Christian, 45, has been at the Gault House Sober Living Environment for over a year. Christian has been addicted to alcohol, weed and a little bit of everything else. He started drinking and smoking pot early in life, and it rapidly progressed in volume and frequency. At his bottom, he was physically unable to walk into the store to buy more booze and resorted to paying strangers to bring him his booze to drink in his truck, where he was sleeping at the time. After numerous DUIs, a devastating divorce and a directionless life, Christian finally had enough and kick-started his trajectory to sustained recovery. Listen in as he shares his best and worst moments with alcohol and drugs with Paul Noddings. To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at http://www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.

Carlos, 45, grew up in the East Bay and Northern California. In his teenage years, after numerous Grateful Dead shows and experimentation with using and selling psychedelics, he was eventually consumed by alcoholism and trapped in a cycle of relapse brought about by cannabis use and his drinking. This is the story of how he came to arrive at the Gault House SLE, and what his hope and inspiration for recovery look like today. He joins Paul Noddings to tell his journey to us, providing wisdom and courage for those who are going through the same.  To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at http://www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.

Jeff K’s best times with drugs consisted of hiking trips where he and his friends went hunting for psychedelic mushrooms. He remembers it as a fun experience of connecting with friends, something that he didn’t to come down from. But then there’s the flip side. As Jeff progressed into alcoholism and meth addiction, he started to struggle in leading a decent life and cultivating fulfilling relationships. There were times he wanted to kill himself and getting arrested was just a normal part of his miserable existence. He even became homeless for two years. Things started to turn around for Jeff when he sought refuge at the Gault House Sober Living Environment, where he found the support that he needed to get sober. Listen as he shares his story to Paul Noddings to gain inspiration for your own efforts to get clean and stay clean.

Elijah is a 26-year-old Oregonian who began smoking pot as a sophomore in high school. He soon began drinking and eventually turned to cocaine which took over his life. Unable to hold onto a job and grappling with mental health concerns, he is newly sober (13 days at the time of recording) and a resident at the Gault Street Sober Living Environment. He has never been to a treatment facility and is determined to hold onto his mental clarity through sober living.

Robert is a 61-year-old man from Southern California and a current resident of the Gault Street House Sober Living Environment. The son of alcoholic parents, he picked up his first drink at only ten years old, malnourished, afraid, and seeking an escape. His drinking led to cocaine use and jail, and finally a desire to free himself from the misery of addiction. He has been struggling towards sobriety for a long time and has renewed his commitment to sobriety with a move to a Sober Living house. He is currently three months clean and sober. Robert at times finds it difficult to talk about the people his addiction has hurt. His courage in honestly exploring the depths of addiction makes this a very moving episode.

Losing a loved one at a young age and having to grow up in an abusive environment can take its turn for the worse. With this kind of background, Dave, a client of The Gault House Sober Living Environment in Santa Cruz, California, eventually turned to marijuana, LSD, and meth at age fourteen. Spinning out of control, he later progressed to full-blown heroin addiction. Dave shares his entire story of addiction and recovery and the twelve steps he took to get to where he is now. Treading the spiritual path, he found a spiritual awakening that pushed him to be better and sober. Now, he is continuing that path doing what his higher power tells him to do. Discover Dave’s story of addiction and of recovery to gain inspiration for your own journey.

Everybody has a chance at a better life, even when that chance means reforming your life in prison. In this episode, Paul Noddings interviews Tommy who is a 43-year-old male from the Hayward area of San Francisco Bay. Tommy started using crystal meth at age 13 and was soon living a within-the-gang lifestyle. This led to a long period in prison which led to a desire to experience a different lifestyle. Tommy’s road to healing and recovery is inspirational. He offers some great advice to anyone wanting to go down that path. He shares his journey to the dark side of the street and back onto the sunny side of life.

The great Nelson Mandela once said, “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” This quote strongly applies to how Billy made his way through constant terror from bullies growing up. Having started weed at age eleven, he progressed to booze and drugs thereafter. In this episode, Billy shares his life story from childhood to present day, going to Genesis House, finding work as a bouncer, succumbing to alcohol, doing stand-up comedy, and eventually being an addict again. His timeline may look bad, but being in jail due to drugs made Billy take a 360-degree turn for the better. Know more about Billy’s incredible commitment towards remaining sober forever in this episode.

