This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi and welcome to this naked mind podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Today I have a great guest. I'm at Paul a

while ago and Paul is the founder of the Recovery Elevator podcast, which has as well over a million approaching two

million downloads, which is absolutely phenomenal. Paul welcome. Thank you for being here. Yeah, Annie, thank you so much for having me on your podcast. You're like a sobriety guru in my opinion. So it's really cool chat with you.

That's awesome. So what I love to do on these things is just sort of start with your story. And if you would mind just kind of taking us back to even the beginning, if you don't mind.

Absolutely. And just so I don't get too far down on this that we took on like a three minute, five minute, seven minute deal here.

Yeah, as much details you want to share, I think people love detail. They can relate to certain aspects. So yeah, as keep it going.

Absolutely. Okay. So the first time I drank, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And I've heard that common response from a lot of people.

And in part, me, I'm going to be jumping forward jumping back, but where I'm at right now with my research, I love recovery. And I read all material that I can, including your book, I've read it, I've read it more than once.

We've studied a different book club. And where I'm at right now is I have enhanced dopamine receptors. Right. I don't like using the word alcoholic, but I have enhanced dopamine receptors, which means I experience alcohol differently than our people.

And back to when I took that first drink, I was on to something special. I knew it from that very first moment. And talking to other non drinkers, they're like, yeah, you know, I didn't like the taste and it was just a different experience for normal drinkers.

So I don't know if it was, you know, it was genetic, I was genetically predisposition to become an alcoholic. That's what I believe. But regardless, I went down that road with these enhanced dopamine receptors.

And, you know, even with my childhood, I've heard a lot of people say, well, you're most, most addicts, most, most people have problems with alcohol and drugs. They had childhood trauma.

And I can tell you that my upbringing was, could have been further from the truth on, it could be further from that statement right there. I'm a white kid who grew up in Vale, Colorado. My parents gave me everything on a silver spoon. They did everything fantastic. And it could have be just the fact that given my genetic makeup, if I drink and when I drink, if I drink enough of it, I will become addicted alcohol.

And I think that's what happened. And so that first drink was around age 13, like I mentioned, it was magical. It was difficult to find it at age 14 and 15. But gradually through high school, I began to drink more.

I was captain of the football team. I was in student council. I was in jazz band. I was in every student council program, whatever you could do to be involved in high school and plays and musicals. I got involved. I was just your average Joe in high school.

And I was a normal drinker for like seven years. When I say normal drinker, it was someone, I was somebody who could take it or leave it. Never did the thought in those seven years. And my first episodes with drinking, that I think, man, perhaps I'm drinking too much or is this altering my life in a negative behavior.

And you know, there's a, I found myself being, I was lapping the pace car, shall we say, I would always, I'd always like try to stand, you know, to stay with others with my drinking. And then I said, I found myself just surpassing everybody.

And it was, I went to college, drank like a normal drinker there, but it wasn't until I can pinpoint the night. And it's not like a switch that happens, but I remember the night when I crossed that boundary from normal drinking to drinking alcoholically. And I was at that point, I was addicted alcohol.

And we were in Spain. I was running a pub crawl at the time. We came back. It was like four o'clock in the morning and I poured myself, you have a glass full vodka. And I asked the others, hey, guys, it was a fun night. Do you want some more alcohol and and they're like, whoa, no, Paul, we're kind of winding down at this moment.

And that was when I realized, wow, I'm finding it extremely difficult, if not impossible to stop drinking once I started.

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