The SHAIR Recovery Podcast - SHAIR 91: "Sober and Serious" with Keith Campbell, strive to be a better person every day

SHAIR 91: "Sober and Serious" with Keith Campbell, strive to be a better person every day

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11/08/16 • 54 min

The SHAIR Recovery Podcast

Keith Campbell joins us on the SHAIR Podcast today. Keith has a thriving Facebook Group called Sober and Serious with over 3,700 active members. This is a group for people who are Serious about their recovery and striving to be a better people every day! Omar: Let's talk a little bit about what your daily routine looks like and include your recovery routine. Keith: I usually wake in the morning and I do a little meditation and prayer, and then take a shower, get ready, go to work. Usually when I get home from work, then I head off to a meeting usually if I have time. After that, usually some fellowship with the people in the meeting, and life is good. Try to help people. I got some guys that I sponsor, and when they're willing, I'll meet up with them and take then through the book too. Omar: Now, you say pray and meditate in the mornings, so how do you maintain your spiritual condition your conscious contact with a higher power on a regular basis, either daily basis or weekly basis? Keith: I do a lot of praying mostly for other people, but the Serenity Prayer I use. I go to church. I thank God a lot of the times for everything in my day-to-day routine and everything he's gotten me through, and I just continue to try to grow in my faith. Those 2 things I try to do, is grow in my faith and grow as a person in my recovery. Omar: How much clean time do you have and when is your anniversary date? Keith: I've been clean since March 5th of 2015, so I have over 16 Omar: Tell us, Keith, how old you were the first time you drank or used drugs or more importantly how did they make you feel? Keith: I was pretty young, 12 or 14, when I first drank. I don't know, made me feel, I guess, happy. Omar: What was keeping you from getting clean or staying clean when you first got introduced to recovery? Keith: When I first got introduced to recovery I just wasn't following the suggestions in the program. I thought I could do it on my own. That's what kept me from staying clean before. I didn't go to meetings except for when, to get my sheet signed for court, but when I started going to these meetings for myself, that's when it all changed. I was there with an open mind to grow and learn, do whatever it takes, and if that means following these people's suggestions, then that's what I was going to do. That's helped me tremendously.

Previous Episode

SHAIR 90: “Don’t leave before the Miracle Happens” with Dawn Lutrell as Ellen!

Dawn Lutrell joins us on The SHAIR Podcast. Dawn is a recovering addict, a comedian and an entertainer who does one hell of a job impersonating Ellen DeGeneres. This year Dawn will be hosting In Recovery Magazine's 3rd Annual Gratitude Gala event on November 18th in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dawn: I hear that I do. I'm not sure I do, but a lot of people seem to think I have it nailed. Omar: Absolutely, I think you do, Ellen, I mean Dawn. Dawn: Right, right. I'm the sober Ellen. Omar: First, we just want to get to know a little bit about what you do on a regular basis, Dawn, what does your normal daily routine look like including recovery? Dawn: I usually start the day with a good stiff black cup of coffee. I'm an early riser, so I'm at it pretty early, maybe sometimes before the sun comes up. I just take that time to be with my higher power and my prayers are usually conversational. I just try to have a conversation with God first thing in the morning, because I've been by myself, I'm going to train wreck the entire day, whether I want to or not. We have to have a little meeting in the morning and I start out by listing all the reasons I can't and then I wait for the reasons why I can. Day by day I just make a choice to say, "You know what? Let's go with your plan, it sounds more like it's going to work out than mine." Tomorrow I may choose my own plan and who knows what could happen? Each day I just try to make the choice to do God's will and not mine and be able to do whatever comes my way. With that too, comes a good review of steps one through three for me, no, I can't drink, God help me not to drink and let's do this, clean and sober. That in check, I try to take the option of a drink or a drug off the table right away and just surrender. From there, it's a complete tug of war for the rest of the day. You know what I mean? Omar: Oh Yeah! Dawn: Ten minutes after I've already taken it all back. It's back and forth, but at least we start out good and then we just keep going. That's how I try to start every day. Then from there I try to do a gratitude list, because I have so much to be grateful for. My life is good and I need to know that and remember that. Omar: Beautiful, I love it. I know that initially the reason why we connected is because there is an event that's going to be coming up shortly for you. It's a gala event. Can you tell us a little bit about what's coming up? What the dates are? What to expect? Dawn: I sure can. November 18th in Scottsdale, Arizona, is In Recovery Magazine's 3rd Annual Gratitude Gala. It's a night of awards for people who go above and beyond in recovery. It's also a way for the magazine to give back to all the people that have supported them in their mission throughout the year. It also raises funds for different charities around the area, for people to get into treatment and to get help. It's pretty multi-faceted and pretty amazing. Too, it's people in recovery, people who work in recovery. It's a chance for them to come together. That's a pretty heavy job day in and day out being in the trenches. It gives them a night to just kick back, laugh and have a good time. I was actually gifted the opportunity to MC the event, which that's like saying, "Here, I'm drunk, why don't you drive?" Okay. I don't know what that is. I'm going to MC the event and also do a little half hour set before the headliner comes out who is Alonzo Bodden. I think he's been on Jay Leno and ... That guy is all over the place, I can't even list all the places he is. He was the winner of last comic standing and then returned as a judge to the show. I mean they might as well just thrown me up on stage with a guitar and say, "Hey, sing a song, Simon Cowell is sitting in the front row." Thanks a lot.

