Guest Sean MC

#022 - Two friends reconnect and share their experiences with addiction, recovery, and the ups and downs of their journeys since leaving treatment. They discuss the importance of support systems, challenges in staying sober, and strategies they've employed to maintain their sobriety. Amidst personal stories, they touch on family history, the impact of generational issues, and the significance of having a strong sponsor while navigating the path to recovery. The conversation also dives into making new friendships in treatment and detox centres, the fear of relapse, and how focusing on daily routines, gratitude, and keeping in touch with one's support system can make a profound difference.

Transcript

 Yeah.

the first episode we recorded, in my opinion, it was great. And I realized that your voice did not record. Screw up on my end, I'm learning how to use

this remote recording software.

Man, we got burnt on that one.

We did, I'm sitting in Thunder Bay, Ontario, you're what, in Winnip You're

Yeah, Winnipeg.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, Peg City.

like city and

Yeah, shout out. Yeah, the Jets.  Yeah, shit the bed. 

and I had the Oilers and Vancouver game on in the

Oh, cholera. Yeah.

I just turned it off. Cause it's a they're down

for four to 

Hey, man.  Yeah. 

I 

anything can 

it on in the background. Yeah. Anything can happen. You're right. And it's only game one. So we'll see. It's four, two. And I think there's about 16, 15 minutes left in the third period.

Yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm probably ahead of you.  Yeah, by a few seconds.

Yeah, probably. I switched the feed off, but I'm just watching the clock and the score on a different window. So I'm very well might have the same same time as you.

yeah, I'm yeah, I'm hopping on the  Oilers bandwagon 

yeah.

I got a lot of family out there So

Sean, I was

shit my grandma just passed away Like a

sorry to

hear that, man. Damn I didn't know 

Yeah, she was 95.

wow.

Wow. 

her whole life

Yeah.

Yeah, and Yeah, she had a drinking. Issue

Oh, yeah?

I'd say Yeah, most of her life. But more later on.

Yeah, later on in life.  I spent a lot of time with her.

yeah. I was, I'm curious to know what do you think the cause of that might've been? Like, why what, 

ah, just generational stuff. Growing up. The family growing up on the prairies. Being homesteaders. 

Okay.

Yeah maybe influenced by my, yeah, by my grandpa which is generational alcoholics. Yeah, runs, yeah, runs on my mom's side. But anyway, past the point, let's get off the,  yeah, the sad shit. 

All 

So what's up with you? 

Not much, man. I I've been looking forward to talking to you. We talk every day and I was

Yeah, we text, or I try to talk to you, yeah, you don't answer. Yeah, but you've been answering lately. When I get sober, you always answer. 

That's it. I think you

said it right there. You're night and

day when drinking versus

don't think, I don't think so.  I can still,  yeah, I can still light her up.  I can still light her up sober. Don't worry.

How long have we known each other? I was thinking that today, I think it must've been like what, nine years now, 10 years, is it?

Yeah, here, I have my  Shit, I still have my Edgewood aftercare plan 

on my fridge. Okay, 2015.  This is

what I wrote with, uh, Yeah, I'm not gonna say his name. I think

I'm on air.

Yeah. I think 

Yeah, but no, October 19th. This is just my aftercare plan. It was signed October 19th 2015.  

I remember that

When I got out of  Um, secondary.

Yeah, secondary treatment. Yeah, extended, yeah, extended care.  Yeah, that was a nice place, eh? 

Yeah. It felt like a hotel. It

Or a frat house.

Yeah. A

frat house at times.

the big brother house, 

then scary. Yeah we had yeah, me yeah, I had a click. I'll have to put, I have to be honest. 

Sure.

I had a click, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, but you were there, yeah, you weren't, You got out of extended a few or lots of stories, eh?

stories for sure.

Yeah. Good times. Yeah.

Good times. Like serious times. Yeah. Crazy times. Oh,

You know what? And that was the thing like about, about Edgewood treatment. It was, you met, to this day I keep in touch with

Oh God.

two to three boys that we you know we keep in touch throughout our time. 

Yeah. One of our Edmonton boys, I just messaged him like he spoke with one of my uncles at a meeting. 

I guess they, they ran. I introduced them when I was in Edgewood where I gave. Our friend, my, my uncle's number cause they live in the same city, Edmonton, 

and so they hooked up pretty early, going to meetings and stuff.

And he just celebrated nine  or maybe eight years. I forget. 

Yeah.

I forget. I forget the timeline with everything. With him. But I think, yeah, him and I got in on the, at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Not going to name names on there. 

No,

no worries, bro. No 

Yeah 

you and I obviously know about each other's journeys, but, our listeners, they don't know a whole lot about either of us really. And I'm just, I'm curious to know

How has the last nine years have been since we both, left treatment?

It's been a pretty rough, 

Yeah.

Lots of. At first, it was,  yeah, it was awesome. I got everything back and then,  yeah, I messed up. I'm not gonna tell the long, yeah, the long story about my,  yeah, about my relapse, but  yeah, it happened. And  yeah, and it's been up and down ever since. 

Yeah. A lot of bottoms,  a lot of treatments.  Yeah. It's baffling. I could go on for hours, but

Yeah, for

yeah, we're just checking in. 

Yeah, pretty much, man. And that's the power of you and I and you got other boys as well, but just, we took slightly different avenues after treatment, but,

yeah

And

And, 

Yeah. Just slightly.

just

slightly, Right, Like I, I've been sober nine years and I'm getting close to nine, June 8th, 29, 20 June

Oh, I'm, oh, yeah, I'm really counting down the days, yeah.

Yeah. I think you

just got a 24. Did you?