Dysfunctional family life tends to manifest for some people into addiction. Having learned he was adopted at a very young age, J.J. has since tagged himself as different from everybody else. He then spiraled into his story of addiction, beginning at 14 years old. A client at The Gault House Sober Living Environment, J.J. is on his recovery from his drug of choice, alcohol, along with meth. He shares his story with us on how he went through years of struggle, going in and out of his addiction across significant events in his life—from getting a divorce, meeting his biological family, to the 2008 recession. Read on this episode as J.J. shares the details of his journey into addiction and then out towards recovery in this authentic episode.  

A 26-year-old male shares his journey from alcohol in middle school to heroin in his mid-twenties and how his life fell apart. This is a powerful interview with wise words from a young man. Blake has been 95 days clean and sober. Will it last?

Andrea did not start using drugs until her twenties. She married and had children but she lost these to drugs and alcohol. Andrea has lived in her car for over a year but maintained an Executive Assistant job in Silicon Valley. Now Andrea has eleven days clean, will she be able to stay that way?

Luke had very little structure in his early teens. Smoking weed occasionally at eleven years old led to smoking pot heavily at thirteen. Luke is a big, strong, young man who was a stud on the football field. A broken arm introduced him to pain pills, which lead to heroin and then crack. He could not get off the drug train and would openly smoke crack on the Bart train system in San Francisco. A month in rehab would give his body a break but he was soon back onto the cycle of weed, pills, heroin, and crack. Luke’s fifth visit to rehab seemed different. This time he feels more serious about getting clean and staying sober. He wants the American Dream of owning his own home, having a wife and family, and being happy. Drugs will not get him there, but will he do the work that is needed? He is 28 days clean today and is thinking and taking "one day at a time".

Katie was an athletic teenager, winning a national championship for springboard diving. A back injury led to too much idle time and Katie used that time to party, smoke weeds and drink beer. A car accident at age 21 added more idle time and heavier use of drugs and alcohol but then Katie met her husband and the two of them got sober, got married, bought a house and had the first of their two boys. Katie started drinking "socially" but soon her behavior was very anti-social, attacking her husband and scaring her kids. A flesh-eating bacteria and the loss of health of Katie's mother caused Katie and her husband to look for a solution with Crystal Methamphetamine. In Katie's words; "The shit hit the fan". They lost their house and their kids. They lived in their car for eighteen months before Katie was arrested for stealing and sent to jail. Now Katie is fourteen months sober, her husband is fifteen months sober and they are getting their lives back.

Sterling is a 34-year old male from Santa Cruz, California. He talks honestly about this addiction to heroin (and use of other drugs) that lasted for nine years. He came as close to losing a wife and two children that he loves. His honesty is inspiring.

Heather had ambitions of becoming a doctor. However, too much alcohol caused her to redirect her goals towards becoming a paramedic. After several years as a paramedic, Heather became a firefighter where she handled many horrific calls. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder crept up on Heather. With the Fire Departments being generally a heavy drinking “boys club,” Heather soon after joined into the drinking and then added cocaine by her own choice. Friends encouraged her to get into recovery. Now, Heather has been two months clean and sober.

Whitney is a very attractive, slim, blonde, blue-eyed, white woman; not the typical look associated with severe drug addiction. Whitney had her wisdom teeth removed as a teenager and received Vicodin for the pain. This was her first abuse of opiate drugs and it led her to heroin and meth. For most of the past five years, Whitney has been homeless, living on the streets of Santa Cruz, California. Her addiction caused her to lose several jobs and to steal from homes and stores, where the hardware store became her specialty. Her boyfriend went behind bars for these crimes and got cleaned in jail. When Whitney saw the improvements in his health, she was inspired to get cleaned. Whitney detoxed alone and now lives in the Gault House sober living environment in Santa Cruz, California.

Mike's parents divorced when he was eight years old. Their domestic violence affected him. He was drinking hard at twelve years old and looking for a group of people where he could fit in. He found Skateboarders and Punk Rockers were his people. Heavy alcohol use was his thing. Rehabs, jail, lost jobs did not help Mike. Now Mike is four months sober. Will his sobriety last?

Hayley was adopted as a baby to loving and caring parents. She did not party in high school; her early adulthood started well. At the age of 23, Hayley was awarded a court settlement after a car accident, and with the money she bought a home. This allowed her to live alone and to hide the volume and frequency of her drinking. Even her boyfriend didn't know she was doing cocaine so she could drink more alcohol. Hayley's downward spiral had started. She knew it was happening but she didn't want to stop drinking and doing cocaine because she enjoyed doing it. Hayley's life was falling apart and she started to look for help. There were several attempts at getting clean, including some where she convinced herself that if she stopped drinking she could continue to smoke marijuana and snort cocaine. For the first time in years, Hayley is 40 days clean, but will her effort to stay clean and sober work out well this time?

