Embracing Discomfort to Begin Healing in Sobriety – with Eric R. (Life Story)

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In this episode, as Eric shares his life story, you will hear how addiction to alcohol slowly crippled his life.

You will hear about his battles, the consequences, the ups, the downs, and his efforts at sobriety. He talks about how your environment and circumstances can keep you stuck in that ‘addicted’ zone. He also shares how a single person (in Eric’s case, his cousin) can have a tremendous impact on your path to recovery. 

What we discussed during the show: 

  • 00:00 Intro
  • 01:24 Eric’s favorite quote: “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” ― J.K. Rowling
  • 01:14 How Eric got started drinking
  • 04:15 How his drinking progressed
  • 07:39 His coping strategies for cravings
  • 11:37 A profound conversation with his cousin
  • 17:32 What has Eric accomplished in his sobriety journey so far, and, what he hopes to accomplish in the future
  • 18:06 How learning to do uncomfortable things helps him heal
  • 19:53 Eric’s thought on key to finding long-term success in sobriety
  • 23:19 Eric’s rock bottom
  • 28:21 Happiest moment of life
  • 31:40 Has Eric forgiven himself?
  • 34:29 What do people often get wrong about him
  • 35:44 Rapid Fire round – 5 Questions
    1. What’s on his nightstand: Two books –  The Four Agreements, and, Alcoholics Anonymous
    2. Favorite meal: Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
    3. No. of hours of sleep every night: 6
    4. Favorite TV show: Ozark
    5. One thing he’s grateful for today: That he’s able to get out of bed without waking up in a cold sweat and shaking, not knowing where his next drink is coming from.
  • 37:40 Eric’s advice to anyone struggling with addiction or lost & confused

Connect with @SoberSideChat


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Episode Transcript

Pranaya  

Today, I’m very excited to have Eric as my guest. Eric has been sober since September 13, 2020. Eric, welcome to the show. Why don’t you get started by sharing a quote that you find inspiring and what that means to you?

Eric  

Good afternoon, Pranaya! Thank you for having me on your Podcast. A quote that I found inspiring was actually introduced to me at my first rehab, which is, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life”. And that’s from the author of the Harry Potter books –  J.K. Rowling.

Pranaya  

Thank you for that. Eric, before we get into your struggle with addiction, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Eric  

Well, as you previously mentioned, my sobriety date is September 13, 2020. And as of this recording that is exactly eight months, which is the longest I’ve had since I was 11 years old. I’m a Massachusetts native. I’ve been there for the first 25 years of my life. I’m 25 now. I spent my last birthday in rehab. And I come from a rather dysfunctional household. My father has been an alcoholic for as long as I could remember. And my mom was a compulsive hoarder who, including cats, every single item that she ever had, she’s kept. So that, alongside my dad’s alcoholism kind of led me to a foundation of just chaos. And everything became normalized, which was not normal with other people. 

I grew up thinking all houses were messy, and everybody’s parents drank. Whenever my dad went through anything, he would begin drinking, and therefore I associated that with negative events. Eventually, my drinking progressed to a point where I was unable to control it, and it completely had me in scripts. It started off as a fun thing in college,  once every weekend, all that type of drinking, more socialized. But eventually it got to the point where I needed to function. I cannot drink water, I couldn’t go to work. Nothing, I felt absolutely miserable unless I took that drink. And I didn’t know why. There was nothing that could replace the feeling. And it took me a lot of pain to get to where I am right now.  I’ve gone through DUI hit and run, lost the job, lost the girlfriend. I’ve been hospitalized four times within a year for liver hepatitis and a heart condition as a result of my use. And, yeah, we’ll get into more soon.

Pranaya  

I want to talk a little bit about how your struggle with substance abuse. How it started, how it progressed. Give us an abbreviated version of your life story, if you will.

Eric  

I’m kind of bad at abbreviating things, but let’s give it a try. So as I previously mentioned, my drinking began sporadically.  It wasn’t a constant. It wasn’t a lifestyle, which it eventually evolved into. I think the real problem began when I found out my uncle once told me if you’re feeling sick from drinking, when you’re feeling hungover, it’s a result of your body withdrawing from alcohol. So what made me feel better was drinking more when I was hungover, so that was first thing in the morning. And then that began the cycle for the rest of the day. 

