Alex Mann: Addiction, Gambling, the Mob & 10 Years Clean

Alex Mann: Addiction, Gambling, the Mob & 10 Years Clean

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between host Corey Winfield and guest Alex Mann doesn’t pull any punches about addiction, relapse, and the long road to getting clean. Alex, who’s been clean for a little over 10 years, talks candidly about severe alcoholism, cocaine use, gambling debts to mob-connected bookmakers, and multiple near-death experiences.

He shares harrowing moments, like dry heaving every morning until he tore his oesophagus and woke up “puking a lot of blood” on the bathroom floor, and having a seizure on the floor of a friend’s bar after drinking from 7:30 a.m. onwards. As he puts it, “I was so sick all day, every day. And drinking wasn’t fun anymore.

I drank because I needed medicine.” You’ll hear how alcohol, introduced early through older peers, quickly tied into drugs, gambling, and dangerous ‘‘street credit’’ with serious bookmakers. Alex explains how he ended up more than $100,000 in debt to mob-style outfits, and how a huge federal bust unexpectedly wiped out what he owed.

A big part of the episode focuses on recovery: the reality that most people relapse, the uneven quality of treatment centres, and how writing his memoir, *I Did It All to Myself and God’s Touch Saved Me*, started out as a desperate attempt to make extra money and turned into powerful therapy. Corey relates with his own writing and talks about using purpose — like podcasting — as a key part of staying sober.

They also call out alcohol advertising, the myths around “drinking responsibly”, and the lack of honest warnings about how tolerance and dependence build. If you’ve ever wondered whether your story is “bad enough” or worried that relapse means failure, this raw, honest chat might help you feel a little less alone and a lot more understood. What part of your own story are you ready to face next?