197 - Getting Hooked On (and Off) Drugs and Drink197 - Getting Hooked On (and Off) Drugs and Drink
Real Recovery Talk
Tom and Ben talk with Ira, who shares his long history of addiction, serious health problems, and family loss, and how he found sobriety through a strict rehab and active involvement in recovery. His story highlights the shift from being ready to die to living with purpose, service, and a new connection with his mum and his faith.
53:51•19 Nov 2021
From Hospital Regular to Helping Others: Ira’s Hard-Hitting Recovery Story
Episode Overview
- Addiction can start with early feelings of not fitting in and quickly progress from casual use to serious dependence.
- Switching substances (from drugs to alcohol or medication) does not solve addiction; it often creates new, dangerous problems.
- Repeated hospital visits can become part of the addictive pattern, especially when they provide access to medication and care.
- Structured support – meetings, sponsorship, and working the 12 steps thoroughly – is crucial for more than just physical sobriety.
- Service to others and staying connected to a recovery community can turn years of chaos into a meaningful, purpose-driven life.
“I have a purpose today, and I feel God steps in my life a lot and he was telling me to have courage and be fearless.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? For Ira, it was a brutal mix of failing health, family heartbreak, and the terrifying realisation that he was genuinely ready to die. Real Recovery Talk brings Ira’s story to the forefront, with Tom and Ben giving him space to speak openly about a lifetime of addiction that began with beer and weed at 13 and progressed to IV drugs, heavy drinking, and more than 170 hospital admissions.
You’ll hear how growing up mixed Irish–Vietnamese in 1970s Philadelphia, facing racism and bullying, left him feeling like he never truly belonged – except with other kids using substances. Ira talks frankly about watching his father, a police officer and veteran, drink himself to death at 47, his brother’s suicide after a long sentence for drug trafficking, and his own near-fatal crash while drunk and using.
The shock isn’t just in the medical details – cirrhosis, hepatitis C, diabetes, cancer – but in how numb he’d become: “When she told me, I didn’t care… I was just wondering where am I going to be? Am I on the pump?” The second half of the episode shifts to how things changed: being carried into a no-frills, Spanish-speaking rehab, going cold turkey without TV, phones, or distractions, and learning to live on rice, beans, meetings and goodwill.
From there, you’ll hear how a simple AA meeting behind a clubhouse, a stubborn relapse fantasy, and finally asking for a sponsor led to real emotional and spiritual change. Now over two years sober, Ira spends his time greeting people at meetings, doing hospital and institution service, and sharing recovery with his 70-year-old mum, who is sober alongside him.
His message is simple: “My mess is my message today… if I treat today as the most important day, recovery is easy.” If you’re wondering whether it’s too late, or if your loved one is “too far gone”, this story might be exactly what you need to hear.
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