RAW Recovery Podcast

Selfishness / Self-Centeredness
The Big Book tells us that selfishness and self-centeredness are at the root of many of our troubles. That does not always mean being greedy or uncaring. Sometimes it looks like needing control, needing to be right, taking everything personally, or making every situation about what we want and how we feel.
Today we’re talking about how self-centered thinking shows up in recovery, why it can be so hard to recognize in ourselves, and what happens when we begin looking beyond “me” toward God, service, responsibility, and other people.
Recovery gives us a chance to live differently—not by disappearing, but by learning that the world does not have to revolve around us.
#TheDailyTrudge #Selfishness #SelfCenteredness #AlcoholicsAnonymous #BigBook #Recovery #Sobriety #Service #SpiritualGrowth

Who Cares To Admit Complete Defeat?
Step One in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions opens with a hard question: who wants to admit complete defeat? For most of us, admitting powerlessness sounds like losing. But the 12 & 12 turns that idea around—admitting powerlessness becomes the beginning of liberation.
Today we’re talking about why complete defeat can be so difficult to accept, the mental obsession and physical reaction that keep the alcoholic trapped, and why humility has such a direct connection to sobriety. Step One is not about convincing ourselves that we are worthless. It is about finally recognizing the truth about alcohol and what happens when we try to manage it ourselves.
Maybe defeat is not the end at all. Maybe admitting we have lost the old fight is exactly what allows a completely different life to begin.
#TheDailyTrudge #StepOne #CompleteDefeat #AlcoholicsAnonymous #TwelveAndTwelve #Recovery #Sobriety #Powerlessness #Humility

Grateful? Or Gratitude?
There is a difference between being grateful and living with gratitude. Grateful can be recognizing what we have—a roof over our head, people who care about us, another sober day. Gratitude is what we do with those gifts.
Today we’re talking about how gratitude becomes action: showing up, being useful, keeping our word, taking care of what we have, and turning the gifts of recovery into something that matters.
Grateful is recognizing the gift. Gratitude is what we do with it.
#TheDailyTrudge #Grateful #Gratitude #Recovery #AlcoholicsAnonymous #Sobriety #Perspective #Service #SpiritualGrowth

Rule #62
In the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Tradition Four gives us one of AA’s great reminders: “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” It came out of a group that overreached, learned from the mess, laughed at itself, and moved on.
Today we’re talking about ego, control, self-importance, humility, and why learning to laugh at ourselves can be part of staying spiritually healthy. Recovery is serious business—but that does not mean we have to make ourselves the center of every problem.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is admit we got it wrong, learn something, laugh a little, and keep moving.
#TheDailyTrudge #Rule62 #AlcoholicsAnonymous #TwelveAndTwelve #Recovery #Sobriety #Humility #TraditionFour

We Absolutely Insist on Enjoying Life
Recovery is not supposed to be one long exercise in fixing what is wrong with us. The Big Book reminds us that we are allowed to laugh, enjoy people, have fun, and actually participate in life.
Today we’re talking about what it means to enjoy life in recovery without waiting for everything to be perfect first. Gratitude, connection, humor, service, and being present can all be part of a sober life that is actually worth living.
We did not get sober just to survive. We got sober to live.
#TheDailyTrudge #EnjoyingLife #AlcoholicsAnonymous #Recovery #Sobriety #BigBook #Gratitude #Fellowship #SpiritualGrowth

A Doctor's Opinion
The Doctor’s Opinion gives us one of the clearest explanations of alcoholism in the Big Book: the physical allergy, the mental obsession, and why an alcoholic can sincerely want to stop and still find themselves drinking again.
Today we’re talking about what Dr. Silkworth was trying to explain, why alcoholism is more than bad choices or weak willpower, and how understanding the problem can help us understand why a spiritual solution becomes necessary.
Sometimes the first real relief comes from finally understanding that the problem is bigger than simply saying, “I just won’t drink.”
#TheDailyTrudge #ADoctorsOpinion #AlcoholicsAnonymous #BigBook #Recovery #Sobriety #Alcoholism #DrSilkworth

What Happened to Our Recovery Community?
Real Talk with Dion takes a look at what has happened to the recovery community—from AA and Twelve Step work to treatment centers, detox, sober living, recovery coaching, and the growing recovery industry.
We’ve built more programs, services, organizations, and resources than ever before, yet too many people still leave treatment or detox without real connection, real community, or someone willing to walk beside them.
This conversation isn’t just about what’s gone wrong. It’s about the solution: getting back to people helping people, rebuilding community, creating places where people belong, and remembering what recovery was supposed to be about in the first place.
This is Real Talk with Dion.

The Spiritual Experience
What does a spiritual experience actually look like? Does it have to be dramatic, sudden, and unmistakable—or can it happen gradually as our thinking, actions, and relationship with God begin to change?
Today we’re talking about the spiritual experience in recovery: what the Big Book means by it, the difference between a sudden experience and a spiritual awakening that develops over time, and how honesty, faith, prayer, meditation, service, and changed behavior can become evidence that something real is happening.
Maybe the spiritual experience is not about becoming somebody completely different overnight. Maybe it is about becoming willing to live differently one day at a time.
#TheDailyTrudge #TheSpiritualExperience #AlcoholicsAnonymous #BigBook #Recovery #Sobriety #SpiritualAwakening #HigherPower #Faith

There Is A Solution
Alcoholism creates a problem that can feel impossible to solve from the inside. We try control, promises, consequences, changing circumstances, and doing it our own way—and still end up back in the same place.
Today we’re talking about what the Big Book means when it says there is a solution: identification, fellowship, spiritual change, action, and finding a way of life that actually works.
The solution is not just stopping drinking. It is learning how to live differently so alcohol no longer has to be the answer.
#TheDailyTrudge #ThereIsASolution #AlcoholicsAnonymous #BigBook #Recovery #Sobriety #Fellowship #SpiritualGrowth

Want to see the whole Unmanangables Video? Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDN_tg-bZ04
A Recovered Alcoholic?
What does it actually mean when the Big Book talks about a “recovered alcoholic”? Does recovered mean cured? Does it mean we no longer need a program? Or does it mean something deeper has changed in the way we live?
Today we’re talking about the difference between simply not drinking and living a recovered life—one built around honesty, spirituality, service, responsibility, and a new way of dealing with life.
Maybe being recovered does not mean we are finished. Maybe it means alcohol no longer runs the show, and we now have a way of life that keeps moving us forward.
#TheDailyTrudge #RecoveredAlcoholic #AlcoholicsAnonymous #BigBook #Recovery #Sobriety #SpiritualGrowth #Service