Today I sit down with Adam Vibe Gunton - bestselling author, founder of the nonprofit Recovered on Purpose, and owner of a 68-bed treatment center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Adam went from being given cocaine at age 12 and starring as the defensive captain of Columbine High School's state championship football team, to a homeless heroin addict who overdosed in 2015 - and has the police body cam footage to prove it. He's the only person I know of who showed their own dead body during a TED Talk.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why a decade of 12-step meetings still left Adam unable to stay sober, and what the critical missing piece was
• The "wrong" sponsor who turned out to be exactly right - and why everything you've been told about finding a sponsor might be backwards
• The spiritual experience at an IHOP that marked the last day Adam ever used
• Why people like Adam literally die without the 12 steps being done quickly and rigorously
• How November 6th keeps showing up as the most important date of his life
• How his nonprofit is making sure nobody has to spend Christmas on a trap house floor calling treatment centers who won't pick up

Hi friend, welcome to the podcast, my name is Arlina, I've been sober for 32 years, and it's my life's mission to carry a message of hope for recovery.

Here's a question we all need to consider, No matter where you are in your recovery journey: What if the survival skills that you develop in childhood - the performing, the achieving, and the self-abandonment for the sake of appeasing others- are the exact habits quietly keeping you feeling stuck in adulthood? This actually happens to everybody in one form or another, and we're going to talk about how to break some of those patterns.

Today I sit down with Katie Hingle, founder and CEO of Lavish, and a woman in long term recovery to talk about how she is working through her own survival patterns.

I've known Katie for decades, and always admired her, not just because she's so accomplished as an executive at Adobe, and now the CEO at her own company, but because she is a woman of faith, service and integrity. Katie is one of those shining examples of someone who has done real work - not just recovery from alcohol, but the untreated perfectionism, people-pleasing, and codependence underneath it.

But before we jump in, I just want to share with you that because June marks 10 years of the One Day at a Time podcast, I am going to be doing something a little different In the upcoming weeks. I am going to do a series of episodes focused on early recovery. This will be for those who are simply wanting to take a break from alcohol, those who are sober curious and don't want to go to AA, or those coming back after a period of drinking. I want you to know that no matter where you are in your journey, I am here to support you with a safe space for coming to your own conclusions.

In today's episode, you'll learn:

• How to recognize when your survival mechanisms have become your biggest liability

• Why resentment is the root of the devolving process in recovery and relationships

• The concept of collateral growth - and why doing your own work changes everyone around you

And

• How recovery principles translate directly into building a business and showing up in relationships

So without further delay, please enjoy this episode with Katie.

Guest Website: lavishexperienceco.com

👊🏼Need help applying this information to your own life?

Here are 3 ways to get started:

🎁Free Guide: 30 Tips for Your First 30 Days - With a printable PDF checklist

Grab your copy here: https://www.soberlifeschool.com

☎️Private Coaching: Make Sobriety Stick

https://www.makesobrietystick.com

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Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music, or you can stream it from my website HERE.

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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-day-at-a-time-recovery-podcast/id1212504521

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What happens when the thing that was supposed to save you - the mission, the badge, the identity - becomes the very thing addiction destroys? And what do you do when you are a trained Navy SEAL, built to be a hero, and you cannot even save your own son from a pandemic scare because you are too deep in a three-day meth binge to pick up the phone?

Today I sit down with Dr. Tony Dice - Navy SEAL, PhD, and author of After the Trident: A Navy SEAL's Battle with Secrets, Shame, and Addiction. Dr. Dice spent years serving alongside legends like Jocko Willink, then gave up his SEAL career to protect his drug use - until a moment of devastating clarity brought him to his knees and into treatment.

In this episode you will learn:

• How growing up in extreme isolation with an alcoholic father shaped his addiction before it even started
• Why high performers are especially vulnerable to addiction - and how the same obsessive drive that builds careers can quietly destroy everything they love
• How Tony sold his car to fund his own rehab stay, and what that moment of willingness meant for his recovery
• The holistic change model Dr. Dice discovered in 12-step recovery - and why it maps directly onto proven therapeutic frameworks
• Why gratitude is not just a feeling - it is an action word, and why Tony has it tattooed on his leg next to a handcuff key

So without further delay, please enjoy this episode, and let me know what you think!