Chiseled Ep 113 - Finding Yourself to Overcome Addiction - Dr. Robb Kelly - Addiction Expert

My guest this week, Dr. Robb Kelly, grew up in the projects of Manchester, England. Blessed with musical talent, he was performing on stage by the time he was 9 years old. The music career led him to college, and even to a job as a session musician at the famous Abbey Roads Studio in London, but it also led him to drink. While he was able to get his PhD in psychology at University of Oxford, his habit eventually landed him on the street, put out from his wife, children, and everyone he knew.  "I definitely had an illness, a disease that was fatal," he said.After 14 months living next to trash cans, a kindly stranger picked Robb up and took him home. A recovered alcoholic himself, his friend took him to an AA meeting, which led Robb to a fateful meeting with someone named "John."John agreed to act as Robb's spiritual adviser for 12 weeks. Not only did Robb spend the time recovering, but he also learned how he would spend the rest of his life — successfully in a faraway land, helping thousands of others to overcome their addictions.​"He was definitely an angel," Robb says, and he means it literally. John disappeared, never to be seen again. And it wasn't long afterward, that Robb ended up in America."When I got wealthy ... I spent thousands upon thousands (of pounds) at a private detective agency, and they could never find him. But what he taught me is 90 percent of what I do today," he said.As a neuroscientist, Robb studies the relationship between what you ingest and how your brain thinks and changes your perception. His deeply interventionist method of treatment teaches clients how to own their identity to make authentic choices, how self-perception changes physical health, and how the mind's fleeting decision to jump from thought to action can propel or limit you. He wraps up all this addiction treatment in the science of neuroplasticity — changing the way the mind works through neuro-linguistic programming, somatic experiencing techniques, and trauma therapy — with a side of nutritional and behavioral training."Your mind is energy, power. You can't touch it, feel it, but when it connects to another power outside you, neural pathways are changed. Your DNA changes."Dr. Kelly has treated 10,000 patients with a "98 percent, bordering on 99 percent recovery" rate. That's compared to a relapse rate of 40-60 percent in the United States.Dr. Kelly calls himself a "recovered" alcoholic. That's right, not "recovering." And when you hear him explain how he went through it and how he gets others through it, you will be amazed, even as your jaw drops in disbelief.So, sit back, adjust to the Mancunian accent, and join us for a wild story of getting chiseled.