The Recovered Life Show | Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Podcast

But I will tell you when I look and I see everything that's changed, the one thing that stays true is that a spiritual solution for a doomed problem works.

It works.

You're listening to The Recovered Life Show, the show that helps people in recovery live their best recovered lives.

And welcome back to The Recovered Life Show.

Good to see everybody here today.

We're coming at you from a new location today.

I call this set B, my live streaming set.

It's a little bit less official, not so stodgy.

And I think we're going to do more of these on the set, more casual podcasts.

Not everything is going to be an interview.

Sometimes it's just going to be me coming at you with ideas.

So I'd love to hear in the comments about what you have to say about it.

Always love your comments.

So it's August 2026.

Just celebrated 33 years of continuous recovery and kind of wanted to dedicate the episode to that topic.

33 years, a long time sober in any way that you measure it.

Any way you look at it, 33 years is a long time to be sober continuously.

And I wanted to thank everybody for all the nice messages that I got.

We did a very lovely TikTok live the other day and did a celebration.

Shout out to Joe B, Kelly, staff, Mike, a bunch of people that were on the live and sharing my 33 years with me.

It was really, really wonderful.

So thank you.

And thank you for all the messages that I did receive.

So what did I learn in 33 years?

What was the 32nd year about for me in recovery?

What did I learn?

What was my big takeaway?

And I think looking back on it, although this year was not the easiest year for me, it wasn't my easiest year in business.

It wasn't my most productive year.

It probably was not my most profitable year.

I probably didn't travel the most this year.

I think this was one of the best years that I've had sober.

And I want to kind of go into that a little bit about why I think it was one of the best years sober.

And when I was kind of reflecting on this, I was saying, why is this?

Nothing huge happened this year.

Nothing like really huge happened that I'm looking back.

I mean, I had a lot of successes.

There were some landmarks, some family landmarks and things that did happen, but nothing like major, major happened in my life that I'm looking back on.

I'm saying, what was it?

What was it?

And I'm thinking, I think primarily this year, I was the most comfortable being me.

If that makes sense, the most comfortable being me.

I felt like the most peace being me and more okay just being myself, being myself, okay, just to be myself.

And that was amazing.

That is an amazing accomplishment.

If you're like me and you've had the decade sober, you know, you go up and down.

You might fight anxiety.

You might have depression.

You might have all different kinds of things happen to you.

All these spiritual lessons going on in your life, figuring out what's going on, figuring out what you're doing.

And for me this year, I felt a little bit about like, it's okay just to be me.

Kind of like let the freak flag fly.

Just be you, David.

Just be you.

And it's a really good feeling.

It's a really good feeling.

You know, many people have met me on TikTok and that has been a, you know, that was a big accomplishment this year.

I felt like we really helped a lot of people.

Thanks to you and thanks to all your participation and support.

I feel like I really helped a lot of people on TikTok this year, which is something when I look back and I always do this.

If I look back on the year sober, I said, you know, at the beginning of this journey, looking back, what is the thing that I most would not, what would the old Damon most not believe about this whole journey?

What would the thing that would be the most unexpected thing, I guess you could say.

And that would be that I would be going live, doing a podcast, having communities and helping people publicly with mental health and addiction recovery.

I could have never managed that, imagined that.

I could have never imagined that getting into the show.

I just really, it did not even in my scope of consciousness.

And, but yet that's what's happening.

Thanks to all of you.

Thanks to all of you.

So overall, just an amazing year, an amazing year.

And I think also looking back is also understanding that everybody else has their own journey.

This is a, this is a big thing too, because I think getting sober in a 12-step group, as I did, and I really didn't have the options looking back.

In the, in the early 90s, there were not the, I did not have access to the options that everybody has now.

Detox, rehab, therapy.

I just, I really, I found myself in this situation.

I went to a 12-step group.

That was what was available to me.

And I didn't even know that was available to me, if you know my story.

So I just happened to be thrust into that.

I have literally a supernatural intervention.

I end up in a 12-step group.

I never drink again.

And now looking at it, I think I was like, well, everybody has to go through that kind of thing.

And what I'm finding is there's just many different ways.

I knew this intellectually, right?

You know this intellectually, but when you look at your own way in which you get sober, you end up saying to yourself, it's like, well, kind of everybody's got to go through something like this.

And yeah, you do.

Everybody has to kind of go through a dark night of the soul, realize what's going on, take different actions, change your behavior, right?

If you're going to stay sober long-term, I believe.

But now there's all these different ways to do it.

And I also look back and I say, you know, with everything that's changed, you know, what hasn't changed?

What hasn't changed?

In 33 years, what hasn't changed in my recovery and other people's recovery?

What's not changing?

And I think the big one for me, the big takeaway when I ask that question is, you know, what does not change is a spiritual solution for a doomed problem.

It does.

It always just seems to work.

Now, sure, there might be extenuating circumstances for some people, and some people might need bigger mental interventions, more mental health support.

But I will tell you, when I look and I see everything that's changed, the one thing that stays true is that a spiritual solution for a doomed problem works.

It works.

And I'd like to just take a moment to thank everybody here for following Recovered Life and supporting me, supporting our mission that we're doing with all the apps and the group and the TikToks and the lives and the different contributors now that are adding their podcasts to the network.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

I never in a million years would have thought that this would have grown into what it has grown into.

And honestly, the lesson for me this year, big time, is just put down the fear.

It's okay to feel the fear.

Just don't get sucked into it.

Don't get sucked into the fear.

This is going to pass.

Just like cravings were in early sobriety, just like all the anxiety, the fear passes.

The fear has passed with this.

And that's the big thing.

I feel okay now doing it.

At the beginning, I'll be honest with you, it's been a five-year journey.

And I'm like, God, what are people going to think?

And I remember a family member said, doesn't everybody already know that you're sober?

Doesn't everybody know that you go out and help people?

And I go, I don't know.

I don't know.

But what I thought about me doing it has changed.

And it's changed primarily because of the support I get from all of the listeners.

So on my 33 years of continuous sobriety anniversary, I wanted to do this episode really just to say thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you guys for your support.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity and the platform here to be able to share the message of recovery to people.

And I think the biggest takeaway that I want to say, the biggest thank you I have is thank you for just accepting me and letting me just be me as imperfect as I am.

Guys, again, from the bottom of my heart, sincere gratitude.

I've been able to make it to 33 years.

It did not seem at some points in my life that this was going to be possible, but here we are.