Sobriety Program To Live Free: How To Avoid Relapsing With Alex MandossianSobriety Program To Live Free: How To Avoid Relapsing With Alex Mandossian
I Love Being Sober
Tim Westbrook talks with Alex Mandossian about his cycles of sobriety and relapse, stressing self-awareness, connection and routine as key parts of recovery. The conversation focuses on why there’s no graduation from a sobriety programme and how putting recovery first can keep slips at bay.
35:57•22 Mar 2022
No Graduation from Sobriety: Alex Mandossian on Slips, Relapse and Living Free
Episode Overview
- Relapse and slips are treated as the same break in commitment, with self-awareness at the heart of preventing both.
- Staying plugged into meetings, sponsorship and a home group is presented as essential for long-term sobriety.
- Isolation and rationalising are highlighted as early warning signs that often precede a slip or relapse.
- A structured morning routine focused on physical, spiritual and emotional practices helps keep alcohol out of mind.
- Seeing recovery as a lifelong commitment, rather than something you graduate from, supports living happy, joyous and free.
“When I'm not self-aware, then I get myself in trouble, no matter how intelligent I am, how much money I've made.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between Tim Westbrook and his long-time sponsee, marketing veteran Alex Mandossian, zeroes in on the messy reality of slips, relapses, and what it actually takes to live "happy, joyous and free" long term. Alex shares his story of first getting sober in Manhattan back in 1992, racking up 11 years without a drink.
Surrounded by meetings, a strong sponsor, and a new recovery community, it felt like a whole new way of living. Things changed when he moved to Northern California, stopped going to meetings, and quietly decided he had "graduated" from the programme. As he puts it, "I like recovery to be the normal and that's the only way to stay sober" – but for years he tried to go back to what he thought was normal drinking.
You’ll hear him walk through multiple periods of sobriety and relapse, including rehab in Napa Valley, white-knuckling it without meetings, and eventually returning to recovery in 2020. He’s blunt about the dangers of isolation, rationalising, and self-loathing, calling himself a "recidivist" who kept backsliding whenever he drifted from the programme and community.
Tim and Alex talk about why relapsing is not considered part of a sobriety programme, the importance of sponsorship and service, and the brutal honesty required to "tell on yourself" before a slip happens. Alex’s morning ritual – breath work, exercise, prayer, gratitude and meetings – anchors his current recovery and shows how structure can crowd out the urge to drink.
This episode will resonate with anyone who’s ever thought they had it "figured out" after a few sober years, only to find out the hard way that there’s no graduation from recovery. It’s a candid, sometimes funny, and very human reminder that staying connected might be the difference between a slip and another day sober. How are you keeping recovery as your everyday normal?
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