Latest / Finding New Waters / Getting Sober at 20: Dan Gilmer’s Story of Redemption

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Getting Sober at 20: Dan Gilmer’s Story of Redemption · Finding New Waters

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I never wanted to become an alcoholic, I never wanted to get
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married, I never wanted to have kids.
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And those single three things that I didn't want are the best
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things in my life today. So like, that's a really good
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example of God's plan is way better than mine.
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And if I just got to give him the opportunity and say, OK, I'm
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going to do your will today, you know, really incredible things
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have. All right.
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Welcome back everybody to another episode of Finding New
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Waters. My name is Bea Reeves.
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I'm the Director of Business Development here at New Waters
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Recovery in Raleigh, sitting here with our CEO, Justin
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McClendon, and our special guest in Baton Rouge, LA, Mr. Dan
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Gilmer. Welcome, Dan.
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Pleasure to be here. Thank you all so much for having
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me. I'm a big fan of y'all's podcast
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and and y'all's platform. Well, thank you.
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Thank you for saying that. We're glad you're here.
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And Dan is one of those people. I met him at an event a few
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years ago in Pensacola. And the guy who hired me into
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this field had, I think, just hired him.
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And he said, you got to go meet this guy B, And he said the same
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thing to me. And he's one of those people.
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I met him and I was like. I like this guy I.
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Like to cut up his jib. And we've gotten to spend a lot
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of time together lately over, you know, at conferences and,
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you know, golf related work trips and things of that nature.
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And Dan's just a good egg and works for a great company.
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Just tell us, you know, where. What do you do first of all?
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And then we'll go from there. Yeah, so I am the director of
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clinical outreach for TNR recovery groups, Texas programs
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to Cypress Lake recovery outside of Houston and Origins and
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Hannah's house down on South Padre Island.
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So I that actually entails more than just business development
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in our organization. So really for Texas, I had up
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our outreach team, our aftercare team and continuing care and
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building out those plans and managing those employees and
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then also our alumni program. So it's kind of getting
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everybody in, getting the right people into our program, making
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sure they go to the right places after, and then keeping them all
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connected so that we can be there when our alumni needs us
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or, you know, just offer support to make sure that they don't
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ever really need us again. I hear you that that's sometimes
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that's a bigger job at New Waters is getting somebody out
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to the right place than than getting them in.
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And one thing I wanted to just touch on with you, Dan, is, you
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know, you're one of these freaks who got sober really young.
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Will you tell us a little bit about that and how how you
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managed to do that? Yeah.
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I'd, I'd love to. So, I mean, I, I started, if you
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get sober young, you started doing drugs young, you know,
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that's kind of a prerequisite. And, and, and so I was, I think
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I was 13, me and my buddy were we're looking for some money to,
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to buy some weed or something, which is, you know, kind of
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normal, I guess maybe at that age.
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Anyway, we find a prescription bottle.
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And so it was Oxycontin. It was about 60 Oxycontin.
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And I remember he didn't want his parents to find them like in
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his room or something. So he gave them to me after we
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did some that day. And when I first used Oxycontin,
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it made me feel internally like who I'd been pretending to be on
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the outside for so long, you know, because a, a lot of us
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that are in recovery before we find recovery, you know, we're
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full of fear. We're full of insecurities.
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And those fears and insecurities and, and dishonesty traits run
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our lives. And we have this actor that we
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present to the world, you know, and Oxycontin may meet made me
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internally feel like that person I was pretending to be.
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And I could walk around with some confidence.
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And I made a decision that day when I was 13.
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I'll, I'll do anything I can to feel like this.
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This is my goal every day to feel like this.
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And there's nothing that's going to stand in the way of that.
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And I'll give up whatever I have to, to feel like this.
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I, I, I remember having, having that thought and so I did all
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the rest of the prescription in the next two days.
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And, and that's really a microcosm of what my addiction
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looked like for the next 7 years.
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So I ended up getting sober at 20.
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It was my fourth treatment experience and it was the first
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time I followed A discharge plan and I left the state for
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aftercare and I did a long term gender specific program in
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Prescott, AZ Oh, clean adventures.
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And at the end of that, I stayed out in Prescott for another year
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after I completed treatment, and I've been sober since then,
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which was 2015. Man, that's awesome.
