Welcome And Nine Years Sober

George Blitch 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Son of a Blitch podcast. I'm your host, George Blitch. And today is October 13th, 2026, which marks the ninth year of my sobriety, nine years since I last took a drink of alcohol. It's kind of wild to think about at times, and something that I always kind of come back to this time of year because I started to record a podcast when I first uh kicked this off to mark each year's sobriety anniversary.

Handling Triggers In Social Settings

George Blitch 0:27

As I shared my story of becoming sober, I realized that there were a lot of people who seemingly needed to hear that or appreciated hearing about it and then asked me questions about how I overcame it. What did I do initially? You know, that first week, that first day, that first month, what did that look like? That first year, that first time you were back into a situation where there's a lot of alcohol around, or people drinking, you know, you go see a band perform and people are drinking around you, or you go to a wedding reception, or whatever it may be. There's some kind of set and setting. Uh, it could be a corporate, you know, party, end of year celebration, whatever it is, birthday party. You get there and you may be uncomfortable with the fact that you're not drinking. Socially, it could be awkward for you. And for some people, non-alcoholic beer or some type of mock tail may be the answer. Uh, and for other people, it doesn't matter. Just being in that environment can be a trigger to wanting to go back to drinking or being very uncomfortable not drinking. And this is the same for anybody that deals with any kind of addictions, I find. Uh, you know, maybe you I've had a buddy who was smoking cigarettes for almost his entire life, and he couldn't be around the smell of it. And he had to purposely get away from that because even smelling that made him think about his routine of smoking pack a day. So he had to remove himself from that environment. And so being in that case, I kind of wanted to talk about the idea of sometimes removing yourself from your environment and retraining your brain.

Replacing The Habit With Action

George Blitch 1:58

I know a lot of folks who stopped drinking, they had to replace their alcohol with something immediately. Uh, I remember talking to a buddy who ended up saying he would do push-ups anytime he thought about having a drink, doing something positive as a reinforcement instead of going back to drinking. Instead of getting sad about, oh man, I don't have this or that. You know, what can he do to make his life better? And I found uh right away when I stopped drinking, I think I lost like 30 pounds. No, I got a little heavy head and uh towards the end when I was drinking. I think I had probably put on a good 40, but it I took off 30 pounds in like that first month or something like that, and felt so much better. I remember going around to play soccer, and my knees and my ankles after losing that weight felt so much better. And that alone was one of those kind of positive reinforcements where I was like, wow, wait, my life is better. Not only am I having more clarity, I'm waking up without that haze of hangovers, or even just, you know, when you're drinking and the things, ah, well, I'm not gonna go do this, I'm not gonna go do that because I've had

Real Benefits I Noticed Fast

George Blitch 2:57

a couple of drinks. Uh, you know, I was just talking to a buddy about that recently who's asking me, hey, what's so great about being sober? And I was like, well, it's one of those things for me personally that I never knew what it would be until I was there. I used to take off sometimes six months or a year at a time to prove that I wasn't addicted to alcohol. But in turns, I was just kind of hitting the pause button on an addiction that I had that ran in my family, uh, genetically as well, and just myself, uh, having those tendencies to always need that thing, that crutch, whatever it was that got me through that day and that stress. When I eliminated alcohol, I realized with a different level of clarity, my emotional balance was more intact. My physical balance was definitely more intact. Um, my ability to love was better. And I was a better husband, I was a better father. I ended up being a better person. Uh, I didn't have as quick a tendency to get angry, to feel tension. Uh, even though that alcohol was a release for me from those things at times, whenever I ended up not drinking, I didn't feel it as severe. Oh, I need to have something. I ended up being able to cope with my emotions a little bit better because of the clarity of sobriety I felt.

