You quit drinking — you did the hard thing — but life still doesn’t feel the way you thought it would.

Why does peace feel so uncomfortable? Why does it seem like, even in sobriety, you’re still trying to escape something?

In this episode, Tim digs into one of the hardest — and most important — lessons in recovery: learning how to build a life that actually feels worth staying for.

He shares how even years into sobriety, he found himself trapped in a new kind of cage — surrounded by people, yet disconnected from his true self.

You’ll learn why quitting isn’t enough, how comfort can quietly become a new addiction, and what it really takes to create peace that lasts.

If you’ve ever felt like sobriety should feel better than it does — this episode will help you understand why, and show you how to start changing that.

Key Topics Covered:

• Why “just quitting” doesn’t fix the real problem
• How disconnection fuels addiction (and what to do about it)
• The Rat Park story and what it teaches us about environment and healing
• The danger of comfort and why peace often feels uncomfortable
• How to reconnect with yourself, others, and your purpose
• A reflection challenge to help you start building instead of escaping

In this episode, I unpack a hard truth: you can’t solve a problem you don’t understand.

We look beneath the surface of drinking to the real drivers—pain, fear, loneliness, and the beliefs we quietly adopt like “alcohol gives me confidence” or “I’m boring sober.”

I share the story of my first real attempt to quit at twenty (and why I relapsed 30 days later), break down the “breadcrumb trail” that leads to relapse long before the first sip, and show how understanding—not willpower—creates lasting freedom.

If you’ve tried to white-knuckle sobriety or swapped the bottle for other distractions, this one will help you see the real target and start changing the story.

What we cover:

• The hidden equation: pain + misunderstanding = repetition.
• Why “meeting makers make it” can become just another dependency (support is good; dependency isn’t).
• The “first drink” exercise: go back to what it gave you emotionally (relief, confidence, connection).
• The stories we tell ourselves (“alcohol gives me confidence,” “I can’t relax without it”) and how repetition turns beliefs into “truth.”
• The breadcrumb trail to the bottle: the subtle build-up of skipped routines, isolation, justification, and disconnection.
• Beyond addiction: how the same patterns show up as workaholism, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or endless scrolling.
• Understanding vs. judging: swap “What’s wrong with me?” for “What happened to me?” and “What need was I trying to meet?”
• The mirror of sobriety: discomfort as a signal, not a sentence.

I’m back! After taking some time off from the podcast, I want to share openly about where I’ve been, what I learned, and what you can expect going forward.

First off — no, I didn’t relapse. That’s often the first question when someone in recovery goes quiet, but alcohol hasn’t been part of my life for a long time now.

What actually happened was burnout — so much stress that my body started showing symptoms that looked like a stroke.

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why my body reacted so strongly even when my mind didn’t feel stressed
• What I learned about the disconnect between body and mind (especially for those of us who are neurodivergent)
• How stepping away helped me re-discover authenticity and what really matters
• The changes I’m making to the podcast, social media, and community moving forward

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, lost sight of yourself, or wondered how to balance recovery with real-life stress, this episode is for you.

I’ll also share how you can get more involved — from submitting ideas for future episodes, to possibly being part of a conversation on the show, to connecting through writing and new community spaces I’ll be creating.