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And Dan, when did you, I'm curious just here in that
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timeline, when did you make the the switch or the decision to
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start working in in the field? Yeah, it's, it's interesting to
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say that, you know, most of all my friends that we went to
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treatment with would stay in Prescott and get jobs and
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treatment and be techs at treatments.
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I was a tech. I was a really bad tech.
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I sponsored everybody. I wanted to save them all.
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And they were like, there's boundaries here that you can't
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cross. And I was like, well, if you're
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going to tell me how to save people's lives, I'm not going to
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work here anymore. And so I went and sold solar
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panels. But when I moved back to Baton
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Rouge, something, I don't know what happened, something in me
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was like, I'd seen a lot of the treatment industry in Prescott
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in 2015, a lot of the good, a lot of the bad.
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And I wanted to work in treatment in terms of helping
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other people to recover. And I wanted to use my story as
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a platform to promote others, specifically young men in Baton
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Rouge, LA, or from like SEC schools that just took a left
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turn when they should have turned right and, and really
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needed to like shift their life at that, you know, really
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pivotal age for most kids. So I opened some silver living
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houses in Baton Rouge when I moved back and they just got
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chock full of plant workers twice my age.
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And that was the demographic that that really needed
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resources back then and, and needed safe housing.
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And so, you know, that quickly dovetailed into doing admissions
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and then outreach it at local treatment centers.
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But that wasn't the plan. The plan was to do several
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livings and then like maybe go back to school, figure out the
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rest. But it it turned into me doing
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admissions at 21 and then outreach by 22.
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And now I've been doing it for like 8 years.
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Awesome. I two things.
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One, I certainly didn't have a, this wasn't part of my plan to
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work in this field. I didn't even know what I'd do
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as a job. The other thing is, you know,
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you said your original idea for these sober livings in Baton
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Rouge was for wayward, wayward SEC guys who had taken a wrong
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turn somewhere and needed a little bit of, of guidance or
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something like that. Yeah, I, I definitely was one of
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those guys. So I took a wrong turn in an SEC
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school and it took me another 20 plus years before I ever got
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sober. But I could have used you, but
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you were like, you know, in diapers probably then.
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Yeah, it's probably 7. It's too young.
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But what I mean, first of all, getting sober young is one
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thing, but also getting sober young in Louisiana, in Baton
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Rouge, I mean, what? What was that experience like?
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So I came home on an amends trip for my for my brother's wedding.
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I was about 10 months sober and weddings in the South have a lot
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of drinking and it's pretty much like 7 days of different
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parties. I ended up making amends on that
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trip after accidentally like taking a sip of a vodka drink at
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a crawfish boil. And I remember I was, I blamed
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my mom for it 'cause I was like, why are you going to put a drink
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right next to me? You know, it was, I shouldn't
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have blamed her. I go when I make these amends
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'cause it was scheduled, it was for a neighbor.
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Most of the amends I had to make were my parents, neighbors
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growing up. That's a whole another story.
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I'm really good at B and ES and I go when I make these amends.
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Cool story. My neighbors, you know, growing
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up there, their brother was like 30 years sober, so they
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understood the immense process and addiction and it was pretty
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cool. And I'm walking home.
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I call my house manager, the original house manager I had in
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treatment. We were just friends in recovery
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at that point. And he said it sounds like the
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ten step promises have have come true for you.
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You were coiled from alcohols, from a hot flame.
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You sought out how you could better help someone else and,
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and you cleared the wreckage of your past.
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And guess what? I'm having a really bad day and
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you calling me and us talking about recovery and, and me being
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allowed to help you and you being allowed to help me.
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And I didn't think about drinking at all.
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And I knew that something spiritual had happened in me
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because biologically I, I was, I was pickled.
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I was crossed the point of no return when I put alcohol or a
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mood altering substance into my body.
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I mean, my MO is you give me 10 hours, I'm getting Oxycontin.
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You know that, that that was every single relapse.
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And so that didn't happen. And it, it was pretty
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incredible. I mean, the night before that I
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was like my first night back in Baton Rouge.
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I remember sitting on my parents front steps.
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I still smoked back then. I was smoking a cigarette.
