able to have these opportunities. And the sobriety, I mean, for most people, when they are living better, you ask the question, like, would any of this be possible without sobriety? And then they look at me like kind of weird. Like, no, of course not.

But I'm like, well, we just want to mention it for people. A couple of things there stood out to me, man, the faith part, right? Because I was in rehab one time. I worked in the treatment center up here too and made this one guy, right? No, faith was this thing, this concept of we were struggling to get across to this one fellow. And I had this guy break it down for me. And I love the way that your sponsor there explaining it. I had this other guy.

And he said, look, when you wake up in the morning, do you check to see that the floor is there before you put your feet down? Yeah. And this guy's like, no. And he's like, well, then you have faith that the floor is going to be there to hold you up. So whether you can see it in a bigger sense, at least you understand it in a smaller sense, right? So I was like, man, that's just that, that hit home. I really appreciate you, dude, coming on here, sharing your story, sharing, you know, what you're up to.

with the nomadic addict and everything like that, I think it's incredible. And I think it's beautiful to bring people together and show them that life. You know, that's one of the most powerful things, I think, about the whole sobriety thing. If we were to keep drinking and doing drugs, none of this stuff would be possible for one, probably.

Like, that's probably pretty safe to say. And I think for two, is it just gets so day in and day out. You do the same thing. You know, a few things change. Day in and a day out. I'll talk with some people and they'll say, yeah, I mean, for the last 10 years, it's been a lot of the same stuff.

And you can't really spread your wings too much. And with sobriety, you really never know what's around the corner. It's crazy. It's so true. That's why I wanted to highlight as much as I did because none of that has anything to do with me. I hope I made that pretty clear. I hope I didn't come across as arrogant or cocky or whatever in any way. Because it was, especially for anyone listening, like, I'm genuinely trying to tell everyone out there.

Like, none of this had anything to do with me. It's literally just the circumstances of, like, you just don't drink or drug no matter what and just let, like, amazing things happen. Like, don't fight it because it's good. It's common, you know. Yeah. No, you didn't, you didn't sound arrogant at all. I mean, that's, I think that's incredible to put out there about what's possible, right?

Because, I mean, you share your story where you were. And then, I mean, 16 years coming up on 17 years. of sobriety, look at what you can do. I think that we can go through life and spend 16 years and not do much if we're stuck in the addiction part. So I think to show what's possible to do and everybody was going to do their own thing, right? It might not be traveling.

It might not be education. But it might be starting a business. It might be relationships. It might be starting a family. And that stuff is like so doggone possible. Yep. when we choose to choose sobriety every day

you know and then it gets it's a superpower dude I've seen that somewhere man maybe it's one of the memes you made it's a superpower it is a superpower you're a testament to that dude I love following your stories like you're the super dad

the super sober dad it's true but like you hit the nail in the head like it doesn't I really subscribe to and I'm all about encouraging and supporting people in the travel dynamic and like I know lots of people that you know a big I'm not saying I didn't try to be in a relationship. It just wasn't in the car for me up until recently. And that's a big

reason why, you know, I probably don't have a family. But life happens on life's terms, but you can have anything. You can have that family. You can have the house. It's just incredible, man, where it takes you. And you can just do it one day at a time. I know it sounds cliche, but it's so, so true. But I'm really excited to just launch some some YouTube that'll cover some specifics on this about different travel for people to hopefully outline some sober travel trips and like some hacks and some support and then as well as some different topics out there like you know things like selfishness versus self-love and and just some face-to-face topics like this as well too in a brief period as well as get you on for an interview as well and there's just there's so much cool stuff out there man

i love what you're doing thank you so much for what you're doing i'm sure you get that i see it but man you can touch the lives of so many people man you do one of the most genuine hearted people i know in the space and it really is an honor to be on the show and it just so great I'm grateful to have been here and hopefully spread a little light myself. Yeah, beautiful, man. Thank you. Thank you so much. There we go, everyone.

Another episode in the books. I hope this one really hit for you. It definitely did for me. Very grateful for Zach, aka the nomadic addict, on Instagram, to come on here and share his story and really share with, like, how good stuff gets. You know, it's incredible how good and how well we can do when we remove literally one thing from our life. start to watch the rest unfold. I mean, so beautiful.

So be sure if you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Send him a message over on Instagram. Let him know, thank you. And look, everybody, keep your heads up. We're heading into the busy season, right? We're heading into the busy season with parties and get-togethers. I want to put this message out there. Look, if you're a place in your sobriety

and you're not comfortable going to this stuff, just sit it out. Sit it out. I know people will make a big deal of it, but look, the next day they won't even remember. You know, they won't remember that you weren't there. And it won't be as big of a deal as they make it beforehand or we make it in our own heads. You know, you have to do what's best for your recovery, your sobriety,

your journey. And there'll be a lot more opportunities to get involved with stuff later down the road when you're in a more confident, comfortable place that you can do this stuff. So if that's what you have to do is say no, doggone, tell them no. that's okay we've you know up until the point of getting sober we say yes to everything you know we do everything for everybody else well it's time we do something for ourselves we got to look after ourselves because if we can show up better it's going to impact the people around us that matter

most but look everyone i'll see you on the next one