It progressed to a point where I would take three or four shots to get out of bed, to drink water, to eat any type of food, and then get my day started. But then eventually my tolerance increased, and I would have to consume,  my thing was always 151 proof rum. So I started with that. And by noon, I would start eating more and more, and then I would just drink throughout the day constantly, until, I pass out because I was a binge drinker, but on a daily basis. So whether I was working, going to a wedding, a funeral, going to school outing – I remember my senior year, I would have to drink before I did it. Later on in my drinking career, before I entered rehab, it progressed to the point where I developed liver hepatitis. Now the doctors had told me that, that’s not a common occurrence in kids aged 24, as that’s when I was diagnosed with it. 

And within three days of being discharged from the hospital, I began drinking again. Because of life circumstances, I just couldn’t deal with it, it seemed my only solution. Even after I lost my license, anything that happened, it didn’t stop me. I would walk in the snow, two hours each way to a liquor store, because I grew up in the woods, it was often the main road. So I didn’t care though, I would just walk even along highways just to get to the liquor store to pick up a pint. And then before I knew it, I’d be walking back three hours later. So, yeah, they call alcoholism a progressive disease. And it’s very much that because at the beginning, I did not need as much or as frequent use to get to the point that I saw it, or that I deemed necessary by the end.

Pranaya  

Eric,  you have come a long way since the last drink you had on September 13. Right? It’s been almost eight months. And one of the keys to success in sobriety is identifying and learning how to manage your triggers and your cravings. What are some of your triggers? How often do you get cravings? And what are some of the coping strategies that you have found useful to overcome them?

Eric  

Well, for me, to even begin contemplating rehab, it took… I’ve said a lot. And the triggers associated with my drinking in the past have been pretty much everything. I mean, I would drink on good days, bad days, no matter what. But a big trigger was always job hunting. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2018, roughly a year after my DUI, and I could not find any work in that field, which is all I wanted. I worked retail for six years, in between starting college, and now, and I just want a way out. And what I would do is just drink when I couldn’t find work. So that’s always been a trigger. Back when I was dating, my partner and I would get into fights, usually, while I was drinking, and I would use that as an excuse to drink more. What was the other question?

Pranaya  

I was just trying to understand what are some of the strategies or tools you used to address your cravings.

Eric  

The most prominent thing that I’ve learned while being in treatment is doing things that are uncomfortable. I was never comfortable with the idea of sharing. I have a sponsor now. And I’m, I’m going to be sponsoring guys soon because I’ve gone through the 12 steps. Briefly, I’ll explain how I even got into treatment. So I was very against the idea.  I’ve done the detox, I said four times in 2020. I got convinced at the end to go back to the detox by my cousin. Now my cousin is someone who I grew up with, he’s four years older than me. I grew up with him, we did everything together. And then eventually we just drifted apart and I hadn’t spoken to him in three years. We just stopped talking, and he was a huge part of my childhood and growing up, and I just lost all connection with him. I knew he was battling demons as well. He’s gone through the psych wards, rehabs, all that stuff, or any kind of substance you can think of,  up to horse tranquilizers. It’s been insane. 

And he hit me up one day. And he just said, Hey, I want to hang out, do you want to just, talk and walk around and stuff? So, I guess, I was drunk when he sent me that and I agreed. I’m not sure if I even would have agreed if I was sober because I didn’t. I knew that he was gonna bring up substance use and he’d noticed in my behaviors. But, I said yes. And we hung out the next day. 

So I live in the woods off of these powerlines. And my backyard connects to them via woods, trails, things that I grew up on. So I wanted to walk around there because that’s where I was comfortable. And while we were talking, I started going into DTS, again, because I hadn’t drunk anything. This was on Saturday morning. He messaged me the Friday before when I had half a handle of Larceny. That’s a bourbon. I was just drinking non-stop. I could not stop once I started and that’s been a thing for five years now. So he convinced me. He told me all of his story. And he asked me one question, which kind of convinced me to enter rehab. Actually, at the point when he asked me, I wasn’t even convinced. I just told him Yes, I’ll go back to detox. Not knowing I’ll go to rehab. 