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I was like vibrating. I was praying to God and I was
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like God, like I am terrified. I know exactly where to go to
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get high. I have phone number's still
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memorized and I don't know if I can go this week and safely
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return back to Arizona sober. And I, I remember saying, what
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do I do and just say go to sleep clearest day like the first time
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God ever spoke to me said go to sleep.
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And I was like, that's cool. God spoke to me, but you got
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anything better? I was like, all right, give me
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something more. And he and I remember he said,
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you know, you say all this. It was kind of like, you preach
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all this, you know, to your sponsees, you know, back in
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Arizona, but you don't trust me. Like, why are you afraid?
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And so I say all that because, yeah, there was a ton of fear
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coming back to Louisiana because socially there's drinking
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everywhere. Drugs just kind of go along with
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that. The flip side to that is
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typically where there's really good partying like New Orleans
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and Baton Rouge, there's really good recovery too.
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And so I could I could go into like another little Segway about
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like my first meeting back in Baton Rouge.
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I got the meeting sheet and I texted everybody.
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I said my name's Dan from Arizona.
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I'm back here. Text me if you ever need
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anything. And because I needed a group, I
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needed a community, like I knew what I was getting back into.
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So I say all that to say, like, there's definitely triggers.
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There's definitely like social things in Louisiana that make it
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hard to stay sober, but you stay close to God and the 12 steps
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and like the program of recovery.
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It's really a beautiful place to be and recover and be sober.
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That's awesome. Yeah, I, I appreciate you
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pointing that out about. And this is something I don't
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think it's ever come up on this podcast, but it's so true that
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places that have that are big party scenes where people kind
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of move there to party, have great recovery.
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You know, that's been my experience, whether that's New
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York, which is biggest city in the country, the city that never
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sleeps. You know, they have a a meetings
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that, you know, 24 hours a day. And then, you know, cities like
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Asheville and Charleston, which are kind of party towns and New
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Orleans is probably the biggest example.
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That's a great point, man. Yeah.
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Yeah, very true. So I had a thought there and it
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just, it just escaped me. So go ahead.
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Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say another
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thing too you brought up, which I love is, is the that subtle
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but yet huge difference, subtle in the, in the verbiage, but
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huge in the practice of believing in God versus relying
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on God and trusting God. I, you know, it's, it's easy for
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me to believe in God, especially that it, that it works in other
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people's lives and to quote George Costanza for the bad
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stuff, but to trust God and to, you know, just to take advice,
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whether it's from, you know, a sponsor or the group or, you
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know, peers. And, and just saying this is I
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got, I need to trust the process here and trust God.
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Another thing you said that I love is, you know, when I got
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sober, I heard a lot of people, a lot of people told me I can
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restart my day at any time. And I've read that in the
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literature. And it was one of those things I
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started to implement kind of right away.
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Like, I mean, I've been in, I've been on the street in Chapel
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Hill. I've done it on a golf course,
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I've done it in parking lots. I've done it in stores where
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I've literally airports gotten on my knees and asked God to
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please let me restart my day. But the flip side of that is
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what you just talked about. Sometimes I need you to just end
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the day and just go to bed. You know, I mean, they're,
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they're sometimes where I come home from, where's something
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going on at work or in a relationship or just with the
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general public. And so sometimes it's time for
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me just to shut it down. And, you know, instead of
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sitting around and, you know, fretting and stewing and even
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maybe even trying to get into action with some literature and
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all that. But just to get on my knees.
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Thank God for keeping me sober that day.
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Please keep me sober tomorrow and go to bed and just end the
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day instead of starting it over, you know?
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I like that, and I think we could all attest it.
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You know, sometimes things just look completely different with
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a, with a, you know, good night's sleep under our belt,
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right? Absolutely.
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Fresh set of eyes, so to speak. Yeah.
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And we have that daily retrieve. You know, all of us thought it
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was impossible to get the six month chip or the three month
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chip or the one year chip. We looked at those people
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doubting and it's, you know, validity for ourselves and for
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our own story and like to coin the phrase, you know, one day at
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a time. You know, a lot of time that
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that's used probably the wrong way.
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But for me, like we did our ten step inventory every night and I
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did it every night on paper with notebooks for like the first
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four years of my recovery. I got to a point with like my
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prayer and my routine that I can just go through where I was
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resentful, dishonest, fearful, you know, in my head talking to
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God and it kind of becomes like a conversation.
