Sober FriendsSober Friends
I Love Being Sober
Tim Westbrook talks with Sober Friends Podcast host Matt Jerr about his traumatic upbringing, high-bottom drinking, and commitment to AA and service. The conversation centres on how community, honesty, and consistent action have supported Matt in long-term sobriety without relapse.
44:20•17 Oct 2023
High-Bottom Drunk, Full-Time Sober: Matt Jerr on Finding His People
Episode Overview
- Childhood trauma and an alcoholic, abusive father set the stage for Matt’s later struggles with alcohol.
- Matt recognised his alcoholism through constant obsession about drinking and identifying with a character in a TV show who relapsed.
- He considers himself a high-bottom drunk and stresses that you don’t need a dramatic rock bottom to seek recovery.
- Jumping fully into AA—meetings, service work, sponsorship, and vulnerability—helped him stay sober without relapse.
- Matt’s Sober Friends Podcast is both a tool to keep himself sober and a way to share his experience, strength, and hope with others.
“"Nobody got in trouble because they stayed sober."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Tim Westbrook and guest Matt Jerr, host of the Sober Friends Podcast, gives a straight-talking look at what long-term recovery can actually feel like. You’ll hear Matt share his early years marked by trauma, poverty, and an alcoholic, abusive father, and how those experiences shaped his relationship with alcohol.
He explains why being called "an alcoholic" was once the worst insult imaginable and how a scene in a TV show finally made him admit, "I'm an alcoholic. I have a problem, and alcohol is the least of my problems because alcohol is my solution." Matt describes starting to drink at 16, obsessing about alcohol even during dry spells, and later realising that "normal people" don’t Google *am I an alcoholic* tests.
He talks about being a so‑called "high-bottom drunk"—someone who didn’t lose everything or wake up in intensive care—but whose emotional bottom was the shame of becoming what he feared most. The chat digs into what kept him sober from day one: taking every suggestion, going to meetings, doing service, raising his hand, talking to "geezers" with decades of sobriety, and letting recovery become his new obsession.
His take is simple and sharp: "Nobody got in trouble because they stayed sober." There’s plenty here for anyone who wonders if their drinking "is bad enough" to justify quitting. Matt’s advice to other high-bottom drunks is blunt: "Stop digging. You can stop sooner" and you don’t need to wait for a dramatic crash to deserve a seat in recovery.
If you’re questioning your relationship with alcohol or curious about the community behind both I Love Being Sober and the Sober Friends Podcast, this episode might be the nudge you’ve been waiting for. Could hearing one honest story be your first step towards a different life?
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