#139 – Bret Hoffman: A New Way of Life#139 – Bret Hoffman: A New Way of Life
Recovery Survey
Bret Hoffman shares how he got sober at 23, found a 12-step fellowship, and rebuilt his life and family relationships. The conversation focuses on shifting from mere abstinence to a meaningful new way of living based on spiritual principles and sustained recovery work.
31:30•7 Dec 2022
A New Way of Life: Bret Hoffman on Sobriety, Spirituality and Second Chances
Episode Overview
- You don't have to hit a stereotypical rock bottom to seek recovery; questioning how you’re living can be enough.
- Simply stopping drugs and alcohol is only the beginning; long-term change comes from working on yourself and adopting new principles.
- A 12-step fellowship can offer structure, community, and a practical path to finding a power greater than yourself.
- Broken relationships can heal over time through consistent sobriety, amends, and living differently rather than just talking about change.
- The same obsession once poured into using can, in recovery, fuel education, career goals and a completely new way of life.
“"Sobriety becomes you. It speaks through you. It lives through you."”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? For Bret Hoffman, it wasn’t a dramatic rock-bottom moment, but a terrifying thought at 23: "How am I going to do this for the rest of my life? Should I just go kill myself?" From there, his story shifts from chaos in restaurant bathrooms and forged credit card tips to a life built on spiritual principles, integrity, and service.
On Recovery Survey, Bret sits down with host Brett Morris to talk through his early beliefs about what an "alcoholic" looks like – the relative with no teeth, beer cans and chaos – and how that stereotype kept him from seeing his own problem. You'll hear about DUIs before 18, stolen money from his sick grandmother, and waking up every day on a grim repeat cycle of withdrawal, hustling, and using.
What makes this conversation stand out is how practical and honest it is about early sobriety. Bret explains why just putting the drink and drugs down isn’t the full answer, and how a 12-step fellowship gave him a "design for living" and a power greater than himself when he had no idea how to live sober. He calls it the "gift of desperation" – having nothing left meant he finally stopped trying to run the show.
The episode also speaks directly to anyone worried that they’ve wrecked relationships beyond repair. Bret describes rebuilding from blown-up bridges with his family, including being able to hold his grandmother’s hand as she died and writing her eulogy – something he never imagined as the grandson who once robbed her. Today he’s pursuing advanced degrees and living by a new set of principles, proof of what can happen when the obsession to drink gets redirected.
If you’ve ever wondered whether things can truly change, this conversation might have you asking a different question: what could your life look like if you gave recovery a real chance?
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