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But that's, that's that's what keeps this all from snowballing
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because I'm still the guy that's full of fear, insecure.
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If, if, if I allow that, you know, if something happens today
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and I don't address it tonight with God and leave it in today,
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then, you know, tomorrow might not be a little harder.
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But if I do the same thing again tomorrow, it's like then I start
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to put rocks back in the bag. I start to carry that bag of
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rocks again. I'm, I'm a big believer that
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when you work the 12 steps, you only have to do them once in
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life. But 10:11 and 12:00 we we have
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to consistently do daily. I hear you.
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I heard somebody say something recently I'd never heard, which
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is we can, you can start doing any step that starts with A1
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right away. So you know, step one obviously,
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and then 10 through 12. And I didn't hear that until
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pretty recently, but I did start prayer and meditation kind of
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right away. And back to your, you know, the
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daily reprieve, you know, I don't have control.
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I don't have control over my spiritual condition.
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Like I, I wish I could just maybe I'll get there.
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Say, you know what, I'm going to be happy, joyous and free today.
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And no matter what's going on, I'm going to have a great
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attitude. I'm not there yet, man.
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Maybe I will get there someday. But what I do have control over
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is the maintenance. So I can do these certain things
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I do every day. And when I do that, I do have a
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daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual
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condition. Not if I'm, you know, if I'm
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like full of joy like I, I just hopefully I'll get there, but so
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far, not yet. Yeah, I I did want to go back
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and kind of probably answered a question differently.
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You know, you all asked kind of what it was like to get sober
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young. I kind of gave you like some
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experiences in Louisiana that like someone who was 40 could
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have had with the immense process and going home.
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And so like to, to highlight like getting sober at 20 in
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Arizona, it was pretty easy because there was, you know,
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1000 treatment beds in a town of 40,000 and everyone was sober at
18:18
the coffee shop, the restaurants, like everyone,
18:21
everyone was either in recovery or trying to get back into
18:24
recovery or should be. And so like that part was kind
18:29
of easy. When I came back home, you know,
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I, I had had such a low, I mean, I, I was beat down to be really
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transparent, you know, I had had brief success with the 12 steps.
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I'd have brief success with treatment.
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And the first time anyone ever told me, like you have a mental
18:49
obsession and a physical allergy and a spiritual malady and, and
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you need God in the 12 steps to save your life.
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Like you resonated with me. I read Bill's story and I was
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like, this is me. This is why I've been crying
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myself to sleep, begging God that I'm not going to get high
19:03
the next day. I already wake up with a game
19:05
plan on how I'm going to get high.
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You know, this, this, this explains everything.
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So I wanted to get sober the first time I was ever in
19:14
treatment at 19. And the next really year was
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just like a vicious cycle of me trying to.
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And so when I finally got sober, I finally worked the 12 steps.
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I finally started sponsoring people and like gain this
19:30
confidence. I came back to Louisiana and
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like I got lucky, you know, there was there was a group of
19:38
guys that was all kind of my age.
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We'd either been to treatment before or not.
19:42
And then I opened my sober living and I always had like
19:45
this community around me. And and then, you know, probably
19:49
a year in to me having my house is my best friend from Arizona
19:53
got shipped out to me one day sober and I moved him in with me
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and me and him kind of did this. He was a year younger than me
20:02
and me and him. Did the sobriety thing together
20:05
and it was trying to find and have like the most fun we
20:12
possibly could in the world at the expense of our bank
20:15
accounts, sleep everything under the sun to just live life to the
20:21
fullest. Because we discovered like
20:23
there's a whole world out here outside of just getting high and
20:27
like sitting in, in the dorm room or, or sitting on the couch
20:31
or just letting you know life pass you by.
20:34
And we wanted to taste and see everything we possibly could.
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And, and so I think really Arizona, the treatment I was
20:44
provided, the, the freedom my parents gave me to go out there
20:49
and just reset my life for a year, really all made it really
20:54
possible. And, and, you know, I never
20:57
thought I I was going to be sober for all of my 20s, but I
21:02
had a lot more fun than probably some people that were in there,
21:05
you know, addiction or partying for those 10 years.
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I mean, I had a blast. I hear you, man.
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And I mean, that's part of the reason I was so excited to have
21:15
you on here is you're just such a great example of, you know, I
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mean, yeah, I want to hear kind of what happened, you know, what
21:23
you're like, what it was like and what?
