Speaker 1: 0:15

Hey everybody, welcome back to the son of a blitz podcast. I'm your host, George Blitz, and today is October 13th, 2024, which marks my seventh year of sobriety from alcohol. You know, I've done two podcasts in the past, one for my fifth year and sixth year, and I just figured it was a nice little continuous trend One because it kind of gives me something to mark off my you know, a year mark right and look back on and something that I'm proud of. And there's times where I struggled to keep that sobriety. And, you know, now I feel like I'm in that mode where I don't think it's ever going to be an issue for me again. But every day is still a day-to-day thing and I think about it consciously and my decisions, you know, to put alcohol on the shelf. As a result, I became a better father, better husband, a better friend and, uh, you know, I think, clearer, uh, mentally, uh, spiritually, physically and emotionally, uh, all around. I feel stronger uh and more clear. And that clarity really, um, you know, it took a little bit of time for it to kind of uh dawn on me, cause it was maybe about a month where I still had kind of the drinking brain going on my, you know. But after about a month of not drinking and you know they talk about how sometimes having one month of you know certain change can help you stick with it for the long run. It really did for me I felt better. I lost a ton of weight. You know, I think I'm down 45 pounds from my heaviest I think it was like a two 30, my heaviest and just overall I felt better in every, every aspect. You know I used to be kind of quick to anger when I was drinking, quick to get frustrated. Temper would kind of flare up, and now I kind of have a better control of that, not to say that that doesn't ever happen, but for the most part, you know I'm able to kind of control it and figure things out.

Speaker 1: 2:05

I did you know the year five and year six podcast. Uh, both times I had someone from my past who tuned into the podcast, reached out to me, told me about their situation. Um, one was well, both of them were fairly dire situations and they really wanted to make a change and wanted to talk to somebody who had been through it. Now, I didn't. I wasn't like their accountability partner per se, but I was like, call me, you know I was letting them know if they ever needed to talk to somebody. And there were some times when they kind of got low and we're thinking about drinking that they called me and we talked about it. But you know they went and you know, sought out professional help in one case and the other they just kind of did it on their own. But, um, you know, it was amazing to have somebody you know hearing about someone else that they knew going going through it. It made them it felt a little more familiar that, oh okay, I know this guy went through it and maybe I can do it too and I can talk to that person about it. And that was something that I was, you know, blessed to be able to help kind of facilitate that.

Speaker 1: 3:06

And it was nothing that that first year, when I put this podcast out for my year five sobriety, I it was kind of a marker, five years felt like a big deal and uh, you know I had a podcast and I thought I'd talk about it. And you know the year six was kind of a result because year five got a phone call and so I put it out there and you know I'm doing that again this year is that if you, um, are struggling with any kind of addiction alcohol, drug related, whatever it is uh, you know, if you need someone to talk to about it and you kind of want to throw some stuff on the wall, and you know, just chat and just kind of say, hey, I've got an issue and I'm looking for help, uh, I will help to facilitate any way. I can you know, by no means am I a licensed counselor or therapist in that sense, uh, or you know, any kind of addiction specialist. However, I know that there are organizations and I can, you know, give you phone numbers and, in fact, on the show notes down below, I will go ahead and include some here so that if you want to reach out to talk to somebody and you know, and one person I did talk to, they were at the very end of their rope, they had made some really poor decisions, got them in a lot of trouble, uh, breakup of the family and, uh, it sounded pretty dire where they were at, and so that was something I was like I really think you need to talk to somebody, uh, immediately before maybe you take a step in the wrong direction and, uh, you know, make the situation worse or, you know, leave anybody with a lot of pain.

Speaker 1: 4:30

And you know, when I've been talking with a lot of different veterans, uh, and talking about people who, um, you know they kind of got to the lowest of the low and self-harm came into the picture. You know, when you look at things like alcohol a severe depressant, and you already have things emotionally going downhill, a lot of bad decisions can be made and a lot of them that can can have permanent scars on you or your family or both. And so I really just feel compelled to let people know that you know, if you're looking for help, there's help out there and that if you know you want to talk to somebody who's kind of gone through it and has been on the other side of the struggle, you know I've gone through the struggle and now I'm in a place where I feel very solid about my sobriety and that that's something that I'm going to keep for the rest of my life. Um, and that's you know it's not always easy. There's a lot of times where it's been difficult, a lot of days where there may be a real stressful time, and I'm like man, I could really use that drink, but that crutch never made things better. It actually crippled me more and for me, you know, that's just my situation.

Speaker 1: 5:36

I know a lot of people who can drink alcohol and they're fine, you know the next day. They don't have any long-term lasting effects. For me, it was something that it never made things better. It always made it usually a degree worse or many degrees worse and I wouldn't feel good and I'd have excess weight and heart issue problems could come, you know, when you continue to have that kind of life and lifestyle. And so for me, it was just a very strong decision about wanting to be a better person in my own home uh, for my family and for myself. And when I made those moves and made those changes, I saw all the benefits very rapidly.

Speaker 1: 6:16

And so, again, I'm not trying to preach right, you guys do what you do, but if you, if you're listening and you have any struggle, if you have any addictions, if you have some dark thoughts and you want to talk to somebody, I highly encourage you to reach out to them and, um, you know I'm fairly easy to get a hold of. So if you need to talk to somebody, I'm happy to help facilitate a, you know, intervention in the sense of like getting you in touch with people who can do this on a professional level Because, again, I don't claim to be that professional helper but I can help find you that person. Because you know, we just need to move forward the best we can in our lives and there's a lot of struggles that we all go through, a lot of anxiety, a lot of pain, a lot of depression. You know, no one's free from any of those things. But you know, when we admit these things or we admit that addiction is there and that we want to go ahead and make a step forward and to face it and to try to move through those challenging times of getting sober, getting better mental health, then I think that that's something that we should all applaud those efforts, and that obviously you can be on the other side of things looking back on it and realizing it was all worth it. As much struggle as it could be to make that change in your life, it's worth it. So, again, I just wanted to go ahead and have a quick little podcast about it. As much struggle as it could be to make that change in your life, it's worth it.

Speaker 1: 7:35

So, again, I just wanted to go ahead and, you know, have a quick little podcast about it. Uh, you know, 2,555 days sober and wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Um, for me it's what I needed and I'm really glad I did it. I'm glad I had the support of my family and friends around to help me see through some of those dark times. And, uh, you know, I'm standing here and saying that, hey, you can do it too. If I can do it, you can do it. Anyway. Everyone, have a beautiful, blessed day. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. If you like this, if you know anyone who needs to hear this, please pass it on. I appreciate all the folks who are subscribing and following this and, uh, yeah, I'll see you guys around soon. Y'all take care. Thanks again.