Retired Long Beach Fire Captain James Owen spent his career running toward other people’s emergencies while addiction, trauma, and post-traumatic stress were building behind the badge.

In this episode of The Hopeaholics, James opens up about the murder of his close friend and fellow firefighter Captain Dave Rosa, surviving a motorcycle crash that broke his neck, losing and rebuilding his sobriety, and the realization that ultimately changed his life: after spending his career trying to save everyone else, the last patient he needed to save was himself.

James joined the Long Beach Fire Department and built the career he had dreamed about, eventually becoming a fire captain. But as the job became more of his identity, his recovery began to disappear. After years of sobriety, James found himself drinking again while dealing with divorce, overwhelming stress, internal investigations, traumatic calls, and the cumulative weight of life as a first responder.

James also discusses first responder PTSD and suicide, Alcoholics Anonymous, Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA), nonlinear recovery, alternative recovery modalities, the importance of continuing to seek new ways to heal, and his book, The Last Patient.

Firefighter PTSD, Addiction & the Cost of Being "Tough" w/ James Owen | The Hopeaholics Podcast #363

Rachel Sereni is co-host of the 2 Girls in a Chair podcast and sober for over 2 years. She grew up mostly alone with her little sister while their dad worked two jobs, because their mother was addicted to opiates and spent most of Rachel's early childhood nodding out on the couch. Rachel got a DUI after she left work early to drink and forgot to pick up her son from school, woke up in jail with her car impounded and her son at his grandma's house. By the end of her drinking she was 221 pounds, had over 32 W2s because she couldn't hold a job, and was blacking out most nights and cursing out her husband without remembering any of it. On April 10th, 2024, she drove to a parking lot with a bottle of wine and two shooters for one last hurrah, got halfway through the wine, started throwing a tantrum in her front seat and almost kicked her windshield in. She got out, threw everything into a field, and landed on her knees sobbing. She drove home, woke up April 11th, and that was her sobriety date. She's been sober since, lost 80 pounds, and chose April 11th as the date she married her husband.

Rachel also announces an amazing surprise for the very first time in our show's history!

Check out the 2 Girls In A Chair podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@2GirlsInaChair

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!


Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics

Our Merch:
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie


00:00 — Intro
04:00 — Pregnancy Announcement
08:00 — Day one of sobriety: got on the scale, saw 221
13:29 — In and out of halfway homes with Mom
15:14 — Mom came back at 11
16:57 — Mom had numerous overdoses
17:31 — The night mom died
21:51 — Daily drinking by 19; violent, fighting people;
22:20 — Found out she was pregnant
23:33 — The friend nobody wanted to go out with
24:18 — Left work early to drink; forgot to pick son up; woke up in jail
29:40 — The surrender moment
31:39 — Friend did an intervention while she was the one who got Rachel drunk
33:17 — Started 2 Girls in a Chair with Jessica
36:41 — She thought she'd never genuinely laugh again
37:49 — Addiction doesn't have to define your whole personality
43:55 — "I married the love of my life the day I got my life back."
46:41 — Grief in sobriety
47:24 — Started EMDR for PTSD from seeing her mom's body
50:47 — Not continuing EMDR while pregnant
53:33 — What you feel during pregnancy, the baby feels
54:33 — Her son forgives her
57:22 — Blackout drinking
57:47 — How alcohol is glamorized vs what it actually is
1:02:19 — AA experiences mirror bad church experiences
1:07:04 — How she and Jessica met
1:09:14 — Grew up with no mother; all mother figures have passed

Jesse Sanchez was 11 the first time he smoked weed, 14 when he tried cocaine and opiates, and 17 when he looked up from a carpet covered in crack and thought "holy s***, what are we doing." He eventually landed on heroin as his drug of choice and spent three years hiding it from his wife, driving 4.5 hours round trip to his dealer while she thought he was at work, once using a co-worker's real funeral as cover to go pick up. When she finally found out, he ended up on his sister's couch in Washington sweating it out, then a year in AA still drinking, still taking chips for heroin. He's been six years off heroin, four years fully clean.

Six months into his final sobriety, his brother Julian had died from fentanyl poisoning. The depression that followed got dark enough that when the thought of taking his son with him crossed his mind, it scared him into finally getting real help.

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!


Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics

Our Merch:
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

0:00 — Into
2:07 — The shirt: in memory of Julian
7:43 — Parents divorced when he was 2
8:14 — Age 11: first smoked weed with a friend, not his brother
10:06 — Age 14: no weed around, tried cocaine
13:17 — Age 17: became a crackhead
14:12 — Opiates vs everything else
17:15 — When pills got scarce, friends switched to heroin
18:06 — Met his wife from Ukraine
23:17 — Wife caught him, admitted pills, never mentioned heroin
32:37 — Used a co-worker's real funeral as cover to go pick up drugs
34:30 — Confessing addiction to wife
42:45 — Detoxing at sister's house
45:18 — 6 years off heroin, never touched it since
46:04 — Tried AA while still drinking
51:22 — Relapsed on cocaine at work, told his sponsor
55:24 — Mom calls to tell me my brother died
58:20 — 800-pound steel tube cut his fingertips off on the job
1:04:39 — Staying sober through brother's death
1:09:05 — Rock bottom in sobriety
1:17:33 — What turned the corner: therapy, EMDR
1:21:06 — What you tell your sponsor vs what you tell a therapist