21:24
But like the fact that you, you know, not only have you had
21:28
this. Full, full, full.
21:30
Life, you've had a great time doing it and got and that's why
21:35
I it's so important to hear these stories of people who.
21:37
It's one thing to be like, Oh yeah, I quit drinking and and
21:40
using drugs when I was 20 versus like, yeah, I got sober when I
21:44
was 20 in my life. I had no idea how unbelievable
21:47
life could be, you know, and I try not to have regrets, you
21:50
know, I don't really, but because it all happens the way
21:52
it's supposed to. But you know, I mean, I, I went
21:55
another 21 years before I was able to get where you got at
21:58
such a young age. And that's awesome.
22:00
And I just want people to know you're another just a such a
22:02
great example of that this can be done and not, and it's not a
22:06
punishment. You know, this is so many people
22:09
see this as some kind of punishment, but it's not.
22:12
It's a gift. Yeah, I definitely was resentful
22:19
for a little while. Like on my last inventory on the
22:22
four step, I had not put two things on there.
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One was my son who I had before I ever went to treatment the
22:30
first time. And I put him on my inventory
22:36
because I could always like, think my way out of her
22:40
resentment and not put it down on the inventory.
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But I had to put my son down because he did drastically
22:46
change my life and my selfish tendencies.
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And I had to stop thinking selfishly only about myself.
22:52
And that came with responsibility.
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I was resentful for that. And I had to put God down.
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I put God down because I didn't want to be an alcoholic or a
23:03
drug addict. I didn't want to be born with
23:05
predisposition or fear or insecurity that led me down this
23:08
path. Now, 10 years later with about,
23:14
I mean, thousands of people that I've helped at least get into
23:18
treatment or give them an opportunity to get sober, not
23:23
even counting the the sober living.
23:25
It's like all of this was for me to be on this podcast today and
23:30
hopefully maybe someone will hear like, oh, there's an
23:32
opportunity for me to get sober at a young age and other people
23:36
do it and it's awesome. Man, the fact that you just said
23:40
out loud that you were willing to admit that you put your son
23:44
on your four step as a resentment because that got in
23:47
the way of your, I mean, that's like some powerful stuff right
23:50
there, man, That's amazing. Yeah, I completely agree.
23:55
Yeah, I think, I mean, that's huge.
23:57
Like B just said, I think being able to just kind of admit that
24:00
out loud and and I think to admit that to yourself too, man.
24:03
And and the piece about God as well, I think that's another big
24:05
one that a lot of people look over is, you know, you know, the
24:09
resentments are where they are, man.
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And it's important to be able to name those things and and face
24:13
them, you know, but not to speak for you.
24:16
I mean the sun piece, you know, I can relate to that myself.
24:19
I mean, I have two kids, two boys of my own.
24:21
And, you know, just because we felt that way doesn't mean that,
24:24
you know, we love them any less or that's changes the dynamic.
24:27
It's just being honest and naming something for what it is.
24:30
Right? Yeah.
24:31
I mean, I'm, I'm selfish. That's the root of most of my
24:34
problems, you know, and that's, that's why I do the prayer and
24:39
meditation and the daily reprieve.
24:41
Because, you know, it's funny you mention that, you know, you
24:46
mention your family. Like I've had two kids since
24:48
then. My wife's 37 weeks pregnant now
24:52
when I got thank you, thank you, we're stoked.
24:55
Everything, you know, we're just, we're trying to get
24:57
through it and she's ready for this baby to come out And, and
25:01
so am I. I think he'll come out really
25:05
well. Everything looks good.
25:06
And, and so we're excited about that.
25:08
But I, I never wanted to become an alcoholic.
25:12
I never wanted to get married. I never wanted to have kids and
25:17
those single three things that I didn't want are the best things
25:23
in my life today. So like that's a really good
25:26
example of God's plan is way better than mine.
25:29
And if I just got to give him the opportunity and say, OK, I'm
25:34
going to do your will today, you know, really incredible things
25:38
have. That's awesome and you know the
25:43
fearless and searching moral inventory which you like.
25:47
I might need to revisit my four step just but to see if there's
25:52
something that like subconscious, like there's no
25:54
way that could actually be on there.
