The Hopeaholics

We Fell In Love Thanks To Sobriety w/ Nic And Ant (@nic_n_ant) | The Hopeaholics Podcast #353

Nicole and Anthony one of the most recognized and popular sober/recovery couples in social media. They met in a recovery meeting in 2018. She had six years and he was 60 days out of detox. His first year clean was a mess. Lies, cheating, not working a program. Both going through divorces simultaneously, his kids hating Nicole, his ex-wife's family leaving homewrecker comments in the comment section for years. They broke up and kept finding their way back. 

Nicole got clean at 21. Before that: 92 pounds, homeless, sheets over every mirror because she couldn't look at herself, months in the same blue dress without showering. Five arrests starting at 19 — selling drugs on felony probation, assault with a deadly weapon, possession. Stealing painkillers off a dying aunt on hospice and still not stopping. Anthony's path started with a work injury and a prescription. Heroin, then speed, then the needle. He took his son to baseball practice, dropped him off, and sat in the car getting high. He left his family mid-vacation in Montauk, drove four hours home to pawn the Rolex his wife had saved up to buy him, and went on a two-day run. When he came back, she told him: get help or you'll never see these kids again. 

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Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!

Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction. 

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com 

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics 

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#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

00:00 — Cold open
01:38 — Introducing Nick and Ant
06:15 — How they met
12:47 — 11/11/22: the wedding date and the angel number
14:25 — Co-parenting: from hatred to "we love each other today"
15:57 — His kids found out through TikTok before he told anyone
17:53 — Nicole steals Donna's number and reaches out three times
25:26 — Meetings versus actually working the steps
33:01 — Nicole's story: approaching 14 years, 22nd birthday in rehab
37:48 — From the cheerleading squad to selling drugs in the projects at 3am
41:47 — How she met her ex-husband: both smoking crack
44:24 — Got everything she thought she wanted. Was miserable.
50:08 — Anthony's story: 43rd birthday in rehab, now 52
54:37 — Work injury to first prescription addiction
57:44 — The slide to heroin
58:59 — Going to work to steal
59:46 — Dropping his son at baseball practice and getting high in the car
1:00:25 — Left his family in Montauk, drove four hours home to pawn the Rolex
1:02:19 — In detox, calling his wife: "I just want to get high one more time"
1:04:43 — Wife hands him the phone. Bed opens Monday. His eyes lit up.
1:06:11 — The day the obsession lifted
1:20:11 — Why they went public about their recovery
1:30:43 — The anonymity question
1:35:15 — Recovery coaches bashing 12-step and charging money
1:39:59 — What would you tell your past self?
1:42:18 — Work a program or we're not getting married

Jess Seiwert grew up in Kansas. He was abused at home from age 5 to 12. After 9/11 he joined the Army at 18, made sergeant, survived an IED blast, and came home with a Purple Heart and an Oxycontin addiction. One day he woke up in county jail charged with first-degree attempted murder and kidnapping after his best friend slept with his wife while he was passed out. He walked out with 14 felony convictions, seven rehab attempts, and 3.5 years in county jail across eight Kansas counties during Covid. He now has 1,000 days sober next month.

This episode covers his entire journey. The IED that started the pill spiral. The gang he joined within three months in prison. Coming home to Kansas and going straight into meth distribution. Gambling away his drug money at the casino, three Christmases in a row while his family was at home. Using his Purple Heart military ID to run $200,000 in forgery across three states. One childhood mentor named Bob Timmons who bailed him out, got robbed by Jess, and kept coming back anyway. Getting high ten days into court-ordered treatment. And the moment he finally threw up his hands and let God in

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
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Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!

Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction. 

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com 

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics 

Our Merch: 
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

0:21 Intro
2:14 Gambling: the addiction that swallowed everything at the end
4:07 Father arrested for child rape 
6:45 Growing up angry
7:05 9/11 happens right after graduation. Joins the Army
8:43 First drink: the first time he ever felt normal
10:29 IED hits him + Purple Heart
11:04 Comes home on Oxycontin
13:26 Second marriage. Gets her hooked on pills.
15:00 Wakes up with 1st degree attempted murder, kidnapping
20:29 Crowley Correctional: in a gang within three months
21:47 High on meth, headbutts his parole officer. Back to prison.
25:38 Charlie Kirk assassination
38:49 Forgery across three states: $200,000
40:18 3 1/2 years in 8 county jails during Covid
41:37 Using his Purple Heart military ID to forge checks
43:11 Meets his 3rd wife in county jail 
44:11 Gets out. Uses within 24 hours. She gets pregnant that night.
48:47 120 meetings in 90 days. Fires his sponsor at 3 months clean
50:04 Peer mentor in Kansas City / Social work.
50:22 Almost 1,000 days sober. 43 years old
51:19 Son with autism doing great. Rebuilding with his oldest two kids.
1:01:03 Why recovery has to be the foundation on the hardest days
1:10:34 Veterans and the VA
1:12:21 Veteran mental health access
1:17:36 "25 years of alcoholism. 15 years of addiction. Why would I give up on anybody?"

