Learning To Love Ourselves (The Daily Trudge)

Learning To Love Ourselves (The Daily Trudge)

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This RAW Recovery – Trudging Together session centres on one of the toughest skills in recovery: learning to love yourself, again. Dion keeps things light at first with “Dion’s daily funnies”, easing into a heavy subject with jokes about bulls, Snoop Dogg and Iron Man. The humour isn’t just filler; it’s a pressure valve before he walks through loneliness, childhood hurt and the deep shame that fed his drinking.

As he puts it, “We talk to ourselves in ways we’d never talk to anyone else. I was my own worst critic.” Speaking directly from lived experience, Dion describes alcoholism as “a lonely business”, even when surrounded by people. He talks about growing up feeling like a “non-entity”, pushing trauma so far down that memories of abuse only resurfaced many years into sobriety.

He links that history to anger, people‑pleasing, and the constant hunt for approval – all the things that made self-acceptance feel impossible. Recovery for him isn’t about perfection or forced positivity. Instead, he breaks it down into honest, practical steps: working the 12 steps, getting a good sponsor, building self-worth through action, and treating yourself with the same respect you expect from others.

He stresses the difference between strong boundaries and healthy ones, and the shift from self-hatred to self-respect: “I had to start treating myself the way I expect other people to treat me.” The episode is especially suited to anyone who’s sober (or trying to be) but still trapped in guilt, shame and harsh self-talk.

With a mix of raw honesty, warmth and a few Gen X toy references, Dion shows that self-love doesn’t arrive in a single moment – it’s built “one honest action at a time”. If you’ve ever felt like you’re too much, not enough, or both in the same day, this conversation might be the reminder you need to ease up on yourself and keep trudging.