Shows / Recovering Out Loud
Recovering Out Loud
Sobriety you can actually use — from someone who lived it twice. I'm Anthony. I got sober in 2015, relapsed after 7.5 years, and rebuilt from zero. Now I'm an addiction counsellor-in-training sharing what actually works in recovery — not theory, real tools. Every episode covers the real struggles of staying sober: emotional sobriety, relapse prevention, identity, people-pleasing, shame, trauma, mental health, and the messy middle nobody talks about. If you're newly sober, years in, or…
Episodes
Recovering Out LoudTriggers in Recovery: Why Cravings Get Louder After You Get Sober
Triggers don't mean you're failing at recovery. They mean you're a person in recovery. At a wedding last night, a table conversation about ADHD meds lit my…
Recovering Out LoudAre You Still an Alcoholic or Addict After Years Sober? The Label Question
Do you have to call yourself an addict to stay sober? Here's what the label means to me. A listener sent me a DM that stuck with me: after years sober, calling…
Recovering Out LoudForgiving Yourself After Addiction (Shame vs Guilt)
Shame about your past doesn't keep you sober — research says it predicts relapse instead. If you've struggled with addiction or alcoholism, you've probably…
Recovering Out LoudThe Skill That Unlocks Every Other Skill in Recovery : Open-Mindedness
Denial is a closed mind pointed inward — and nothing in recovery changes until it cracks. I was absolutely certain I could handle it. Certain I wasn't "as bad…
Recovering Out LoudDealing With Difficult People : Acceptance Isn't Approval
Difficult people aren't going anywhere. The resentment you carry about them is optional. In this solo episode of Recovering Out Loud, I talk about dealing with…
Recovering Out LoudPerception vs. Perspective: Why Your Brain Lies in Early Recovery
Perception vs. perspective in addiction recovery: why your gut read isn't the truth — and how to change where you're standing. Someone doesn't text back and…
Recovering Out LoudEgo in Addiction Recovery: Why "I've Got This" Led to My Relapse
"I've got this" was my problem for years: I've got it under control, I'll figure it out on my own. Before my relapse after seven and a half years sober, it was…
Recovering Out LoudSober Isn't the Same as Okay — 10 Hard Truths About Addiction Recovery
Getting sober doesn't fix your life. It gives you a chance to fix it. Ten harsh truths from 11 years in recovery. Nobody really tells you about the hard parts…
Recovering Out LoudThe Difference Between Me and a Normal Drinker | Borrowed Wisdom: Bob D.
What's the real difference between an alcoholic and a normal drinker? Old-timer Bob D. has an answer. In this Borrowed Wisdom episode, Anthony breaks down a…
Recovering Out Loud5 Things Alcoholics Still Do After They Get Sober
Sobriety didn't switch off my alcoholic thinking. 5 things I still do in addiction recovery — and how I catch them. Putting down the drink and the drug was the…
Recovering Out LoudHow to Stay Sober Through Hard Times (While You're Still In It)
Staying sober through adversity while you're still in it — not the highlight reel after. This one's recorded from inside the hard middle. I'm in the middle of…
Recovering Out LoudThe 5 Slow Killers of Sobriety — Why Relapse Is Emotional Before It's Physical
Relapse is emotional before it's physical. The 5 slow killers that take us out — and how to get ahead of each one before it gets ahead of you. None of these…
Recovering Out Loud6 Journaling Techniques for Recovery (and the Evidence Behind Each One)
Everybody hands you a journal in early recovery and says "use it" — nobody tells you what to do with it. So this episode is the missing manual: six journaling…
Recovering Out LoudThe History of Addiction Treatment: Sin, Disease, Medicine & Harm Reduction
How addiction treatment went from moral failing to disease to harm reduction — 240 years of recovery history, told through lived experience. This is a peer…
Recovering Out Loud10 Things Another Sober Summer Taught Me
Ten honest lessons from another sober summer — victimhood, relapse, isolation, service, and faith. Summer's over and I'm back to school for my counseling…
Recovering Out LoudKing Baby: The Ego Underneath Addiction
My real problem was never the drugs or alcohol. It was King Baby — the toddler ego running my life. In 2015, in treatment at Hazelden, I read a little pamphlet…
Recovering Out LoudSober and Anxious : Why Anxiety Spikes and What Actually Helps
Nobody warns you sobriety can make anxiety louder, not quieter — here's why, and what actually helps. When you put down the drink or the drug, the anxiety you…
Recovering Out LoudThe Habits That Got Me to 1 Year Sober
Willpower won't keep you sober — it's a battery, and it drains. In this solo episode of Recovering Out Loud, Anthony makes the case that year one isn't about…
Recovering Out LoudPerfectionism Is a Relapse Risk — Progress, Not Perfection
Perfectionism isn't a personality quirk — it's a documented relapse risk, and it doesn't switch off just because you got sober. In this solo episode of…