25:56
But I mean, that's, that's, you know, I mean, I thank you again
26:01
for sharing that. And I mean, back to that, that
26:03
you're talking about doing a nightly inventory.
26:06
And I've been doing, I've been using this app now for 6 1/2
26:11
years, something since pretty in early sobriety, I started using
26:13
this app and it only takes a little while to do this.
26:16
There's no excuse to not do it. And one of the questions that it
26:20
asked me is was I kind and loving toward all?
26:24
I mean, it's from the out of the book.
26:26
And then and then the other thing that that deducts the most
26:29
points from it is if I didn't reach out to somebody in
26:31
recovery that day. But the that the question about
26:36
being kind and loving towards all over time and it didn't take
26:40
too long. I'm not saying that it really
26:43
that I stopped doing this, but it but I started feeling it
26:48
coming on faster. So before I got sober and even
26:52
in early sobriety, I could be on a phone call or in a meeting or
26:55
in traffic or at a restaurant or something and kind of pop off a
27:00
little bit. But after, you know, having
27:02
knowing after a little bit of time of you of doing that
27:04
inventory that I was going to have to answer to that inventory
27:08
that I started to get, I start, I get literally a physical
27:12
sensation in the back of my head that's like a little bit of a
27:15
chill that's telling me like, Hey, you're about to, you're
27:18
about to say something you're probably going to regret.
27:20
And it usually usually stops me from doing it.
27:23
But it's, you know, a muscle right through it often.
27:27
But I but I, you know, pay the price on the spot and have an
27:30
emotional hangover for sometimes, you know, a day or
27:32
longer, whatever it is. But without that inventory, I
27:36
think, you know, I could be sober, but without doing that
27:38
and being known, I need to answer that thing, you know, I'd
27:41
still be going around, you know, sober, you know, abstinent, but
27:45
can still just be a jerk, you know, And it keeps me from
27:48
being, keeps me from being so much of A jerk, I guess is the
27:51
best way to say it. Dampens it a little bit, yes.
27:55
I mean, how free do you want to be, right?
27:57
And sometimes that is I want to, I want to be so free that
28:02
sometimes I hold my tongue when it would feel really good to
28:07
pull out God's flaming sword of truth, which I am sanctioned to
28:11
wave around, you know? Right.
28:13
Yeah. And it, you know, it's funny
28:16
because, like, I don't know, my, my life has changed so
28:21
drastically since I got married in 2021.
28:23
And we have had two kids and are third on the way.
28:27
And so we got a really full house.
28:30
And when you have a bunch of toddlers running around and your
28:35
wife's pregnant, like, it's always a state of escalation.
28:41
And so I find myself doing like, square breathing, like, just.
28:47
And my wife's like, is everything OK?
28:49
I'm like, yeah, everything's fine.
28:50
I'm just making sure everything stays fine.
28:52
It's fine. You know?
28:54
Exactly. Well, I mean, that's the thing.
28:56
I mean, I tell people this all the time.
28:57
Like I still like to feel good. I just don't have drugs and
29:00
alcohol to make that happen. You know, if I feel good doesn't
29:03
necessarily mean like, yeah, I mean it means like, hey, I don't
29:05
want to like freak out. I want to, you know, I'm trying
29:08
to stay fine, you know, so those I have these tools that were,
29:12
you know, that most of them were presented to me throughout my
29:15
life that I either ignored or rejected or misinterpreted or
29:18
whatever it is. But you know, I use breathing
29:21
techniques, you know, among other things, because that's
29:24
what I got. You know I can't just pop a pill
29:26
anymore. You know, it's, it's, it's a
29:30
beautiful thing to, you know, I, I was in, in Prescott when I was
29:39
there, I, I got kind of pride and ego in my first couple
29:49
months of recovery. You know, once I got out of
29:51
treatment, I started sponsoring a lot of guys really quickly.
29:56
There's two things that I do everyday.
29:58
My mentor, he was my second step.
30:00
He was physical proof that someone as bad as me who'd get
30:06
sober and recover through the 12 steps and his life could change.
30:10
He's an incredible guy. Attorney, owns several livings
30:13
here in Baton Rouge. I I lived in all of his houses
30:16
at different times, but he said I do 2 things.
