I dreamt that you were twisting through seven sons of gold and the gypsy was insisting

that his story must be told I came two in the morning but I took it as a warning That you might be a treasure

I could touch but never hold

Okay, so following on from last week's podcast,

we're going to talk about that first year of sobriacy, of recovery

and what that's like and all the challenges. Can you remember

that far back? I can't remember what I had for dinner last night. Oh, I know, no. It's funny.

I can't remember what I had for dinner last night either, but I can remember so much of my early

recovery so clearly. Really? Yep. I absolutely have almost photographic memory of it all and also emotional memory of all the feelings associated with it.

I was fortunate in that I found recovery in a rehabilitation unit, a detox unit.

So I wasn't on my own. I was surrounded by other people who were going through a similar type of thing.

And I can remember I was ready. I think that was one of the things that was significant for me.

I was ready. I wanted to stop drinking. I wanted to stop using. I suppose I was very excited about

the whole thing and the idea of being able to hang out with people, have some fun and laugh about things and do new things that I hadn't done for ages were really, really pleasant and enthusiastic things that made me feel really great about being in recovery.

I spent my first three months in that unit, so I was

really protected from the outside world, and I developed some good friends there who, of course,

we were going to be friends for life and do all kinds of things together. But what I do

remember is having a real enthusiasm for wanting to stay clean.

You know, it's a bonding experience. I remember when I worked at Focus with you, I was, well,

only a couple of years sober, and I actually had rehab envy. I went through that for a little while

because I saw so many people who did recover

went through this incredible bonding experience and this transformational experience

...