We Recover Loudly – Personal Recovery and Mental Health Stories · Shell Righini

S2 Episode 012 - Ben Gibbs - From Spiraling into Alcoholism to Sober Boozing with Style

·51 min·3 clips

Ben says he did not drink until 26 or 27, then entered alcoholism quickly.

1. We Recover Loudly focuses on Ben Gibbs and his recovery story through sobriety and alcohol-free beer. 2. Shell hosts Ben Gibbs, who runs Sober Boozers Club and posts about non-alcoholic beer on Instagram. 3. The episode asks how Ben moved from spiraling drinking to a sober life that still keeps beer culture in view. 4. Ben says he did not really drink until he was 26 or 27, then describes his relationship with alcohol as "very hot and fast." 5. He links the first bad stretch to a marriage that was going south and a belief that an affair may have been happening. 6. Ben says he drank heavily every day during COVID and then noticed the worst behavior during a toxic relationship. 7. Shell compares that pattern to her own experience of using alcohol and drugs as escapism after a painful relationship. 8. Ben says once the door to that pattern opens, it can stay in the background and return when life gets hard. 9. He says moderation does not work for him once that door has been opened. 10. Shell and Ben discuss the label "alcoholic" and how Ben uses it as a way to reduce stigma. 11. Ben says if alcohol negatively affects your life and you cannot walk away easily, the word fits. 12. He also references Gabor Maté and Bryony Gordon while talking about the distance between a person and their disorder. 13. Ben says he sees the alcoholic version of himself as the person he might have become in ten years if he had kept drinking. 14. He describes sobriety as a process of mourning the version of himself that disappeared after alcohol stopped shaping his life. 15. One of the most important moments for him is a friend saying they were proud that he had forgiven himself. 16. Ben says he now wants good things for his ex-wife and for people from his life before sobriety. 17. The conversation is loose, candid, and heavy on direct back-and-forth between Shell and Ben. 18. Shell uses personal examples, while Ben answers in a reflective, blunt style that stays conversational rather than formal. 19. People interested in sobriety, alcohol-free beer, and recovery talk. 20. Listeners wanting clinical terminology or a tightly structured interview.

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