97: Before I Leave You with Robert Imbeault
The Addicted Mind Podcast
Duane Osterlind, LMFT
4.7 • 655 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2020
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s episode of The Addicted Mind Podcast, Duane sits down with author Robert Imbeault to talk about his book Before I Leave You. Robert also speaks to his own battle with addiction, his suicide attempts, and his eventual recovery.
Calming The Addicted Mind - 6 Day Mindfulness Email Series
theaddictedmind.com/mindfulness
Based in Ottawa, Canada, Rob shares his story of how experiencing a memory of being raped as an eight-year-old turned his life upside-down as he became a shell of himself fueled by drugs and alcohol as a result. After hitting many rock-bottoms, he attempted suicide a few times. But in recovery, he reminds us that despite how dark the story can be, there is hope on the other side.
Join The Addicted Mind Podcast Facebook Group>>>
Unable to find authentic happiness, Rob pushed further into his work obsession at the sacrifice of his personal relationships. When a memory of his childhood assault comes crashing back, Rob is left catatonic and unable to fully confront his trauma. He let his marriage deteriorate during his spiraling. On a trip to Las Vegas, Rob discovered how alive he felt on ecstasy and cocaine. He believes, too, that these mistakes ultimately empowered him. He’d become all but non-functional at home and at work. The duality between his personal destruction and business success continued to escalate and tear at him. His then-girlfriend’s decision to make him confront his drug addiction more or less made him wake up.
Episode Link
After visiting Walden, Rob knew that he wanted to live. But before this, his awakening to the notion that he was not a good human in any sense made the idea of suicide tempting to him. Ultimately, Rob felt it would free him of all of his burdens. What actually helped turn all of this around for Rob was the decision to write out his rationalizations. He calls them “secret goodbyes,” and Rob credits his writing with freeing him from the bonds of his mental place. It was his “solace” to write. He then started meditating and became a practicing Buddhist. Rob and his wife became pregnant, which enforced their “zero-tolerance” policy. They’ve both been clean ever since.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-addicted-mind-podcast/donations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, welcome to episode 97 of the Addicted Mind podcast. |
| 0:13.1 | Today's guest is Robert Inbo and he is going to talk about his journey through addiction, through suicide attempts, and towards |
| 0:27.1 | recovery and healing. He's going to talk about his book, before I leave you, a book that he |
| 0:33.6 | originally wrote as a goodbye letter to his loved ones before he decided to end his life. |
| 0:41.9 | Thankfully, that process actually generated healing for him and his journey out of that darkness. |
| 0:49.3 | And he's able to talk about it and be frank about how some of his past abuse and trauma impacted him and led to a lot of his pain and how he's able to find his way out. |
| 1:03.7 | Really enjoyed the interview and really enjoyed talking to Robert and what he's doing. |
| 1:09.6 | So with that, don't forget, if you are enjoying the |
| 1:12.8 | Addicted Mind, please rate and review us in iTunes. That really does help get us a lot of exposure. |
| 1:19.5 | And think about joining our Facebook group. Go to Facebook and type in the Addicted Mind podcast, |
| 1:25.8 | click join and continue the conversation online as well. |
| 1:30.9 | And please share your message of hope. |
| 1:33.4 | If you would like to share a message about your own recovery or something that's been |
| 1:40.3 | inspirational to you like a poem or a quote you can go to the addicted mind.com |
| 1:47.3 | forward slash hope and right there is the ability for you to record up to two minutes of audio |
| 1:54.6 | and I really want your voice on the podcast and on the website so that people can hear from others who have |
| 2:06.3 | walked through addiction, hardship, depression, anxiety, suffering, and come out the other side |
| 2:15.3 | and for people to know that there is hope out there, that things do |
| 2:20.5 | change and things get better. So if that's a fit for you, I would love it. I'm putting them all |
| 2:25.9 | together to make a collection of those. And so when people are down, they can listen to these. |
| 2:33.0 | They can hear people's voices that things do change. |
| 2:35.4 | Things do get better. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Duane Osterlind, LMFT, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Duane Osterlind, LMFT and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.