Tag: alcoholism

Table for 3! Matt C joins Mike & Glenn in the coffee shop to talk about ego. Does ego fuel alcohol consumption? Does alcohol consumption fuel ego? Listen in as Matt, Mike and Glenn each talk about the role ego played in their alcoholism and now in recovery. One thing for sure – the struggle with ego still exists on the other side of sobriety.

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Author Will Thatcher is in the coffee shop today! Will writes addiction fiction. Unlike a lot of other books, this book is not is not intended to get people sober, it was written for entertainment purposes. 

While Will has written novels in his past, this novel came from needing a creative outlet in recovery. Sober for 5 1/2 years, Will always kept a journal, keeping track of all the different themes and ideas related to his recovery. It wasn’t until he found himself jealous that his sponsor had a creative outlet with acting classes that he realized he had his own creative outlet – he could turn his journal and ideas into a novel. And he did.

In this episode:

 – Book: Killing Hurt by Will Thatcher: https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hurt-Will-Thatcher/dp/1662935633

 – Website: Sober Curator Book Reviews: https://thesobercurator.com/

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Table for 3 today! Seamus is in the coffee shop. Truth be told, Seamus is an alias. Why anonymity, why use an alias? Seamus talks about the stigma attached to addiction. When he graduated college and started a career – he was already sober 5 years. They didn’t know him when he wasn’t sober, so what positive would come from talking about his alcoholism? 

Seamus found he wanted people to get to know him first, and IF the sobriety thing came up, he would share it. Early in sobriety he was concerned with what people thought, but now he can sum it up with:  “You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do,” a quote from David Foster Wallace.

In this episode:

 – Seamus Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/SeamusMcTier

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Chicago Director Eileen Tull joins Mike and Glenn, sharing her experience, strength, and Hope – for the artist in all of us.  This bonus drop coincides with the world premiere of acclaimed Chicago playwright Mia’s McCullough dark comedy about family secrets, shared holidays, and household spirits.  The play information can be found online at https://www.theaterwit.org/

Mike and Glenn are back in the coffee shop today talking honesty, bullshit and chocolate chip cookies.

As Glenn puts it: Honesty is a core foundational block to getting sober and living a healthy, new purposeful life. If you are bullshitting yourself and others, nothing changes.

As Mike puts it: If you throw even a kernel of shat into that batch of chocolate chip cookies, which cookie are you going to eat? Just a single kernel of dishonesty is enough to ruin the whole batch.

They both say it very differently, but agree on this:  lying eats your soul, but living in honesty and the truth is very freeing.

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Recovery is so much more than just ‘quit drinking’. You face the question “I’m not drinking, so now what?” In the coffee shop, Mike & Glenn are joined by Dean Anderson, author of the book “Finding Myself Sober”.  Dean recounts the first 10 or more times he tried to get sober, going through the motions to quit drinking but not filling the hole with anything new – which led him back to the bottle again.

At rock bottom, Dean went to AA and realized it wasn’t just about being dry. Finding himself sober and working the steps of AA he also found he needed to simplify things – the more simple it is, the easier it is to work the steps and less chance to step off the path. That’s the basis of his book.

In this episode:

 – Book: Finding Myself Sober by Dean Anderson: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Myself-Sober-Dean-Anderson/dp/B0CCK7L59B

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Following the recovery journey from the previous episode “Boiling the Frog – Anti-Surrender” Mike & Glenn are talking about the same gentleman, but later in his recovery journey when he discovers true surrender.

What changed? He knew he was struggling, he had lost his rental house and was staying in extended stay, but in the last week:

 – Lost his job and was not working

 – Still drinking and drugging

 – His family cut him off 

Dive in with Mike & Glenn as they talk about what it took for this gentleman to reach true surrender and what it looked like.

In this episode:

 – Sober.Coffee episode “Boiling The Frog – Anti-Surrender”: https://www.sober.coffee/podcast/episode/2b4dd42e/boiling-the-frog-what-does-anti-surrender-look-like

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Success in getting on the sober path is surrender. At the coffee shop, Mike & Glenn discuss what surrender and struggle look like when you don’t surrender, anti-surrender, and how it’s like boiling a frog.

How do you boil a frog? ‘Boiling the frog’ is referring to the premise that if you stick a frog in boiling water, he jumps out immediately. Put him in warm water then raise up the water temperature a little at a time, he doesn’t notice – then he’s boiled. Alcoholism is progressive, it gets worse and worse and worse. It’s like turning the temperature up on the water the frog is swimming in.

Glenn talks about the recovery journey of a gentleman he sponsored in AA who started with an attitude of anti-surrender – and the pain, suffering, refusal and ego that accompanied the anti-surrender.

After listening to this episode, jump into the next one where Glenn talks about the same person – but later in his journey when he discovers true surrender.

For more about this podcast:

– Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

– Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

– Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

– In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

The spotlight is on Karen this week! Karen is on the Al-Anon journey while her husband Bruce is on the sober path journey with AA. Desperation brought Karen to Al-Anon and she tells us about changing her mindset from resentment because Bruce made this her problem, to realizing she had to switch the focus to herself, give up control because she could only control herself – not Bruce – and start restoring her sanity.

In this episode:

 – Previous podcast episode: Love Story Part 1 – Bruce & Karen: https://www.sober.coffee/podcast/episode/214bdf07/a-love-story-part-1-bruce-and-karen

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com

Table for 4 at the coffee shop today! Bruce is on the sober path journey with AA. Karen is on the Al-Anon journey. Married for 34 years, Bruce has been sober for the last 17 years. Bruce and Karen have gone through it. Listen to Bruce’s story today as he tells us about losing his soul to addiction and deciding he didn’t want to spread this disease to his family – instead he chose recovery.

For more about this podcast:

 – Visit Sober.Coffee website: https://www.sober.coffee

 – Sober.Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober.coffeepodcast/

 – Recorded at Audiohive Podcasting: https://www.audiohivepodcasting.com

 – In collaboration with Care Addiction Center: https://www.careaddiction.com