He Drank to numb himself for 20 Years. Here's What Broke the Cycle | Cameron Springett

Cam drank to cope with life from age 13. Twenty years later, a free 12-week program, therapy, and one hard decision broke the cycle - here's what worked when AA didn't.Dan sits down with Cam for an honest, unfiltered conversation about addiction, recovery, and the long road from self-destruction to stability. Cam traces his drinking back to age 13, with weed, coke, pills, and gear following through his teens — tied to social life, coping, and eventually self-harm. A move to Australia changed his environment but not the underlying issue, and returning home around his nan's death triggered a major emotional crash that led to two more years of heavy use.Cam and Dan both walked into AA and felt like they weren't "that bad" - and Cam explains why the identity of being powerless never suited him. What actually worked was different: a free 12-week CGL program in Crawley, weekly therapy, EMDR, PT, and a clear decision that alcohol was no longer on the table. They dig into why drinking kept him from ever knowing himself, and why the real work wasn't just quitting — it was learning to be okay with who he was without the coping mechanism.The conversation widens into "picking your hard" - the idea that quitting is hard, but continuing gets harder later because of consequences, and the real choice is which hard you're willing to live with. Cam talks about why journaling became a tool to get thoughts out of his head and reduce shame, how writing on X built him a community, and how one conversation exposed a gap in his own readiness to coach - he had no safeguarding, ethics, or supervision in place. Both agree that lived experience alone isn't enough, and that proper training exists to protect the people being coached. They close on grief, suicide, and the importance of checking in properly - discussing a friend's death and why you have to ask twice if someone seems off. The message: listen, don't just advise, and encourage real help when it's needed. For Cam, stopping drinking didn't just remove alcohol - it gave him the space to understand himself, build compassion, and move forward.This is a practical, grounded episode about what change really looks like when it's not clean, easy, or linear.TIMESTAMPS04:04 - First drinking and drug use from early teens06:34 - First AA meeting and why it didn't fit17:10 - The turning point at 3319:34 - The CGL 12-week program and how he quit for real25:39 - What CGL gave him and why the tools still matter31:09 - Why Cam writes things down37:17 - Realising he had no safeguarding in place44:22 - Dan's goal-driven route out of drinking49:55 - Would he be here if he still drank?52:11 - Ted's story, suicide, and the need to talk55:48 - The biggest change: stopping drinking and learning himself"Picking your hard." — "I don't have a drink problem because I don't drink."Keep in Touch: Follow Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dutyhappybloke/Follow the pod on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atomicrambopodcast/ARC website: https://www.atomicrambo.comTake the free ARC assessment: https://arcassesment.lovable.app/Follow Cam on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/cameron_springett/Cam Website- www.camspringett.cloud