Recovering Out LoudTrauma & Addiction: Gabor Maté & The Body Keeps the Score (An Honest Take)
Why the pain, not why the addiction? An honest, peer look at the trauma model of recovery. This week it's a solo one. I sit with two thinkers who reshaped how…
Recovering Out LoudSurrender in Addiction Recovery — Why Letting Go Isn't Giving Up
Surrender sounded like giving up — until it became the thing that finally let me stop losing. For years I thought surrender meant waving the white flag…
Recovering Out LoudThe 12 Principles That Actually Keep You Sober
Working the steps gets you sober. Living the principles keeps you there. All 12 — and why they hold. My mentor asks me one question: "How are you living today…
Recovering Out Loud10 Things Alcoholics Do That Normal Drinkers Don't
Ten things I thought were normal until I got sober — supply math, pre-gaming, the morning panic. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a guy who did all ten of these, and…
Recovering Out LoudThe Hidden Opportunities in Recovery (The Wins Nobody Claps For)
The wins nobody claps for are the ones that built your recovery. Here are the hidden ones. We throw parties for the first sober birthday and the first sober…
Recovering Out LoudWeird Things My Addict Brain Does in Recovery : Alcoholism
Ten weird things my alcoholic brain still does in recovery — and why none of them run my life anymore. I've been in recovery since 2015. I relapsed around…
Recovering Out LoudEverything I Knew About Getting Sober Was Wrong (10 Myths)
Ten recovery myths that keep people stuck — from someone sober again after a hard relapse. Almost everything I thought I knew about getting sober turned out to…
Recovering Out Loud5 Years Sober and My Life is Busy : Body Image, Secrets & Relapse
CHEF DEV IS BACK...A counsellor once asked Devan: what's wrong with the way you feel? This is that conversation. Chef Devan Rajkumar Today, he travels and…
Recovering Out LoudWhen You Start Telling People You’re Sober : Reactions and How to Handle Them
What happens when you tell people you're sober — and how to handle every reaction. Getting sober is one job. Telling people you're sober is a completely…
Recovering Out LoudThe Four Agreements & Recovery: Words, Resentment, Doing Your Best
The Four Agreements, read through a recovery lens — words, resentment, assumptions, and doing your best. A quiet 1997 book that keeps showing up in the rooms…
Recovering Out LoudEgo Is the Enemy | How Self-Centeredness Drives Relapse — and What Beats It
The thing that almost killed me and the thing keeping me sober are the same voice: ego. In this solo episode I break down ego the way it actually shows up in…
Recovering Out LoudThe Recovery Skills That Quietly Fixed the Rest of My Life
The thing that kept me sober turned out to be the thing that made me better at being a person. Recovery isn't just about not using — it's a full retraining in…
Recovering Out LoudThe Consequences of My Addiction — 10 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way
Money, cars, a house — all recoverable. Your health and your life aren't. That's one of ten lessons I pulled from the consequences of my addiction. Before I…
Recovering Out Loud7 Unpopular Recovery Opinions I'll Probably Get Hate For
Sober and bitter isn't recovery — it's the same disease in a suit. That's opinion #1, and there are six more. After 11 years in and around recovery — including…
Recovering Out LoudYour Feelings Are Real — But They're Not Reality | Emotional Sobriety
Your feelings are real — but they're not reality. That's the line that reframed how I do recovery, and it's the heart of today's Borrowed Wisdom. I'm reading…
Recovering Out LoudWhen Someone in Your Circle Relapses: Fear, Grief, and How to Actually Help
What do you do when someone close to you goes back out? In this solo episode I talk through what it's actually like when someone in your circle relapses — the…
Recovering Out LoudHe Flipped His Car 10 Feet From a Family's Bedroom | Getting Sober After a DUI
Joe got laid off in July, ended up in a trap house by the weekend, and figured he had the summer off. By September he had a DUI, a car that had flipped twice…
Recovering Out Loud10 Warning Signs of Relapse (Before It's Too Late) | My Relapse Started Months Before I Picked Up
I didn't wake up one day and decide to use after seven and a half years. The relapse started weeks — months — before the first drink or drug. I just called it…
Recovering Out LoudSober But Still Miserable? The Dry Drunk | Borrowed Wisdom Pt. 3 Bob D
Another Borrowed Wisdom episode — I read the highlight clips from a Bob talk that shifted something in me, and reflect on them one at a time. This one lands…
Recovering Out LoudGratitude in Recovery: How to Actually Practice It Without Lying to Yourself
Everyone in recovery preaches gratitude. Almost nobody tells you it can feel completely fake when you're hurting. In this solo episode I get into what…
Recovering Out LoudSober But Still Trapped in Self-Will : The Self-Centeredness That Outlasts the Alcohol
Getting sober doesn't automatically make you a good person. Remove the alcohol or the drugs and you're left with the same wiring — the self-centeredness, the…
