Ep 116 Beyond Addiction Steven and His Triumph Over Addiction

Ep 116 Beyond Addiction Steven and His Triumph Over Addiction

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This episode follows Steven, known as "Boats," a 20‑year Navy veteran whose drinking started with a "joke" beer in primary school and grew into a 40‑year habit woven through family life, construction sites and Navy culture. He talks frankly about quitting for years at a time, always finding a new excuse to start again – including using a keto diet as a convenient cover for heavy drinking.

You’ll hear Boats describe the terrifying night that pushed him to seek help: alone in his RV, hands shaking so badly he couldn’t hold a shot glass, convinced he might die and not be found for days. His late‑night search for "alcohol rehab near me" led him to Gulf Breeze Recovery, where staff came to collect him and nursed him through a week‑long detox he barely remembers.

From there, he shares what made treatment different this time: being told "you walk in the door with everything you need" instead of getting a rigid prescription for recovery. He compares earlier approaches to "a rotary phone" and calls the mindfulness‑based, Three Principles style at Gulf Breeze Recovery his "drunk college" – a place where books, classes, neurofeedback and long chats in the lounge slowly turned darkness into a dim light and then into a clear "aha" moment.

Boats also describes art therapy and EMDR with Anne‑Marie, the tough love and camaraderie of fellow military guests, and the simple joy of movie nights and shared sweets. Returning home, he talks about deleting dealers’ numbers, white‑knuckling the first weeks, daily sunrise meditation and how sobriety lets him truly appreciate his adult children and his partner.

As he puts it, "how you do one thing is how you do everything" – so what one honest step are you ready to take today?