RE 523: It's All Gray Area Drinking

Today we have Robbie. He is 43 and lives in Moses Lake, WA. He took his last drink on August 15th, 2024 Sponsors for this episode include: Better Help – 10% off of your first month 3,649 days ago, or 1 day shy of ten years, the first episode of the Recovery Elevator podcast dropped. Paul remembers the date well because for three months after the first episode released, he kept thinking "oh my God, what have I done?". Burning the ships in podcast format gave Paul a lot of anxiety, but here we are, 523 weeks later and thank you listeners, for keeping the show alive. 30 Best Sobriety Podcasts [04:13] Thoughts from Paul: Paul shares the definition and his thoughts around the term gray area drinking. The definition states that it is the space between end-stage drinking and every now and again drinking. Gray area drinking could also be classified as someone who can stop drinking without medical detox or can stop on their own before someone stages an intervention. Paul believes it's all gray area drinking. Be it one beer a month or 10 beers a night. One common thread he hears on this podcast is "and then xyz happened". It's these major life events that can ramp up the drinking and everyone has life happen to them. [07:10] Paul introduces Robbie: Robbie is 43 years old and lives in Moses Lake, WA. He currently works at a chemical plant in the semiconductor industry. He has five children in the age range of eight months to 14. They enjoy spending time outdoors and at the lake near their home. Robbie is a big sports fan and played sports often while growing up. Robbie took his first drink when he was in college in his 20s. He didn't drink much until he lost his dad in 2013. Without knowing how to process his grief and having young children, Robbie learned that drinking helped him be numb and he started drinking four or five days a week. At the time, Robbie was working as a corrections officer, which was a very stressful job that contributed to his drinking as well. In 2018 Robbie's marriage ended. This was the first time he had been away from his children. He moved two hours away from them to stay at his mom's house. After his second DUI in two weeks, the judge imposed alcohol monitoring for Robbie. This helped him stay sober for a year but only because he had to be. Thinking he could now moderate, Robbie started drinking soon after no longer having the monitoring device. He says he wasn't having a good time, and he was just using it to numb out from multiple traumas. In February 2024 Robbie reached a breaking point and reach out to his brother-in-law who helped him find a treatment center in Utah. Robbie was there for 35 days and felt like he had made a lot of progress. He learned a lot about himself and started doing counseling. Robbie finally got some help dealing with some big traumas throughout his life. He says he feels like he used alcohol to punish himself thinking he deserved to be miserable. After a brief relapse, Robbie says he woke up on August 15th and just knew it was over, and he had to stop drinking for good. He decided to try naltrexone which he first learned about in rehab. He took it for the first month and says he still has no desire to drink. Robbie goes to AA meetings, listens to podcasts and audiobooks, and is a member of Café RE. Robbie stays accountable with his family and friends at work. People have noticed a positive change in him. In the past Robbie quit drinking because he was forced to, or for other people. He said on August 15th; he was doing it for himself. He says sobriety is the greatest gift to himself and his kids. Robbie's parting piece of guidance: If you're asking yourself if you drink too much or if it's becoming a problem, it already is. Listen to your gut. Believe in yourself that you can quit. Recovery Elevator You took the elevator down; you got to take the stairs back up. We can do this. Café RE RE merch Recovery Elevator YouTube Sobriety Tracker iTunes