How To Help Yourself And Others Transform Beyond Addiction With Deanne AdamsonHow To Help Yourself And Others Transform Beyond Addiction With Deanne Adamson
I Love Being Sober
Tim Westbrook and Deanne Adamson talk through practical inner and outer steps for transforming beyond addiction, touching on spirituality, psychedelics and everyday habits. The conversation focuses on personalised recovery, building support, and finding a higher path rooted in the true self.
1:05:16•19 Dec 2023
Transforming Beyond Addiction: Practical Steps with Deanne Adamson
Episode Overview
- Start recovery with inner work: honestly accept addiction, make a personal pledge to change, and commit to daily character development.
- Create a free, home-based recovery plan by listing where addiction shows up and writing one practical action next to each item.
- Build a trusted support team and clear agreements, focusing conversations on the person’s true self rather than their addict identity.
- Use incremental changes and tiny habits to climb the "stairs" of recovery instead of chasing instant, all-at-once fixes.
- Treat psychedelic experiences as catalysts, with the real transformation coming through careful preparation and long-term integration.
“That pain is so precious and that suffering is so precious. I mean, that's really what brings us to our knees and to our spiritual path.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Tim Westbrook and coach-trainer Deanne Adamson gives you a front-row seat to a very practical kind of transformation. The chat centres on how people can help themselves from home, without pouring money into endless programmes. Deanne breaks recovery down into "inner steps" and "outer steps".
Internally, she talks about conceding to reality, accepting that "addiction happened to me, like millions and millions of other people", making a personal pledge to change, and doing daily character work with whatever shows up—cravings, fear, conflict, or grief. Externally, she suggests building a support team of trusted people, mapping out every place addiction shows up in your life, and then writing one concrete action next to each entry. It’s very much about custom plans rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.
Tim adds his own experience of early sobriety routines—gratitude lists, daily meetings, phoning a sponsor—to show how small habits stack up over time. You’ll also hear a nuanced discussion on why addiction is so widespread, from cultural pressure and constant dopamine hits to the uncomfortable truth that many of us "have an intolerance to discomfort".
Deanne contrasts numbing drugs with psychedelics that can push people to actually feel and face their pain, stressing that the real change happens afterwards in integration. A big theme is identity: Deanne speaks about the "true self" and an "addictive self" that develops a mind of its own, and she argues that long-term sobriety means letting that alter ego die out while stepping onto a higher, purpose-led path.
For anyone wondering how to support a loved one, she offers concrete tips around compassion, clear agreements, boundaries, and speaking to the person’s true self rather than to their addict. If you’re curious about practical, step-by-step change that respects both the human struggle and spiritual growth, this episode might prompt you to ask: what’s one small step you’re ready to take today?
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