He asked me, Eric, do you want an open or closed casket? Because you look terrible. Right now you’re throwing up all over the trail. Your lips are blue, your skin is pale. You weigh 130 pounds, for someone that is 6’-1” that’s not normal. And he told me that he loves me more than he loves his own dad. Because of how close we were growing up. His dad’s an alcoholic too, it’s all in our family. The only people that don’t drink in my family are my mom, my grandma, and my brother. All the uncles, everyone else, they’re just drinking themselves to death. And it’s a horrible feeling. And I’m just trying to escape it any way I can. 

So something happened. And I feel there was some kind of a switch that was flipped inside of me right after he left on that Saturday afternoon, to about nine o’clock at night. So within a five-hour span, right after he left, I grabbed more beers, and a couple of shots and went up to my childhood bedroom, where I just continued to drink and I looked at one of the beer cans while my hands were shaking, non-stop. Because I needed more, I would need at least 18 or 20 beers to stop shaking. It was insane. I looked at it and I just said I can’t … I can’t do this anymore. So I called my mom up to my room. I explained the situation to her. I told her what I want to do, which was to go to detox and then not even come back to our house, but to go straight to a rehab. When I entered the rehab, I thought it was going to be just a 30-day experience, I’ll get it out of my body, I’ll be fine. And I’ll be back to, I told myself, I’d be back to smoking because smoking was the first thing that I ever did, cannabis. So I told myself I’d be back to doing that by December. I already knew that. I entered treatment on September 14. 13th was the last day I had a drink.

And it turned into much more than that. I learned to accept things that would make me uncomfortable because the things that made me comfortable, have only been detrimental to my health, my finances and my relationships. So I took all suggestions offered to me, starting with the one by my cousin, which was very profound. I tell him that to this day. He’s proud of me, but I tell him all the time how he’s the reason that I entered rehab. At least I believe anyway, I believe it was God speaking through him. Honestly. I think that’s how it happened because nothing else could have convinced me – not my mom, not my doctors, nobody.

Pranaya  

How are your cravings now?

Eric  

Yeah, so that’s another thing  – cravings are tricky. I was put on this anti-craving medicine while I was at my first rehab place in Connecticut. I was put on Campral, which, I think helped for a while, but I’ve been taken off of it since then. And now I experience these triggers and real world stuff. I’m out of the whole rehab, sober house thing. I mean, I’m in a sober house now, but not as controlled. And sometimes the cravings are, they’re very fleeting, but they do come up.  Even the other day, but I just got to tell myself, you know what will happen? Yes, the idea of a few shots right now sounds good. But what will happen in a week when you need an entire pint to get you through four hours? What’s gonna happen when you go back to detox again because you have another seizure in your bedroom? You can’t, you can’t think, that that’s the solution. Because it’s temporary. It’s a waste of money, health and time. That’s what I tell myself now. 

Because the cravings are going to come. That’s just a part of the diseased mind. Even though I’m only 25, which I’ve been told is young, but I feel it’s been a while. Even seven years of drinking, that’s a long time of daily drinking. Never mind before then. So the cravings, they come and go, but I have to look at them from an outside perspective and think about what will follow. I witnessed so many people that I’ve been in treatment with, come in, think they’ve got it, lose the mindfulness and then go back out. And now they’re back in detox. That’s not what I want to do.  I need to, I want to, regain my identity. That’s the most prominent goal for my sobriety, to regain my identity, find some purpose. And just make the people I love proud.

Pranaya  

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you said we have programmed our mind, we have been drinking or using for such a long time. You cannot undo that, just with three, four, or a few months of sobriety. It takes some time. And the cravings are just not going to go away. So I think we have to be patient while practicing the tools and the strategies that are given to us in recovery. I would like to talk to you a little bit about your journey in recovery. What do you think you have accomplished so far? And what do you hope to accomplish in the future?

Eric  

What I have accomplished so far, I feel I’ve accomplished a lot,  I’ve been able to look at my past. And I’ve all my resentments. My resentments are a result of the expectations I’ve placed on other people, places, my past works, jobs, employers, all that. Expectations have gotten me to where I am now. Before, they made me super resentful. And I learned that my own expectations can’t dictate life. And I’ve learned to be uncomfortable with a lot of things. And just to have the strength to do things I don’t want to do.  I’ve publicly spoken in meetings at a detox, which I did a few times. And even this podcast is extremely uncomfortable, but I’m doing it anyway, in the hopes that even if one person listens to who can take any message from it, that’s a success in itself. It’s not gonna help everyone, no one’s gonna do everything. But just reaching one person can really make a difference. So I’ve learned that. And I feel that’s been super important. 

