OC024 Chris - Sober 29 years, Cocaine, Alcoholism, Losing Sister and Brother, Depression and SponsorshipOC024 Chris - Sober 29 years, Cocaine, Alcoholism, Losing Sister and Brother, Depression and Sponsorship
The One Day At A Time Recovery Podcast
Chris reflects on 29 years of sobriety, sharing candid stories of alcoholism, cocaine use, grief, depression, and how sponsorship and 12-step work shaped his life. He also describes travelling the country in his RV while focusing on service, spiritual growth and staying sober one day at a time.
1:05:34•10 Aug 2017
Chris’s 29 Years Sober: Depression, Loss and Life on the Road
Episode Overview
- Acknowledging depression and seeking professional help can be vital, even for those with many years in recovery.
- Long-term sobriety may require revisiting and deepening understanding of key 12-step principles, especially around a higher power and sanity.
- Sponsorship grounded in sharing personal experience rather than giving direct advice helps others think and choose for themselves.
- Being early, slowing down and aiming to be of service can create more serenity than rigid routines.
- Recovery can remain flexible: focusing on “trust God, clean house and work with others” allows daily practice to adapt over time.
“If there’s anybody listening to this thing and you think you’re going through something and you might be depressed, don’t fuck with depression. Go get help.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation with Chris offers a long-view look at recovery, grief, and growth over nearly three decades. Chris, sober since April 1988, talks frankly about life before and after alcohol and cocaine.
From a chaotic youth in Indiana, to joining the Marine Corps “because I was tired of people telling me what to do,” to years of heavy drinking and drug use in California, his story shows how addiction can wrap itself around every part of life – marriages, work, and family. A big part of the episode centres on loss and depression.
Chris shares how a wave of deaths – his sister, brother, mother, and multiple workplace fatalities he investigated – pushed him to a breaking point. He describes sitting in a therapist’s office, blaming everyone else, until a doctor calmly told him, “You’re depressed,” and things finally started to shift. His message is blunt and memorable: “If there’s anybody listening… and you think you’re going through something and you might be depressed, don’t fuck with depression.
Go get help.” You’ll also hear how 12-step recovery, sponsorship, and a re-examination of Steps Two and Eleven reshaped his view of a higher power and sanity. Chris jokes that he used to run headlong into walls; now he can stop just before impact and hand things back over.
His approach to sponsorship is simple: “The only thing I can give you is the 12 steps… everything else is pride and ego.” These days, he’s retired, travelling the US in his RV, reconnecting with old friends and staying open to whoever he might be able to help along the way. It’s a down-to-earth reminder that long-term recovery isn’t about perfection or rigid routines, but about “trust God, clean house, and work with others” – one day at a time.
If you’re wondering whether recovery can stay meaningful decades in, Chris’s story might be the nudge you need.
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