No, I'm

Hey, I my last drink was on the 26th

26. Okay.



April, yeah.

And that's one of the things we've been talking about this year is that this year seems to be, I want to say every year has been different for you

No, this last week? Oh,

It seems to be a little different. It seems like you've got some strength in this new cohort or this entourage that you have. 

this is just a minor fact of everything that's how I make friends pretty easily. Right?

That's a fact.

Yeah. Like I've always been like that since I was, yeah, pretty young.  I think it comes out of nerves.  It's I have to like, yeah, get to know everyone.  Yeah. But yeah, I made some good friends in detox and  shit.

I got out maybe last week, Wednesday or Thursday.  No, probably Wednesday.  And then yeah, Friday I picked up a couple of the boys from AFM, which is the,  yeah, I guess Manitoba is treatment center for for men. It's a 28 day program. So I picked up a couple of guys from there  and one of my boys who I was in detox with at a private facility up in Gimli, Manitoba. 

Okay. I was. In detox with him over there and met him  and then texting back and forth,  he went through that program and relapse like five days after and I was in the middle of another relapse after that detox and we're texting and like talking a little bit.  And then,  yeah, I go to RAM clinic because I'm,  yeah at my end, right?

Yeah, physically yeah, I could talk about, like, how bad it was, but I'm not gonna get into it, but  So I get into uh, the Health Sciences Centre detox. Unit  and yeah, the same guys there and we just had a frickin  yeah, I made a  couple of friends. So I'm like rolling with them and yeah, we're just mobbed deep in like meetings and stuff and yeah, it's fun.

It's fun and

My, I'm going back in there on the 21st.  So I'm going to do a 20 28 day, uh, residential treatment program. It's going to be like my fifth  time in there,  which is

so you're going

pretty sad, but yeah.

back to the institution. I think it's a good thing. And it, it seems like you got a strong support group around you. A couple things. Do you find that and I've noticed this about you too, is that you do. tend to make, let's just use the term friends or formula or a team, you get involved with the team right away.

Is there like fear there that of not being liked or not fitting in? Is there something there that like, prompts

you to do that?  

I usually go or

yeah, we could get into.  I don't think so. Uh, I was brought up in the like in the Baha'i faith and you always greet people you meet people from all over the the world. I traveled  to like Israel 

and to Haifa, Israel  and yeah, you meet, yeah, you meet people everywhere, but I, yeah, I tend to gravitate to the cool kids, 

Okay.

right? So I'm part of the cool kid crew.  So yeah. At the treatment center up in Gimli, we actually had a table called.  Or everyone else called it the  cool kid table.  And so that was my,  yeah, I had a crazy group of friends there.

Oh  yeah, the personalities. Just amazing.

When everyone's sober, right?

Yeah. A hundred percent. You said something about eight, nine times just in and out. And what makes this time different? I'm just curious because it seems like you got a good support group. All the tools, you know what you got to do but what makes this time, different?

I have a good, a really good sponsor. First of all no, I used to pick the older sponsor that had 35 years sponsors like anyone I there's sponsors that go out just to sponsor people I don't know, really hard.  Or I don't know how to put it.  It's oh, I'll be your sponsor. 

And those guys,  I don't know, never really had a connection and my sponsor is like super smart getting a counseling degree  and, uh,

Yeah I don't know. Things are just working out. He has all the answers.  So 

yeah,

like I said, man, you got a lot of the tools, how to put them into practice and I'm rooting for you. We got each other. We keep in touch, and I'm just curious to know what the rest of your week looks like. What do you got on the go for Thursday and Friday

Spring cleaning. It's so nice here.  It was like 23 today. It's gonna be  25 tomorrow,  I think.  So yeah, I do that, but in the morning, I read my DR.  My, my daily reflections  and yeah, make some notes and then gratitude lists  and then a to do list and then yeah, page 83 to 88  starting with the promises. 

Yeah. I'm talking a lot,  but that's in. Yeah, that's like what I do right now, which is  really different. And I don't know, I have a buddy who's working really hard and like doing the same thing  that I met in detox, like the twice or the two times.  I'm like,  I don't know.  And yeah, I'm 

system is is necessary for sure. 

But I'm like reaching out to like everyone and everyone's calling me like all my old AA buddies.

Not old. Old as in haven't talked to them in maybe a couple of months.  And they're still in the rooms. They're,  yeah, a decade younger, most of them.  Yeah, or 15 years younger. These are all guys that I met in treatment or in the rooms, right?  And, 

should be looking up to you, but it looks like the other way around. Eh 

yeah, totally.



I got stories of guys relapsing after some time.

It was pretty scary when you got five, six  years under your belt and you relapse. Yeah, there's stories like that going around and and and guys that I thought had a solid program were, like,  I don't know, they were concentrating on other things, like school, right? 

And, uh, we're like new girlfriends or don't know, stuff like that. And  yeah yeah, it's scary. You got to watch out every day, man.

Yeah. And the stuff you got to work on, we won't get into details and everyone's got their own journey, but it's nice to do it with the support system. And it seems like you got those boys or those individuals around you. So I'm rooting

Yeah. And all the guys, all the friends that I've made before, man, I'm like, you and I talk every day. So

Yeah,

yeah. When I'm sober. Yeah. 

To do that. You know

what I appreciate you joining me today. It's getting late It's already 12 30 a. m in the morning my time the next day and it's probably about 11 30 You know still on the 8th may 8th your

Yeah. That's early. Yeah. That's early for me

I gotta get

to bed You probably gotta get to bed as well.

And dude, we'll continue this next week. 

Okay. Sounds good.

All right, brother. I genuinely appreciate your time, man. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Later.

Bye everyone​