And what I want to gain is, obviously, long-term sobriety. What I want to regain is my potential in terms of professional career development, I want to get into software development. I really don’t want to keep working the jobs I’ve been working. I mean, I know I’m grateful that I even have a job right now. However, I feel I can be more and I know what I want to. It’s just about doing it. And in this little silver bubble that I have right now, it’s actually possible. Whereas before, I would just be too stressed and think that alcohol is a solution. So I learned a lot of knowledge while being here and a lot about myself. Eight months is an insane amount of time for me. It’s still early recovery. But it’s more time than I’ve ever had. That’s the longest stretch of time since I was 11 years old. That’s over half my life ago.

Pranaya  

We know you have had some time under your belt in recovery now, right? And you have somewhat of a mature perspective when it comes to sobriety. What do you think is the key to finding long-term success in sobriety?

Eric  

I think the key to finding long-term success in sobriety, honestly, is to keep doing what I’ve been doing lately, because this is the only thing that’s worked. So far everything else I’ve done in my life hasn’t worked.  I’ve tried to stop drinking on my own. So many times. I’ve tried to wean down just on beer, I’ve tried to just smoke, and I would be so, so proud if I even had one or two days without drinking. And if I did have those two days, I will reward myself on the third day by drinking. It would never work. So I think the key is to keep doing what I’ve been doing, to stay open-minded, and working with others. Although I don’t have a sponsee, I feel just doing that will be a huge step forward, because it takes me out of myself. And it allows me to help someone else, which will keep me sober. Helping them helps me more than it helps them in a sense. While it also gives people an experience that they can share to someone else to fix them more. 

I’m still early in recovery. But so far, I’ve taken every suggestion given. And now I’m just trying to figure out, I’m trying to find myself, I’m trying to figure out what gives me fulfillment in life, not just a job, because that’s what I’ve had. And that doesn’t make me particularly happy. So I think the key to long-term sobriety is,  surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals, which I’ve been doing, while also being open to the idea of working with other people and taking suggestions from other people, who it’s clearly been working for. That’s how I even got into the 12-step program. I literally came from Connecticut, they referred me to somewhere in New Jersey, and here we are. I was not open to the idea of 12-step before I entered rehab. But it’s taught me so much about myself. The fact about all my previous resentments, if I looked at them from different perspectives, that just changes the game completely for me. And yeah, it’s just seeing what’s worked for other people, hundreds of, thousands of, millions of people, and realizing that what I’ve done for me has not worked and what they’ve done for them has worked. So do that, because that’s what’s working. That’s the statistically most successful program. So I’m just gonna stay open-minded, and try to not be complacent.

Pranaya  

Eric, that brings us to the second part of the show. I would like to ask you a few personal questions to get to know you a little bit better. 

What would you consider the rock bottom or the lowest point of your life?

Eric  

I could use a few examples for low points in my life. It’s hard to pinpoint the lowest because for each time that preceded, I felt it was lower. I would have to say, so it was August 27, 2020. This was my second-to-last hospitalization. Basically what happened was, I was sitting at my computer desk, and I called my mom into my room to watch me, I told her, just please don’t judge me, please don’t say anything. Just sit there and make sure I’m okay. Because I do not feel right, right now. A little backstory, I’d tried to stop drinking that weekend. Because I’d just gotten fired from my last job. And things were not looking good. So I tried to stop drinking, thinking I could do it just by smoking or whatever because that would make me feel better. And it did make me feel better. Not that I condone at all because the effects of any substance use are just negative long-term. I’ve grown to believe that. 