Clarity And Better Relationships

George Blitch 4:10

So again, I I kind of mark this time once a year to talk about it openly because I think it's something that some people have a little bit of a hurdle if they're facing this challenge of maybe hearing that from people that they know or people in their communities. Um, and I just kind of want to encourage anybody, whether you have addiction to alcohol, pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, smoking cigarettes, tobacco, whatever it could be that you have that addiction that you're facing, that there's always people who have gone through this who can kind of help be a guideline. I mean, there are definitely professional uh counselors and things like AA community aspect treatments that

Finding Help Through Community Resources

George Blitch 4:54

you can have some accountability with the people who are around you who are going through that as well. And so there's a lot of different options for you if you are looking to seek help. And so I just wanted to kind of remind folks here that, you know, uh I'm gonna put in the notes in the show notes below different places you can reach out to if you're feeling that way. Um,

Rock Bottom, Relapse, And Real Barriers

George Blitch 5:12

you know, I recently had an experience with an individual who pretty much hit rock bottom uh with his drinking, and he was treating himself and his significant other very poorly and went to really almost the point of no return with his addiction. And realized that there was a change that needed to happen and started out on the right foot and then went back to drinking. And that's something that I think you see a lot when there's people who have addictive uh behaviors and personalities and just uh are slave to addiction, that it's hard to sometimes get past whatever time that is to where you don't need it anymore. And a lot of times it does take professional counseling, it does take going to AA or narcotics anonymous or whatever it may be. You need to sometimes have that accountability on a day-to-day. And so I've seen people hit rock bottom, I've seen people lose their lives. I've gone to those funerals. Uh, you know, I talked to a lot of people in the veteran community who every single year go to multiple funerals. They say veteran 22 a day suicide, and it's probably more than that. But a lot of those people don't know how to cope with certain things, and they don't have the strategies and they don't have really the brotherhood, the sisterhood, that family thing that they used to have in service. Or in a lot of cases, there are different things they're dealing with that come with addiction. You know, they have pain physical, they're taking whatever that drug it is to feel better, and then you become addicted to that, and then that sends you down a spiral. And there's a lot of times there's you know, traumatic brain injury, which is a different thing, I know, aside from addiction. But a lot of times that you you hear about people who have substances that they try to fill that void instead of maybe finding better alternatives, which is of course the AAs, the NA's, the counseling, um, you know, psychotherapists, whatever it is, uh, therapy is obviously a valuable option for many people. Some people can't afford those things, and it's very difficult to be able to seek help when you don't have the money to be able to maybe do those or to check yourself into rehab. Oh man, I'm gonna not be around work for three days or a week or two weeks or a month, and you may get fired, and I might not have the money to go and do that. Yeah, there's challenges everywhere, but there are different outlets for people. Uh, and I will list as many as I can here in the show notes below so you guys can be able to have uh, you know, kind of a first step if you need.

Choosing Help And Telling Friends

George Blitch 7:44

And I just wanted to kind of take that minute again, like I said, to encourage everybody who is facing their addictions to look in the mirror of it and figure out and admit, yes, I need help. Yes, I'm ready to take that next step. And I encourage you to do so. I've done it myself. I'm on the other side of it. I know other people who are in the middle of it, and I encourage you to work hard, put in the efforts, put in the work there that's required for you to be able to get to be in a healthier state, uh, where you don't need whatever it is that you are addicted to. So again, I'm not a counselor, I am not an administrator at any of these places, I'm not a therapist. So take that for what it is. But I am someone who has dealt with addiction, who's overcome it. And I've seen other people who've dealt with addictions and overcome those. And I can just say for myself and for others I've seen it's better and it gets better and it gets easier. And the other side of it will make the journey to get there worth every single thing that you do, all the effort it takes to put into that. And I just wanted to say uh if you are struggling with anything, please look at the show notes below. Contact someone that you feel can help you out with that. Lean out to your friend group, to your peers, and find somebody who can be able to be that uh person to talk to to help guide you into another step. Don't succumb to the weight of addiction on your own. There are places and facilities and people out there to help you. That's what I'd like to share with you today. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Hope you guys enjoy it. Please share this with a friend if you think they could benefit up front. Thank you so much.

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George Blitch 9:28

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