Next Episode

SHAIR 92: "Knocking on Heavens Door" with Gaby Campagna, surviving Alcoholic Liver Disease!

Gabrielle “Gaby” Campagna joins us on The SHAIR Podcast. Gaby was an active alcoholic from age 15 to 36. In 2009, at age 36, her liver and kidneys shut down from drinking vodka heavily for over a year and she slipped into a coma. While Gaby was dying in the ICU from Non-viral hepatitis Alcoholic liver disease her my family was told she wasn't expected to make it. However her Higher Power had different plans for her and she survived, it took her over two years to recover her health back. Unfortunately, she did not seek treatment or get any help. Gaby white knuckled it for over 3 years and smoked pot. When she turned 40 she relapsed for an entire year. On July 23, 2013, at age 41, Gaby entered an outpatient treatment program that is 12 Stepped based at Kaiser Chemical Dependency Recovery Program. She completed all phases of the program in 16 months. Gaby’s recovery story is full of amazing miracles and her life is beyond good. Life is great! Clean Date: July 23, 2013 Omar: What is the best suggestion you have ever received? Gaby: Oh, this one I love, and I got it at treatment, "Stop taking yourself so seriously. Nobody else does. You're ridiculous, and so is everybody else." I'm like, oh, my God, that’s so true. I learned basically how to observe myself objectively without judgment. Omar: I love it. Gaby: That’s what not taking yourself so seriously means. A good way someone described it to me was like, "If you had a friend complaining about the problems that you're currently having, how worried would you be for them? Would you really be that concerned for them, or would you think they're being ridiculous?" I thought, "Oh, my God, that’s such a perfect way to look at things. When I'm worried about these problems that are just so not life-threatening problems, nobody's-going-to-die kind of problems, yeah, stop taking myself so seriously. Life is short. We are all going to die whether we like to believe that or not. I think human beings are in denial about that from day one, like there's something special and it's not going to happen to me. The truth is we all will die when it's our time, but before that happens, let's just kind of take it easy, stop taking everything so seriously, unless you're a brain surgeon maybe. There's no point of beating yourself up when things aren't going your way. Omar: If you could give our listeners only one suggestion, what would it be? Gaby: Oh, my gosh. Listeners who are already in recovery, keep going. It gets better and better and better. As we were discussing earlier, if you are a person who's still in active addiction, don’t give up on yourself. Give yourself a chance to at least explore the possibility of recovery. A lot of people die from this. If you're listening to this, you know you have a problem and you’ve broken through some denial, but you're still drinking, you can do this. This is definitely something that’s achievable. I mentioned on another podcast I was interviewed on, everything I was trying to achieve with drinking I've actually achieved in sobriety, that feeling of happiness and joy and bliss and peace. If you're drinking, thinking it’s bringing you peace, you know it's not bringing you peace, but recovery and sobriety, it'll bring you all the peace that you need. It's so worth it. Life is very short. We should not be sitting around putting poison in our bodies and thinking that’s fun or the answer to solving our problems.