I was in my bedroom and my mother was watching me. And I started feeling tingling on all of my limbs, and it slowly crawled all the way up until it hit my neck area. And then my arms and hands did an involuntary motion where they closed up on each other. And my arms crossed, and my eyes started darting around, and I couldn’t see or say anything. I remember my mom asked me what my phone password was so she could call an ambulance, get someone over here to help me. Because I was going through DTS, I tried quitting cold turkey. And keep in mind this is at the point where my tolerance was – if I did not have at least,  a fifth 750 milliliter of Krewson 151 Rum. Every day, I was cold sweating, vomiting, everything… everything bad that you could possibly feel I was feeling. As a result, I’m better associated with delirium tremens. And finally, the paramedics arrived at our house at the middle of the night. And I just couldn’t stand up, I couldn’t move anything, I couldn’t speak. I remember hearing, my mom asked them what’s wrong with me and they just said, he’s going blank. I don’t remember anything else after that, except for being carried downstairs on an ambulance stretcher chair, it’s a stretcher, but a chair because I had to be brought downstairs. And I remember looking, not looking back because I couldn’t move anything. But I remember my eyes went sideways. And I saw my mom and dad just standing there. And then I learned later that night after they pumped me full of Ativan to keep me from doing that again. 

At the hospital, my dad broke down on the couch and started crying because he was saying it was his fault. And I’ve never seen.. my dad’s not emotional. You understand, he doesn’t do that. I’ve never heard of that. He’s the guy. At his own dad’s funeral, he didn’t shed a tear. He was just drinking Fireball nips in the parking lot. So that’s definitely where I get it. But it’s on both sides of the family. Yeah, either way. You could argue that my low point was the night that I was in school in New Hampshire. I obtained my DUI and hit and run on the same night, as well as a slew of other charges. But those are the most profound ones. And that was really bad because I could have hurt somebody else really badly. Instead, I just gave them a bruise nose or something like that. But I don’t know, there are so many low points, getting fired from work because I was stealing when I was drunk on the job. There really weren’t many high points. I mean, there’s really only one positive thing I’m gonna say, I’m just gonna spin this on you real quick. A positive thing that happened, the only thing was that I graduated college with a bachelor’s in computer science. That’s my probably biggest achievement, besides gaining eight months of sobriety. So things have been really bad for a really long time. In all regards, getting fired, losing the girlfriend of five years, everything. 

Pranaya  

Now, I want you to think of a moment in the past that you’d consider one of the happiest moments of your life. What comes to mind?

Eric  

In my entire life? I mean, I’ve always had a ton of enjoyment by going out with my dad and my brother, golfing. That’s always been a very, very happy experience. Or, playing  PlayStationTwo with my cousin.  That’s really the thing. I’ve been struggling with happiness in my life, but the happiest event, that’s a hard one. I mean, even that conversation I had with my cousin. I associate happiness with not how detailed I can remember an event but how impactful it was in my life in a positive way.  What’s happiness is difficult, man. It really is.

Pranaya  

Who is someone you look up to, and why?

Eric  

Well, I mean, not to beat a dead horse, but I definitely look up to my cousin, because he’s battled through this same thing.  Everybody in our family, except for three people go through substance abuse, it’s not even use, it’s abuse. But they don’t care. My uncle’s teeth are just falling out because they’re drinking so much and they’re not stopping, they’re switching to harder strength stuff. It’s unfortunate, and, nobody in my family except for me and my cousin, so I look up to him because I’ve grown up with him. He’s older than me and he’s been battling this thing. He’s now, I think he’s six years sober now. So that’s a huge deal because he was the guy that was doing something speedballs every night. I also look up to my dad. Because it’s hard not to,  he’s my dad. I learned most of what I know from him. Some of it’s negative, but a lot of it’s been good – changing spark plugs in the snowmobile, learning archery, learning golf, learning guitar. That’s all been on his end. That’s another thing I struggle with – role models. I don’t really have many. I think that’s a reoccurring issue in my life.

Pranaya  

No, I think you just mentioned, I think your cousin occupies a very special place in your heart.

Eric  

Yeah, absolutely. And dad.

Pranaya  

I mean,  sometimes we try to overestimate what we are looking for in a role model. And that makes it a little bit harder. But you can pick different things from different people. You really have a special spot for your cousin.

Eric  

Yeah, absolutely.

Pranaya  

They say that you cannot forgive others, or others cannot forgive you, until you have forgiven yourself. Have you forgiven yourself?

