EP 334: Dave Davis’s Recovery Story

Host: Drifter Guest: Dave Davis Bio: Database Programmer/Data Scientist by day. Husband, Father, Musician, Photographer, Artist, Internet DJ, Astrologer, Designer and Writer by night. Born and raised in Iowa, moved to Illinois in the 80s to go to DeVry. That’s when the drinking started.  You go to college; you hang out with certain people and you get drunk and stoned.  Plain and simple.  We had 4 roommates when we stayed in DeVry Housing back then.  We had one drug dealer move in when one would move out.  If it wasn’t free, it was cheap.  Most of them were old enough to get us booze as well.  I’ve been in various heavy metal bands since high school in the late 70s, all the way up till 2014.  Bass, Keyboards, Singing and Guitar.  Many drunken blacked out nights back then.  In the early 90s I quit drinking as much, but when I got divorced from my first marriage, I was alone and I didn’t like being alone with myself, so I turned to wine.  2 to 3 bottles a day.  I was an independent IT consultant at the time and always stressed out.  So, you can imagine how sloshed I get and blackout.  I quit cold turkey in 1995 when I joined a Blues Brothers act right after my father died from pancreatic cancer.  I did that for 5 years and had heart palpitations the last night I was dancing.  I was Jake.  I smoked like Jake.  2 packs of Marlboro Reds a day, then 2 packs of American Spirits.  I jumped back into a band in 2002 with a friend from work.  The drinking and the smoking came back at that time.  In 2005, I met my wife.  I stopped drinking.  I wanted to set an example for her boys.  They were 10 and 13 and soon to become my stepsons.  Although I always refer to them as my sons, because their dad was not present in their lives as much.  We married in 2006 and moved into a rental house in 2008.  Right before we moved into that house, we both quit smoking and haven’t had a cigarette since June 28th, 2008.  At that time, I introduced my wife to wine, and as we now say, the rest is history.  We crept up in volume and quantity over the years.  I got to the point where before the pandemic I was drinking 2 to 2 ½ bottles of wine a night.  When the pandemic hit, everything was uncertain, my drinking got even worse.  I could polish off an entire Black Box of Pinot Noir in one night.  That’s 4 bottles of wine.  Blackouts returned.  Falling out of bed and hitting my head on the nightstand or falling out of my chair at my desk while I was doing radio shows, was a common occurrence. I joined IAS in 2022 to get sober.  I hit that reset button like a snooze alarm almost daily if not weekly.  I was proud of myself that I hit 20 days and then relapsed that night.  Finally, my health was taking the worst hit in March of 2023 and I set my quit day on the first day of Spring 3/20/2023.  This time I leaned into the community on IAS, where I found out about Sobertown Podcast.  I started to dig around the website and found Rewired.  I had already done a 30-day stint (that was part of the 20 days) with This Naked Mind back in 2022.  Rewired; that was different.  This was my jam and I felt at home.  Sobertown had a Zoom meeting that was based on Erica Spiegelman’s book, so I jumped on one, one day and felt right at home. I’m over 200+ days now.  I feel better than I’ve felt in years and I’m going after goals that I threw away years ago.  I’m dropping weight (down from 354 pounds to 315 pound in six months), I’m more focused and I feel more present every day.  I leaned into Zoom, IAS, Discord and Telegram communities and it feels awesome to be able to help when I can.  Sobertown Podcast has been an excellent source for tools that helped me with working my own personal program, one day at a time.  I’m not an AA person, but I do not judge people who are following that path.  This site has opened my eyes to other possibilities, and I am so grateful they are here.    Testimonial: Sobertown Podcast is one of the BEST resources for finding your own path or building your own adventure in sobriety.  They provided the tools and support I was looking for in the beginning of my journey and they continue to do so as I walk my path.  Forever grateful for these guys being here.  They add resources all the time, so make sure you dig around the site and listen to the stories on the podcast to hear how other people have found their own road in sobriety.  My Website: https://www.davidbrucedavis.com/ My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@davidbdavis 1996 John Belushi Stamp Protest (me as Jake)  not a huge piece of my performance, but a tiny bit https://youtu.be/9K6Wo47kols?si=_pgBBvgKHM267pJn   Me singing Crystal Ball: https://youtu.be/mnOU7RSBUWI?si=7iarDheQXBZkI-r4 Me singing Somebody to Love: https://youtu.be/fR4IyFgc-S0?si=mx2_rtVqlAo-gfMe Me singing a song a good friend of mine wrote (John Visconti) and a project we did called The Abbey Normals.  I did the video work, but the vocals and bass were all me.  Oh and the drum loops.  LOL  https://youtu.be/o0Q2OKnIqFg?si=xVKIyXQrKz1SGaKg Part of my fractal animations that I did for my ambient meditation/relaxation album called Thought Vibration  https://youtu.be/tSNz6LBpDQ8 Me playing bass in Syrens (for 14 years) https://youtu.be/gShWMa15buQ   Other Sober Resources: I Am Sober App Getting Sober ...Again Boom Rethink The Drink Recovery Movie Meet-Ups No Sippy No Slippy. Not Another Drop No matter What.   Remember to Pour The Poison Down The Sink!!      Sobertownpodcast.com