One Line That Changes Everything


There is a moment in this episode where Jerry B. says something we hadn't heard before. He'd spent nearly a decade completely sober — not drinking, not using — going to work, coming home, watching TV, going to bed. And yet. "I was so dry by then," he said, "I was like flammable. I was exactly the same person as I had been when I was drinking — just without the alcohol."

"I was so dry by then, I was like flammable. I was exactly the same person as I had been when I was drinking — just without the alcohol."

— Jerry B.

We had to sit with that one.


Jerry grew up in a family where recovery was the air he breathed. His dad has 53 years in Alcoholics Anonymous. His mom found sobriety when Jerry was young — and the moment she came home from treatment is one of the most tender things in this episode. You'll want to hear it in his words, not ours.

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Growing up surrounded by recovery didn't protect him. He went to Lewis & Clark Law School, was offered crystal meth during Christmas break of his first year, and immediately felt, in his own words, like things were finally right. He knows exactly how that sounds. He says it anyway.

What followed was years of addiction, a law degree earned by the skin of his teeth, a 17-year caregiving job lost to a drug test, and a pattern so honest it's almost funny: both times he graduated outpatient treatment, he stopped on the way home for two six-packs of microbrews. Because alcohol wasn't his problem.

If you've ever told yourself you're not like the people in the rooms — that your story is too different, that the God stuff disqualifies you, that you're doing fine without any of it — this episode is for you. Jerry lived that for years. He has a word for it. And once you hear it, you won't forget it.

There's also something his sponsor asked him early on that stopped us cold. We're not going to tell you what it was or what happened. You need to hear it yourself at https://mdcr1.com/108.


More at https://mdcr1.com/108b. Subscribe at https://mdcr1.com/newsletter.

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