Mike started using alcohol at age fifteen and progressed quickly to ecstasy, cocaine, norco, roxy and heroin. Mike was expelled from high school two months before graduation for selling marijuana cookies at school. After this, Mike sold loads of drugs to fund his own drug habit. He got into debt selling drugs and he felt sick every morning. This caused him to consider recovery. Now he is three months clean. He seems solid in his recovery but he could relapse at any time, just like any other addict.

Michelle is a single woman aged 29. Her parents did not provide a good environment for her and her siblings growing up. At age eleven, Michelle's uncle sexually molested her and used guilt to keep her quiet. Michelle was in denial that she had a problem with alcohol for a long time, until she had literally spent all her money on alcohol and had no source of income to buy more alcohol. Her honesty in discussing her journey is exceptional. Michelle has a positive attitude that shows the miracle of human spirit. Get inspiration from Michelle as she shares her compelling journey.

Steve used marijuana as a gateway drug to alcohol. He started using marijuana at age thirteen with an older brother and some friends. By age fifteen, he got into alcohol. By age seventeen, he stopped using marijuana because it did not mix well with his heavy alcohol use. Everything Steve did had to have alcohol involved with it in order for him to find it fun. Steve was a functioning alcoholic until his mid-40s when his addiction caused his life to fall apart and he tried to drink himself to death. Suicide by alcohol was prevented by Steve's twenty-year-old son, and his love for his family turned into greater respect for himself and a pathway to recovery. Now Steve is in a much better place but he is still weary of relapse.

Meet Kendra, a thirty-four-year-old woman who shares her ten-year journey of back pain pills, heroin, homelessness and recovery. Kendra’s emotions are etched on her face. She is not the best narrator but her story is real, beginning with a car accident in her teenage years that caused her to suffer chronic back pain. The medications eventually progressed, and soon she was using and abusing pain pills and heroin by the time she was 24. Kendra soon found herself homeless and has attempted recovery multiple times, only to relapse. Discover how she turned her life around and the motivations she has in her life. Follow her as she courageously bares it all.

Marty, a 31-year-old male, talks about his real-life experience with heroin addiction and his journey of recovery. He is a client of The Gault House Sober Living Environment in Santa Cruz, California and he bravely shares his inspiring story of overcoming the tough experiences and the mental battles with addiction. Starting with being diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, he talks about how that nihilistic view affected his decisions. He lays down the path to progression in taking pills and drugs - going from one to another - and soon the withdrawals that led him to pursue the path to recovery.

Born to a teenage mother, Aquia, an African American female who is now 23 years old, started abusing alcohol at age 12 when she felt her mother loved men more than her and her brothers. That opened the door to drug abuse. Aquia started using Methamphetamine at the age of 18 and was living either on the streets or in jail. At age 22, Aquia was using heroin but all of her drug and alcohol use came to a stop when she came to Santa Cruz to get recovery. Now Aquia is living at Gault House in Santa Cruz, California and working a 5 Guys Burgers. Listen to Aquia in her own words explain how she is loving life and building a solid recovery for herself. She shares her grueling experiences under the influence of drugs and alcohol and the steps she’s taking to staying clean.

Ivy’s recovery from addiction was a long journey that started when she first got hooked on alcohol at the age of sixteen. Her relationship with alcohol led to cocaine and an abusive boyfriend who got her pregnant with a son. Soon after, she developed breast cancer which gave her unlimited access to pain killers. She reached such a low point in her life where her only options became ending it or getting sober. She opted to join a sober living home where she got a lot of support from people who understand and have been through what she was going through. Ivy is clean and sober today and she shares her story to encourage people that nothing is ever hopeless and you can win and recover from addiction.  

Insecurity is often the factor that leads to addiction and abuse of drugs. Growing up with Tourette’s, Clara found that smoking weed was an outlet from her illness which then lead to drinking and getting addicted to alcohol. At the age of 20, she knew it was becoming a problem when she cheated on the perfect guy and stole money from her parents. She got tired of being angry with herself and the people around her and chose to work the 12 Steps of Recovery. In her early days of recovering from alcohol addiction, she shares how being present means being accountable and also being excited about life.  

