SHAIR 88: "Walking Out the Other Side" with Alan Charles, An Addict's Journey from Loneliness to Life.SHAIR 88: "Walking Out the Other Side" with Alan Charles, An Addict's Journey from Loneliness to Life.
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Alan Charles talks about his 24-year cocaine addiction, including multiple relapses, a near-fatal crash and losing his family, and how a single voicemail became the spark for lasting recovery. He also shares his daily routine, experience with the 12 steps and the process of writing his memoir, *Walking Out the Other Side*.
1:01:04•18 Oct 2016
Walking Out the Other Side: Alan Charles on Cocaine, Chaos and Getting His Life Back
Episode Overview
- Relapse can happen for years, but sustained recovery becomes possible when the desire to change finally outweighs the pull of the drug.
- A strong daily routine of readings, meditation, meetings and contact with a sponsor can support long-term sobriety and a more balanced life.
- Working the 12 steps thoroughly, with rigorous honesty, can rebuild self-worth and repair damaged relationships.
- Feelings and urges do not have to dictate actions; they are temporary experiences, not instructions.
- In early recovery, asking for guidance before making big decisions can help counter the distorted thinking of addiction.
“I started thinking about, I don't really have to die. If I come back, there are people that are there waiting for me.”
Curious about how others manage their sobriety journey? This conversation with Alan Charles on The SHAIR Recovery Podcast offers a raw, relatable look at long-term cocaine addiction and the slow road back to a meaningful life. Alan, author of *Walking Out the Other Side*, talks through a childhood that shifted from "an All-American type life" to chaos after his father died when he was nine.
Left to fend off bill collectors and manage the household, he learned to hide his feelings behind a mask. Years later, a first line of cocaine at 24 instantly removed the lifelong knot in his stomach – and triggered a 24-year addiction that wrecked careers, marriages, and nearly killed him.
He shares how cocaine became his true love, leading to repeated relapses, four inpatient stays, more than 15 outpatient programmes, and even a car crash where emergency crews had to cut him from the wreckage after he was "dead at the scene." Yet even losing access to his children wasn’t enough to make recovery stick at first. The turning point comes in one of the episode’s most powerful moments: a voicemail from his therapist saying, "Alan, you're going to die.
It's time to come back." Hearing it the next morning, he replayed it several times and realised, "I don't really have to die. If I come back, there are people that are there waiting for me." He calls that message his spiritual awakening.
For anyone juggling meetings, family, and work, Alan’s current routine will feel very real: early mornings with readings and meditation, the gym, a full-time job, regular contact with his sponsor, and a more balanced meeting schedule after eight and a half years clean. He talks about working the steps in Cocaine Anonymous, rebuilding trust with his children, and writing his memoir over three years.
If you’ve ever wondered whether years of relapse mean you’re beyond help, this story might make you ask a different question: if Alan can get sober, what’s still possible for you?
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