Chasing Pleasure, Finding Meaning: What I Got Wrong in 7.5 Years of Sobriety

My Addiction Was Not All Bad : The Part of Recovery Nobody Is Honest About

Is it okay to admit you miss drinking? Psychotherapist Eryl returns to Recovering Out Loud for an honest conversation about the grief almost nobody talks about in early sobriety — and why pretending "it was all bad" can leave you feeling more ashamed and isolated than the truth ever would. Anthony and Eryl get into the alcohol addiction recovery experience as it really is: substances as an "escape hatch," the abusive-relationship analogy that didn't start out abusive, and the "parts work" idea that you can be grateful to the part of you that helped you survive — without ever going back to it. They also dig into why we keep reaching outside ourselves for a fix (the car, the body, the next purchase), how attachment and self-regulation sit underneath addiction, the cross-addiction "whack-a-mole," and a hard look at the predatory wellness and peptide marketing showing up in recovery spaces right now. It closes on emotional regulation, money, and what it means to build a life you don't need to escape from. A peer + therapist conversation about substance abuse recovery, grief, and emotional sobriety — real stories, no guru energy. This episode discusses body image and eating-disorder recovery. Support resources are in the show notes. Find Eryl on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/erylmccaffrey/ [https://www.instagram.com/erylmccaffrey/] 00:00 Eryl's last 30 days — and the day she said "I need help" 03:07 Why your "failed attempts" weren't failures 05:09 Is it okay to miss drinking? The grief no one warns you about 07:05 The escape hatch: avoiding discomfort at all costs 09:42 Avoiding people, places & things (and why it's temporary) 11:52 What you were really chasing was connection 13:22 Grieving the old you — and being grateful to it (parts work) 14:50 When the craving hits: delay, distract, cope ahead 18:30 Self-regulation, co-regulation & where addiction starts 20:00 Attachment styles, gender & the substance you reach for 23:52 Whack-a-mole: trading one substance for another 24:48 Everything can become a drug — nicotine, scrolling, shopping 25:07 Peptides, Ozempic & predatory marketing in recovery spaces 31:00 Honesty about TRT and the rabbit hole 32:45 "Be curious, not judgmental" 34:01 The real question: WHY am I reaching for a fix? 35:01 Financial sobriety and your relationship with money 37:55 How alcohol gets marketed to keep women small 41:44 Selling escape: the beach, the Corona, the lie 44:25 Building a life you don't need to escape from 46:41 Waiting for the other shoe to drop 48:30 Emotional regulation, in one elevator pitch 49:56 You are not your thoughts — meditation & the observer

Unexpected Benefits of Sobriety: The Small Wins That Actually Keep You Sober

Everyone talks about what you lose when you get sober. Nobody talks about what you get back. Not the big stuff — career, family, health. Those are real, but they're slow. They're not what keeps you sober at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday. In this episode, Anthony breaks down the unexpected, small, sometimes weird gifts that sobriety actually delivers — the ones that sneak up on you, that nobody puts in their inspirational reels, and that are quietly building the proof your brain needs to stay sober long-term. What's covered: * Real sleep vs. passed-out sleep (and why they're completely different) * Cognitive recovery: when memory and word recall actually come back * Why boredom stops feeling like a five-alarm fire * Eye contact, shame, and what happens when shame unhooks from your identity * People not flinching when you walk in the room — and what that actually feels like * Time you didn't know you had * Being trusted again (and why that weight is a gift) * The weird ones: knowing where your phone is, being able to sit in a quiet room Anthony also covers the honest caveats — PAWS (Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome), the gifts that require active work, and the ones that don't show up on schedule. And for the person who can't feel anything yet: your timeline is real, even if it's slower than the posts. Recovering Out Loud is peer-led recovery media — real stories of addiction and sobriety, no clinical voice, no guru energy.

"I Miss It Sometimes" — Euphoric Recall & What Recovery Doesn't Let You Say Out Loud

You're allowed to miss it. Nobody tells you that. Most recovery content tells you your using days were all bad. But if that were true, you wouldn't have kept going back. In this episode, Anthony gets honest about the parts of his drinking and using days he actually misses — the escape, the ritual, the identity, the connection — and why admitting that out loud might be the most important thing you do in your recovery. In this episode: * What euphoric recall actually is, and why it's not a character flaw — it's brain wiring * The fading effect bias: why month 18 can be harder than month 3 * 5 things people in recovery are allowed to miss (but usually don't say) * The two-bucket framework: needs you can meet differently vs. needs you have to grieve * Why the people in trouble aren't the ones talking about missing it * The one practical tool: playing the tape all the way through Key takeaway: The thoughts you can talk about are the thoughts you control. The ones you can't are the ones that control you. This episode is a permission slip. Recovering Out Loud is peer-led recovery media built on lived experience — real stories of addiction and sobriety, no clinical voice, no guru energy. If you found this helpful, please leave a rating and review — it helps more people find the show.

You Can Get Addicted to Weed. It Almost Killed Him | "I Was Smoking Lint Off the Carpet to Get High"

Everyone says weed isn't addictive. Alex is eight years sober and almost didn't make it out. This is the first time he's told the whole thing start to finish. We get into the last 30 days of his using — when he was so deep he couldn't even get high anymore, just chasing a feeling that was already gone. He takes us to his last day: an ice storm, a long drive for weed that wasn't there, and waking up passed out half in a toilet bowl, ribs smashed, realizing how close it got. The part that stuck with me is what came after the drugs stopped: "The war on drugs is over. Now it's the war on self." We talk about the stuff nobody warns you about in long sobriety — isolation that feels safe, cross-addiction (food, work, gaming), men white-knuckling their mental health, and why "it's just weed" is the sentence he trusts the least. If you've ever wondered whether weed can really be a problem — or you're years in and still fighting yourself — this one's for you. What we get into: * Why he couldn't get high no matter how much he used * The one question his uncle asked that he couldn't lie his way out of * Isolation as a "safe place" — and what it costs * Getting sober before legalization, and why he thinks that saved him * The difference between quitting the drug and quitting the war on yourself Recovering Out Loud is peer-led recovery media built on lived experience — real stories of addiction and sobriety. No clinical voice, no guru energy.

Old Ideas: How to Uncover, Discover & Discard What's Keeping You Stuck

Nobody told me that getting sober wasn't the hard part. The hard part was realizing the version of myself I'd been dragging around for years — the beliefs, the patterns, the way I saw the world — most of it wasn't even mine. In this episode, I'm breaking down one of the most important phrases in my recovery: Uncover, Discover, Discard. This isn't a clinical framework — it's how I actually learned to stop being run by ideas I picked up before I ever touched a substance. We're talking about the subconscious operating systems that keep us sick, where they came from, and how to actually let them go — not just white-knuckle through them. I get into the old ideas that still show up in my own life: tying my self-worth to money, earning love through making people laugh, needing everything to be okay on the outside before I can feel okay on the inside. I also talk honestly about how stopping those patterns is exactly what I wasn't doing before I relapsed — and how "Anthony 3.0" is something I'm actively building, not looking back from. In this episode: * What old ideas actually are (hint: they're not opinions, they're operating systems) * The three-phase process: Uncover → Discover → Discard * Why the gap between letting go of the old and finding the new is where most people relapse * Schema theory, ACT therapy, and neuroplasticity — what the research says * How to "borrow" someone else's beliefs until you build your own Listener reflection prompts: * What's one belief you carried into recovery that you picked up long before you ever touched a substance? * When did you first realize a belief you had about yourself wasn't actually yours? * Have you ever discovered where one of your survival strategies originally came from? Recovery is simple. Not easy.