recovery internet radio podcast

He grew up in what is now Silicon Valley to a hard working business family. He was always the black sheep but never doubted his strong Catholic roots and excellent parochial education. He would tell you that he was an alcoholic from his first drink but that the disease took a long and winding road. He spent many years running the family business, working 100 hour weeks and trying to raise four kids while doing very little drinking. As the kids grew up and the business learned to run itself Mike took the liberty of reintroducing himself to heavy drinking and within a few years was drinking to stay normal. Whether miracle, good values or God directed coincidence, one momentous night he got on the phone and landed in the lap of Betty Ford. Mike’s been around about 8 years and still has a few wrinkles but he’s working on them.

She grew up conservative and religious in a small Texas town. The good girl to the core She always did the right thing and nevvvvver disappointed her Mom. A good education, some grace and maybe a little luck and she was working a dream job and married a dream man. Years later her son got into drugs and landed in rehab which landed Kay in Al Anon A few years later she and her husband divorced but not before he also found recovery. Al Anon started, for Kay a long and difficult path to find her own spiritual path. She and her son laugh together today that his addiction got HER healthy.

Ann B. shares her story of adventure and recovery! 

Feeling like he was an outsider, wrong and criticized most of his life he took to substances early. His first visit to AA was to an Hispanic meeting at age 16 and even though he didn’t return for many years he felt hope. He always wanted to party like his Dad and brother…big, friendly, musical gatherings with lots of laughter and lots of drinking but he always ended up in trouble.

A divorce, years of quitting and starting, lost jobs, cocaine and nearly losing his kids finally convinced Ed to get sober and stay that way. Join us this week to hear from Ed F.

A second generation Irishman felt the shame from his grandfather’s alcoholism through his Mom. A good kid growing up in a religious family he always looked down on alcoholics and alcoholism. He always thought that if he drank “like that” it would kill his Mom. Irish Catholic guilt kept him out of the booze through college, the Navy and into his early career. Coke and weed were somehow OK but it wasn’t until his Mom died that the wheels came off. He made a run at sobriety through AA after an intervention and lasted almost exactly a year until he “decided to have a drink”. No more than days later laying in a hospital bed not knowing what happened he decided to get serious about sobriety. He’s been “Gung-Ho” ever since.

What are the odds that a Jamaican girl from a thoroughly alcoholic family would get sober and become a beautiful, soulful singer? Miracles happen. It took a few tries but despite some ins and outs…one day she forgot to drink and with the support of a “new family” she forgot again today. Tune in to hear Raquel’s story; besides, Raquel herself will tell you she’s an amazingly interesting person.

Nicole was a good kid.... She was more concerned about your feelings than her own. She wanted to make everyone else comfortable, but as it turns out... At her own expense.  Her first experience with death was at age two, and although she didn't remember it, the incident changed her family forever.  Her second experience was as the result of giving to others, and the third was a result of physical abuse.  Finally seeing the pattern and knowing that getting things in perspective was a matter of life and death, she found co-dependents anonymous (CODA) and began to change.

Tune in to hear her gut wrenching story of recovery.

He really didn’t know what the problem was.  He knew there was a problem but the causes and conditions escaped him.  He had trouble at work and confusion in relationships but he wasn’t a drinker or drug taker, in fact he was a pretty straight arrow this way…he had to be, he was a cop.  He did know that his Dad was a recovering alcoholic and that his early days had been painful but “heck” he thought, “didn’t everyone have a few bumps in the road?”  After all, he was the responsible one.  The troubles caught up and two years of ACA and some therapeutic guidance and Mike’s a different guy. 

Nurse Jack has been a guest on the show in the past and as a result of some recent listener questions we decided to ask him back to finish the story.  Nursing and narcotics addiction do not go well together and “Jack” got in big trouble both legally and professionally.  “Jack” talks about not only his downward spiral and ultimate crash but his tangled and bureaucratic way back to nursing and an unencumbered license.  Although eight years past the events that led to his nursing board requirements and nearly as many years of sobriety he’s finding himself still having to “prove up”.  Join us to hear how “Jack” is handling the medical peer assistance maze.  Also, go to “Nurse Jack” in the archives to hear his first show.