Overcoming and recovering from an addiction is never easy. That is, if you keep choosing to do it alone. There are many individuals who travel down the road to recovery who need your support as much as you need theirs. A sober living environment isn’t a treatment facility. Rather, it houses a family of individuals who are serious about overcoming and recovering from their addiction. While it may sound like a shortcut to recovery, a sober living environment is a place for people who are clean and sober and want to stay that way while they work their own programs of recovery. Learn how a sober living house creates an environment of recovery, support and family. 

Curiosity plays a big role in every aspect of our lives. Stefan’s heroin addiction began with him being curious about drugs. He knew that he needed to experience the drug so that he can get the knowledge he was craving for. Although his addiction began with drinking a bottle of tequila at the age of twelve, this had negative effects on Stefan so he turned to smoking weed. This opened doors for him, one of which was shoplifting. Now, Stefan the House Manager at Gault House in Santa Cruz. Learn more of story of addiction, recovery and how he has kept clean for 11 months.

Addiction comes to some of us like a wave of an innocent hand, or a margarita on our 15th birthday. Amanda’s spiral of addiction started like this and her wanting to fit in fueled it. The anxiety of going from high school to college made things go out of control when she started to cash out $70 for a gram of cocaine whenever she could cash it out. Amanda shares honest stories of being an addicted to alcohol and cocaine and her wonderful recovery.

Alcohol addiction starts when everything goes black after that first drink and all you want is to keep drinking even when you know that it’s the wrong thing to do. Food addiction is the same. Any kind of sweet was the new alcohol for recovered alcoholic Michelle Goldberger. Her craving for food was insatiable until she started working the twelve steps at the COR Retreat Center. Even with a 60-pound weight loss, she still battles with food addiction. The desire to eat a lot is gone with the help of the program, but the addiction never leaves. Learn how she addresses this conflict and how to put focus on things that block you from recovering from food addiction.

Steps 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, & 12 of the 12 Step Program will let us admit the nature of our wrongdoings. These steps help us to prepare to tell the truth to other people about the things that we do wrong. Admitting this makes us accountable for those things and we realize that we cannot do this alone. With that realization, we become ready to ask help from people who really can help change ourselves. Learn how to listen to the voice of reason in your head and how to turn up the volume of that voice.

Paul and Dave have a friendly discussion about Steps 4, 8 and 9 of the 12 Step Program. These three steps are related to each other because they deal with making a list of your faults, making a list of people you have harmed and apologizing to those people.  In an effort to make the 12 Step program more easy to understand, steps 4, 8 and 9 are grouped together for discussion in this episode of Stories of Addiction. To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.

The 12 Step Program to drug recovery is like taking a plane ride where you think you’re flying alone, but in reality you’ve got company on this journey of growth and change. The first three steps of the program will have a recovering addict admit that he is powerless over his addiction. Through this admission, he accepts that he needs help from people and from a power greater than he is. Learn more of the powerful effects of the first three steps of the 12 Step Program as Paul Noddings and Dave, his friend and former house manager for Responsible Recovery, share their experiences working their way to recovery. To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.

The path to drug recovery has always been using the 12 Step Program to help change the lives of addicts. Mastering the first three steps: hope, faith and trust is critical to building momentum for recovery. Both Frankie M and Steve A admitted that they were powerless over their drug addiction. Their sponsors helped them realize that better days will come if they turn to a power greater than them. Making mistakes is part of the journey to recovery, but the challenge is to not make those mistakes over and over again. Frankie M and Steve A share their stories of going through the steps and how it allowed them to become a stronger person throughout the years. To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.

When a recovering addict keeps thinking that he will always be a victim of drug abuse, then the change that everyone is expecting to happen will not happen. Sober living home operator, Mark Fredrickson, knows all the struggles of getting away from drug addiction. He has been through the bumpiest of roads at the age of 10, but thanks to support groups, Mark was able to recover. Now he owns 8 sober living homes he calls Second Chance Sobriety where he helps addicts turn their lives away from drug abuse and become individuals who can serve their community. To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.

Being in high school and playing in a rock band, Mitch Russo started using heroin at the young age of 16. Getting away from heroin wasn’t easy, but thanks to a miraculous phone call, his family and three and a half years of rehab, Mitch recovered his life from drug addiction. The end game of drug addiction is death. Listen in and find out how to get away from drugs and be a miracle to others. To learn more about recovery from addiction and to get started in the Recovery Lifestyle, join our mailing list here at www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and join the conversation taking place on our FaceBook group and follow us on Twitter.