Scotty Brown's Belly story centers around his rough and tumble days in Chicago. At a very young age Scotty was a drug kingpin by day and a rock n roll partier by night. This lifestyle caught up with him and getting out wasn't as easy as it might seem. Several decades later, and sober for that same amount of time, Scotty's story, and ongoing work in addiction and recovery, has touched thousands of lives.

EPISODE SUMMARY

- Our story begins decades ago when Scotty Brown woke up in a mental institution - and we return to this moment later in the story as the moment of surrender

- At an early age, Scotty Brown was involved with selling drugs, making a lot of money, and spending that money on toys like a condo in Chicago and a Mercedes in San Francisco

- His condo in Chicago earned him the nickname ‘Downtown’ Scotty Brown because it was downtown

- In his early 20s, the lifestyle started to catch up with him -- ultimately he moved from Chicago to San Francisco to live a ‘healthier’ life because the bars weren’t open all night and health food joints were everywhere.

- He grew up with some well-known mafia families and told us that he was mobbed up.

- Scotty was selling 50-pound bales of marijuana at a time.

- He was selling and using and overdoing it - the lifestyle was catching up

- Scotty was paranoid and not sleeping and had a psychotic break which led him to the mental institution

- Over time, Scotty realized that he had no control over people, places and things and all he could do was take care of himself which eventually led him to ask to be moved up to the drug rehab department

-He wanted serenity and luckily he was rocketed into the ‘Fourth Dimension’ -- he was given a whole new lease on life

- Recovery is a daily lifetime practice -- the wily Scotty Brown still wants to come out

- 10 years ago Scotty battled cancer and many of the people he has helped through addiction and recovery told him how special he was to them - that he had saved their life - a spiritually fulfilling feeling

- Scotty was a catalyst for the SOBA Recovery Center in Malibu, CA

QUOTABLES

“I'm here to save you because at this moment in time in my life, I thought I was the savior of the world, the second coming. And that's never a good thing. That's a lot of stress, you know, trying to save the world. LOL. ”

“A couple of them [in the mafia] were pretty successful in the business like myself. I was a good salesman. So, yeah, I worked with them and, you know, I guess you could say we were all mobbed up. You know. You just fall into it by doing that enterprise. You know, criminal.”

“I always knew I drank and and used a lot, so I tried not to do it. What I thought was fun and games, you know, became a career. So that was a lot of fun... Until it wasn't. It all catches up to you. And asking... I'd be so high, God, help me, please bring me down, I'll never do it again. I know I said that last week. And like the third time, I'm like, man, I'm powerless over this.”

“I guess I'm part of the mob. You know, we're a group of guys that get together. Doesn't matter what nationality you are or anything like that. We're in a criminal enterprise and we don't want anyone to know and we're the mob.”

“You know, I wanted to change, that's where I pretty much bottomed out when I realized where ever I went, there I was, I couldn't escape myself.”

“But my life was unmanageable, I didn’t want to accept it, and it just clicked. You know, like a light bulb went off man, and I told myself that's what I'm doing!! I'm running around trying to save the world and not taking a look at myself. All I do is take, take, take, I'm powerless over people, places and things. I was focusing on the outside world but then I realized, all I can do is take care of myself . I went right up to the nurse and said, I'm a drug addict and an alcoholic, put me on the drug and alcohol ward,and they did. It was like the biggest weight lifted...