How Addiction Destroyed My Family | Arron Crascall
On The Mend
High Performance
4.9 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week’s guest is Arron Crascall, who shares his raw journey from struggling with addiction and low self-esteem to finding hope and transformation through surrender and honesty.
Arron talks about how he never felt comfortable in his own skin, always changing to fit in, and how his first drink at 17 gave him the feeling of being “alive” for the first time. He opens up about the long battle with alcohol, how he tried therapy, hypnotherapy, and changing environments, but nothing worked until he reached a breaking point, a family meal that made him realize he was about to lose everything. That moment became his turning point, and he found a higher power in a quiet voice telling him, “You ain’t gotta do this anymore, but you need help.”
This episode dives into the transformative power of the 12-step program, how Arron’s practice of gratitude helped shift his mindset, and the struggles he still faces, including guilt for missing parts of his kids’ lives.
This episode covers the following themes: addiction, identity, surrender, guilt, recovery, and helping others.
Need Support?
Samaritans: Call 116 123 or visit samaritans.org
Narcotics Anonymous: na.org
Alcoholics Anonymous: alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
Mental Health Mates: mentalhealthmates.co.uk
Shout: https: giveusashout.org
IAPT: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adults/nhs-talking-therapies/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to know who's coming up next? |
| 0:01.6 | Hit follow wherever you get your podcast and you'll be the first to find out. Today's guest is Aaron Craskell. I remember coming out of this blackout. It was red all around me. It was red everywhere. And I was like, oh my, I remember looking down, I'd piss myself. My missus, she kept saying, the devil was in you, devil, devil. In the morning, she's coming in the bedroom, fucking flying at me. Just go, why did you keep doing this? |
| 0:23.5 | And for the first, I remember this, I went, I don't know. And for the first time I didn't know. It must have been so hard for him. How great for you to be sober today, man. Welcome back, everybody to On the Mend. Matt Willis here. |
| 0:37.7 | How you feeling? |
| 0:38.4 | How you're doing? |
| 0:39.0 | Hope you're good. |
| 0:40.0 | Right. |
| 0:40.4 | Aaron Craskell, man. |
| 0:41.7 | Brother. |
| 0:41.7 | Honestly, amazing. We've been talking for a year's man. Yeah, man. We've been talking for a while. Yeah, you helped me. You help me a lot. At the beginning. Yeah, man. I look back through the old messages, man, |
| 0:51.0 | and I was, I was just, |
| 0:53.8 | man, |
| 0:54.0 | I was so buckled. |
| 0:55.4 | And I remember talking, |
| 0:56.1 | I remember leaving you a few minutes, |
| 0:57.6 | like, |
| 0:58.1 | yeah, through the old messages man and um i was i was just man i was so buckled and i remember talk i |
| 0:56.2 | remember left leaving you a few minutes like yeah i'm gonna i've stopped drinking now i'm like i'm like |
| 1:00.6 | 20 days sober i think i've got this yet i'm doing all right mate it was just i was just always |
| 1:05.3 | reaching out to people to help for help but i never went the full can you help me yeah i've seen you |
| 1:10.7 | recently on a multitude of platforms sharing your story, right? |
| 1:15.6 | It's made me feel so happy to see you sharing the story of recovery because, |
... |
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