30:21
You wake up and you say OK and then you try to find somebody to
30:24
help free. You know, nothing, nothing for
30:28
you help somebody that that nothing can come back and even
30:32
help and, and just saying OK, really opens you up to help
30:36
people. You know, if I wake up and and
30:39
y'all say look, hey, can y'all hop on this podcast, you know,
30:41
and, and, and share your testimony, OK?
30:44
If my wife wakes up and she says, hey, can you bring the
30:47
kids to school this morning? OK, yeah, sure.
30:50
And then my neighbor calls a sponsee, calls someone from work
30:56
calls, needs some help. And I just end up going
30:59
throughout my day just helping people.
31:01
And I got really addicted to the feeling of helping people and I
31:08
took it too far. In early recovery, I really did
31:12
like I was doing service work every day I possibly could.
31:17
I was bringing a lot of people to meetings.
31:19
I was sponsoring a lot of people and I was sponsoring people that
31:24
were just getting sponsored so that they could get their phone
31:26
privileges in, in treatment, you know, but I, I wanted to be
31:30
working with them and I wanted to take them through the first
31:32
step and I wanted to hear their inventory.
31:36
And there was a point where my core group of guys that I got
31:41
sober with, there was like 15 of us that stayed sober for at
31:45
least a year. It was pretty incredible.
31:47
And they were like, Hey, we don't like hanging out with you
31:50
anymore. Like you're just holy yourself
31:54
and you think that you're like God's agent here on earth and
31:59
that you can't do anything wrong.
32:01
And we think you really need to check yourself, and we're not
32:04
going to hang out with you until you get humble.
32:08
Sounds like good friends. Yeah, a couple really good
32:12
friends. And I think about that more and
32:17
more because I don't think I would have made it without that.
32:20
And yeah, we're we're kind of talking about getting sober
32:23
young, talking about working in treatment, talking about living
32:27
in places where, you know, partying and and alcohol is
32:31
prevalent. And I wouldn't want to like go
32:35
on here and, and finish this up without me saying like, hey,
32:39
without the accountability of like my core group, I wouldn't
32:43
be here. You know, this isn't something
32:46
that, like, I feel like I did, like, I went to God and he met
32:52
me more than halfway. I went to the program of
32:56
Alcoholics Anonymous and it loved me too.
32:58
I could love myself. And I was held accountable by
33:01
those closest to me. And that's how I've been able to
33:04
stay sober. You know, it's not just I was
33:10
blessed, you know which I was, but it's not just that.
33:15
I hear you. But you, you do the work and as
33:18
we kind of come up against it here, this has been great man.
33:22
And I thank you for everything you share.
33:24
Will you just kind of lay it on us though about some nuts and
33:28
bolts about what you do work wise and what the programs,
33:31
where they are, what, what they are and you know, and then also
33:35
how do we find them and you? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
33:38
So TNR Recovery Group has a couple programs Thomas and Roy
33:43
Isbell started. It originally was Sabino
33:46
Recovery in Tucson, AZ, which is really our flagship program and
33:52
specifically focuses on trauma and addiction, but it's one of
33:58
the best trauma programs in the country.
34:00
You know, you can get 15 a la carte clinical private sessions
34:05
a week. They have really incredible
34:09
equine therapy. It backs up to the Sabino Canyon
34:12
in Tucson, AZ. And so it's a really holistic
34:15
program, you know, sleep studies, brain mapping, EMDRART,
34:23
massage, acupuncture, everything under the sun.
34:26
The cold tub is sweet. And then my responsibility is
34:31
really kind of what I talked about at the beginning, but
34:35
outreach, aftercare and alumni for our Texas programs, which
34:39
are Cypress Lake Recovery, which is outside of Houston in
34:43
Woodville, Texas. It's on 52 acres of Piney East
34:47
Texas woods. It overlooks A20 acre spring fed
34:51
lake. The philosophy there is really
34:54
all paths to recovery. So we offer a well variety,
34:57
Celebrate Recovery, Dharma recovery, the 12 steps, SMART
35:02
Recovery. And the idea is by using
35:05
experiential therapy and making all these pathways to recovery
35:09
possible. It's a really good landing spot
35:11
for someone who it's their first treatment experience or maybe
35:14
they've been to a lot of treatments before and they just
35:17
want to have their own personal approach that they choose and
35:22
they follow. So we really like to promote.