Eric  

I would say yes because having worked through the entirety of the program as it’s laid out. For anyone who is unaware, one of the steps involves making amends to others. And the reason that you do that is, say I harm somebody, I would be, Hello, I’m currently working on this program, I’ve done this, this and this. Is there any way I can fix it? Or is there anything else that I forgot that I’ve done? And if so, let me know. That’s been important. Because what it does is it helps you forgive yourself by cleaning, you can’t grow unless you straighten up the past. So by doing that, I think it’s worked a lot. And there are some things that are very difficult for me to forgive myself for. The way I’ve treated my past girlfriend. Yeah, I forgive myself to a degree, but it’s kind of the same situation with the people I hit with my car on the hit and run. How do I forgive myself for something like that? Thankfully, I didn’t injure them. But if I did, I mean, think about the mental trauma that might be associated. You’re at a stop light and all of a sudden, the car hits you at the back, rear-ends you while going 35 miles an hour. It’s hard to forgive yourself for things like that. 

But what I tried to do is make amends where I can pray about it. And I grew up in a religious household. Not my dad, my mom though, she still goes to church every Sunday. We followed everything.  I got Confirmation, First Communion, Baptism, all that. And I’m not really into the whole organized religion thing. I went through a very negative period of my life where I was purely nihilistic, I thought nothing mattered.  As Nietzsche said, “God is dead and we have killed him”. I went through that kind of phase but I’ve learned that there has to be more. There’s just so much going on in this universe, there has to be more – I just feel it through other people.  When my cousin was talking to me. Something was said there that hit me in a way that convinced me to change my entire life. Yeah. So for me forgiving myself starts with making amends to anyone who I should be seeking forgiveness from in order to forgive myself. It’s hard to explain but you got to straighten out the past man.

Pranaya  

What is something people often get wrong about you?

Eric  

That’s a really tough question. What do people often get wrong about me? I think that’s hard to answer because I’ve closed myself off from people for so long. Even while I was in treatment, or am still in treatment, I haven’t told anybody really. Only eight or so of my friends know what’s going on. But they know everything that’s going on with me. I would say, first of all, people often think I’m super quiet because, at first, I am but when you get to know me, I’m on not.  I’m reserved, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely isolating and shy. It just means when I’m comfortable with you, I’ll let you know. I’m sure a lot of people still think I’m a complete degenerate. In some sense, they’re right. But I’m sure they have no idea what I’ve been going through these last eight months. Because I just haven’t I haven’t announced it.  I don’t talk about it. 

Pranaya

If they get to see the growth that you have had so far, the transformed person that you are now, I’m sure they would have a completely different opinion. 

Eric, we are now in the last segment of our show that I call the rapid-fire round. I’d like you to answer these questions in one sentence or less. Are you ready?

Eric  

Sure.

Pranaya  

What is on your nightstand right now?

Eric  

Two books.

Pranaya  

What are they?

Eric  

The Four Agreements. And the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Pranaya  

What’s your favorite meal?

Eric  

I would have to say my favorite meal is Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.

Pranaya  

How many hours of sleep do you get every night? Or in your case every day?

Eric  

Yeah, so I work night shifts. But every day when I sleep,  I’m going to be sleeping soon. Hopefully, I get six hours. That’s my ideal amount.

Pranaya  

A TV show you bins and thoroughly enjoyed 

Eric

Ozark. 

Pranaya

Tell us one thing you are truly grateful for today.

Eric  

I’m grateful that I’m able to get out of bed without waking up in a cold sweat and shaking, not knowing where my next drink is coming from.

Pranaya  

This brings us to the last part of our show. And, I have one last question before we wrap it up. What advice would you give to someone who is currently struggling with addiction, who is listening to us right now, wants to quit alcohol, wants to quit drugs, but is lost and confused?

Eric  

For anybody struggling with any substance, not just alcohol, but anything, just know that you’re not alone. And a lot of the healing that comes with sobriety requires uncomfortability. But that’s not a bad thing. That is by no means a bad thing. Because the things that we’ve been comfortable with for so long, they will not aid us in recovery. And, recovery brings with it so many things. And I’m just beginning to learn what those are. But I have no intention of going back to what I’ve been doing.

Pranaya  

That brings us to the end of the show. Eric, I would like to acknowledge you for staying focused on your recovery despite the many challenges life has thrown at you, for showing that patience and hard work really pays off when it comes to recovery, for setting an example for others, and most importantly, bringing a message of hope to others who are still struggling and suffering. I’m truly grateful for your time today. And thank you.

Eric  

Thank you for having me on.

Pranaya  

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