Recovering Out LoudRelapsing After 11 Months, Sober Motherhood & 14 Years in Recovery — Co-Founder of Generation Women
She had 11 months sober — then relapsed over an argument she'd only ever had in her own head. Jen returns to the show to walk through what came next: eight…
Recovering Out LoudThe Masks We Wear in Recovery | Borrowed Wisdom Pt. 2 : Earl H, The Path to Freedom
This is Part 2 of Borrowed Wisdom: Earl, "The Path to Freedom." Earl is one of my all-time favourites in recovery. I pulled the quotes that hit hardest and…
Recovering Out LoudLoving an Alcoholic: Both Sides of the Same Story From Addiction to Recovery
Some recovery stories are told from one side. This one isn't. Chloe lived the alcoholism. Andrew loved her through it — and watched both the addiction and the…
Recovering Out LoudWhy Sobriety Stopped Feeling Like a Win: The Emotional Sobriety Plateau Nobody Warns You About
Nobody warns you that sobriety can stop feeling like a win. They warn you about the cravings, the first 30 days, the holidays. Nobody tells you about the…
Recovering Out LoudThe One Cause of Every Resentment, Every Lie, and Every Defect | Borrowed Wisdom #1 Bob D
This is the first in a new series — Borrowed Wisdom — where I share the greatest recovery speaker tapes that saved my life. Every resentment I've ever had came…
Recovering Out Loud"Sorry" Stopped Working: How I Actually Made Amends in Recovery
I said "I'm sorry" so many times in my addiction that the word stopped meaning anything. All words, no action — guilt with a better vocabulary. In this solo…
Recovering Out LoudThe Diary of a Recovering Drug Addict : Thoughts That Keep Me Sober
10 unfiltered thoughts from my morning journal on staying sober, comparison, peace over happiness, and the war that's really with myself. At a year and a half…
Recovering Out LoudIt’s Okay to Miss Drinking Sometimes : The Part of Recovery Nobody Is Honest About
Is it okay to admit you miss drinking? Psychotherapist Eryl returns to Recovering Out Loud for an honest conversation about the grief almost nobody talks about…
Recovering Out LoudUnexpected Benefits of Sobriety: The Small Wins That Actually Keep You Sober
Everyone talks about what you lose when you get sober. Nobody talks about what you get back. Not the big stuff — career, family, health. Those are real, but…
Recovering Out Loud"I Miss It Sometimes" — Euphoric Recall & What Recovery Doesn't Let You Say Out Loud
You're allowed to miss it. Nobody tells you that. Most recovery content tells you your using days were all bad. But if that were true, you wouldn't have kept…
Recovering Out LoudYou Can Get Addicted to Weed. It Almost Killed Him | "I Was Smoking Lint Off the Carpet to Get High"
Everyone says weed isn't addictive. Alex is eight years sober and almost didn't make it out. This is the first time he's told the whole thing start to finish…
Recovering Out LoudOld Ideas: How to Uncover, Discover & Discard What's Keeping You Stuck
Nobody told me that getting sober wasn't the hard part. The hard part was realizing the version of myself I'd been dragging around for years — the beliefs, the…
Recovering Out LoudA Mother’s Story of Grief, Faith, and Recovery : I Lost My 1-Year Old In Recovery
Jesse stayed sober after losing her 1-year-old son. A mother's story of recovery, grief, and faith. In December 2022, Jesse hit her rock bottom — a night of…
Recovering Out LoudSelf-Forgiveness in Recovery: Why You Can't Afford to Hate Yourself Sober
Self-forgiveness in addiction recovery is the work nobody markets — because nobody wants to buy it. In this solo episode, Anthony shares why shame is a…
Recovering Out LoudTwo Cops Ended His 32-Year Addiction : I Used Daily in a Motel For 5 Months
Steven spent five months in a hotel room smoking crack, accepting he'd die there. Then his mother asked a judge if he had children — and two cops knocked. The…
Recovering Out LoudChasing Pleasure, Finding Meaning: What I Got Wrong in 7.5 Years of Sobriety
Most people don't relapse because they wanted to drink. They relapse because they were still chasing pleasure — just in a legal package. Anthony had 7.5 years…
Recovering Out LoudIs Alcohol the Problem? The Honest Answer About Addiction
Is alcohol the problem, or is the person holding the glass? Anthony breaks down the science, the shame, and the honest answer most people in recovery won't say…
Recovering Out LoudI Relapsed Before 2 Years Sober And Now I Can’t Stop
Emily returns to Recovering Out Loud mid-relapse to announce she's ending her own sobriety podcast. This is by far The most raw and vunerable conversation…
Recovering Out LoudBusy Is the New Drunk | How Resistance Kills Your Recovery
Struggling to move forward in recovery — even when you're "doing everything right"? That might be resistance. And it probably doesn't look the way you think it…
Recovering Out LoudInjecting Wellness: How the Peptide Industry Is Targeting People in Recovery
People in recovery are being deliberately targeted by the peptide industry — and most of us don't even realize it. In this episode, Anthony breaks down how the…