35:25
They have to choose something, but whatever recovery pathway
35:28
they choose, we promote it and then we craft it into their
35:32
aftercare plan so that they can continue working it.
35:37
The well variety track is really, really cool.
35:41
We're really. Close to a couple.
35:44
Yeah, well, Bridey is the Native American approach to the 12
35:47
steps, the white bison red road to, well, Bridey.
35:51
And it's basically the 12 steps for Native Americans.
35:56
There's a really good book on it.
35:57
There's really good literature. They have meetings all across
36:00
the country. And they just have, you know,
36:03
kind of different religious background and spiritual
36:06
background. And it it, it kind of drums down
36:10
to great Spirit, you know, instead of God.
36:13
And, but it's the same idea and it's the really the same steps.
36:19
And it's, it's a really incredible track.
36:20
And, and a lot of our Native American clients that come and,
36:23
and they, you know, enjoy it and it's a really cool thing.
36:27
We have a, a walking trail that has the steps on it with
36:31
different meditations. You'll have to come and and do
36:33
it. BI know you like to meditate.
36:35
I will. And then Origins in Hannah's
36:39
house are gender specific programs down on South Padre
36:41
Island which promote the 12 steps pretty heavily.
36:46
That is something that's pretty historic about Origins.
36:49
Clients have the opportunity to work all 12 steps while they're
36:52
with us. Origins is on the main side of
36:58
the island, has a beautiful gym. It's like an old bed and
37:01
breakfast Casito style building which wraps around a big pool
37:05
and like a courtyard. The patients are gonna work the
37:09
12 steps there, they'll have opportunities to work on their
37:12
trauma. And then Hannah's house
37:14
overlooks the Bay. It's only 17 beds, heavy trauma
37:19
work for the ladies down there. And still the same approach to
37:22
the 12 steps. We have a class called Deep dive
37:25
where they deep dive into each step each day of the week and
37:30
clients can stay there 3060 or 90 days.
37:32
So. So that's kind of what we do in
37:35
Texas and I just try to make it really easy for my outreach team
37:41
to help get the right people into treatment and try to remove
37:46
barriers for aftercare planning. My favorite thing to do is get
37:49
on the phone with a young man who's ready to go back home to
37:52
Louisiana and tell them, look, you don't have to go back to
37:55
Louisiana. You can go to Arizona,
37:57
California, North Carolina, wherever you want in the world,
38:02
connect you with a really good programming and give you an
38:04
opportunity to see how big the world really is compared to
38:09
defense. You know, maybe someone skewed
38:11
perspective of the world when they get to us.
38:14
You know, awesome. And you guys do great work.
38:17
I mean, we can contest to that. We attest to that.
38:20
We only work with places and people and providers we like,
38:23
know and trust and y'all certainly fit that bill.
38:26
That's right. And also wanted to be remiss
38:30
about it and shout out Derek Waltney, who hired me into the
38:34
field, the aforementioned Derek, and then put us in touch.
38:39
And so it's been really great to get to know you over the last
38:42
few years and to see you in real life pretty often, which is
38:47
great. And just thank you so much for
38:50
your time today and sharing all this with us.
38:52
This has been absolutely awesome it.
38:55
Was my pleasure. Thank you all for having me.
38:58
Hey, real quick. Last thing though, just how do
39:00
people find, you know, Sabino and TNR and Origins?
39:05
All the individual programs are one place or whatever you want
39:08
to say. Yeah, TNR Recovery group.com,
39:12
cypresslakerecovery.com, you can kind of find all of our programs
39:16
through any one of those origins.
39:18
Texas Recovery, it's beingarecovery.com.
39:21
I've got a LinkedIn which I think will be posted somewhere
39:26
on here and you can find all, all of our links on that.
39:30
If there is someone who who wants some help, but if there is
39:33
someone who just you know, is struggling and an early
39:37
recovery, I would be happy to be the person that you talk to.
39:42
Awesome. They're lucky to have you, Dan.
39:44
Thank you so much for being here today, man.
39:46
Thank you. Thanks, Dan.
39:48
Have a good one. Awesome.
39:49
If you liked what you heard today or just want to know more,
39:52
give us a call on 9196708119 or visit us at
39:57
newwatersrecovery.com. Thank you.