Gregg Champion's father was killed in a head-on collision with another drunk driver when Gregg was 4. He grew up angry, filled that with alcohol and attention, and spent his 20s collecting DUIs, assaults, a marijuana trafficking operation out of a van, and two arrests in the same 24-hour stretch at Mardi Gras. He got sober at 25, went back and finished his ASU degree sober with a 4.0, sits on the Arizona State Alumni Leadership Council, taught entrepreneurship at USC, and is 30+ years sober.

This episode covers the childhood trauma he carried alone for decades. The night at he woke up in a jail cell, found a Catholic church in the phone book, and sat down in front of a priest named Father Bill — who turned out to be his stepfather's sponsor — and who sent him to his first meeting. He built Startup Recovery and Wellness over nine years and three sober living homes in the Pacific Palisades. In that same stretch he also lost his mom to Alzheimer's, his sister to suicide, went bankrupt in 2008, and watched the January 7, 2025 fires burn all three houses to the ground. He's still standing.

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics 
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!

Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction. 

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com 

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics 

Our Merch: 
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

0:00 Cold open
0:38 Intro
1:07 Gregg Champion
7:14 31 years sober and still working on it
10:26 The seven-year itch: three years without AA and no sponsor
13:42 Being a girl dad in recovery — why he shares it out loud
17:17 His father was killed in a drunk-on-drunk collision
18:01 Becoming what killed his father
18:49 Attention as the first substitute
20:23 A secret he carried since he was eight
22:33 Age 13 to 25: Arizona State, six credits short, and a rampage
23:16 Going back to finish his degree sober now on the ASU Alumni Leadership Council
24:15 Lost sister to suicide, mom to Alzheimer's, bankrupt in 2008, Palisades fires
24:38 Getting sober at 25: DUIs, assaults, two Mardi Gras arrests
29:13 Running weed out east
32:20 Waking up in a jail cell and hearing a voice say his name
33:17 He finds the nearest Catholic church in the phone book
34:21 Father Bill
36:20 Father Bill turned out to be his stepfather's sponsor
41:36 His daughter asks: "Papa, have you ever been to jail?"
47:25 Teaching entrepreneurship at USC
57:48 The TED Talk he bombed
59:11 Couples counseling: finding the therapist with 25 years in Al-Anon
1:00:37 What year ten of sobriety demands: going a level deeper
1:06:34 The Recovery Playbook: sober, now what?
1:08:22 The thing he relapsed over but never fully faced
1:15:35 Breaking the cycle: giving his daughters the life he didn't have

Golf Prospect w Full Ride to UCLA. Meth Took It All w/ Danny Dalton | The Hopeaholics Podcast #350 

Danny Dalton grew up in Huntington Beach playing golf when Tiger Woods was the standard everyone chased. He was good enough to earn a full scholarship to UCLA. He lost it junior year and spent the next decade filling the gap with cocaine, then meth, then heroin. This episode covers the whole run. The UCLA golfer who shot course records and still couldn't get out of his own way. The meth use that progressed to the needle at 33. The night he looked in a mirror and saw Gollum staring back. And the second day of treatment when a stranger walked into the room with the same name as his deceased father.

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics 
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!

Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction. 

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com 

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics 

Our Merch: 
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

0:00 Cold open
0:18 Intro
0:47 Danny Dalton, welcome to the show
1:09 Golf: how Danny got into it late and why it took over
6:35 progressive alcoholism begins
7:11 Full athletic scholarship to UCLA
9:12 The gene: addiction running through the family
14:45 Growing up with Tiger Woods as the benchmark
15:05 "I didn't realize how insulated I was until I wasn't"
19:03 Losing the scholarship junior year, somehow graduating anyway
21:56 Course records / sponsors: pro-level golf he couldn't hold onto
24:14 Cocaine, then meth
25:09 The needle at 33
32:33 First meth charge at 36: parents finding out
32:59 Nine charges with the law
33:21 Heroin: the thing that took him all the way down
34:48 Four years of isolation + his father dies
35:49 "I looked in the mirror and saw Gollum"
36:13 The shot that almost killed him
37:18 Threw everything in the trash and walked to the beach
38:01 Detox on his mom's couch, then court
39:17 Court-ordered 90 days
39:38 Day 2 in treatment: breaking down in church
41:13 A stranger named Tom Dalton walks in — his dead father's name
43:08 "That's why you have a gift"
44:29 Losing his treatment community, starting to slip again
45:23 Why he stays in recovery: it's for the next guy
48:33 Chad on his own hard year
51:12 The two words he says every morning
57:35 The recovery side has to come first
1:02:41 What Danny does today

They Said I'd Never See My Kids Again. Got Them Back Sober w/ Ian Day | The Hopeaholics Podcast #349

Ian Day grew up a standout athlete in a one-stoplight town in Indiana with one bar. His first drinks were sips of Miller Lite off his grandpa's lawn mower. By 17 he was smoking weed every day and panhandling in his high school hallways for lunch money because he'd spent it all on drugs. By 26 he was in Maricopa County tent jail in pink underwear and it was a country song in the jail chapel that finally broke him open for the first time in his life. He was told he'd never see his kids again and he got them back while fully sober. Ian shares his experience in the fork in the road between homeless, prison, and the halfway house, 90 meetings in 90 days, waking up at 4am to work a food bank before heading to a tattoo shop in the evenings, and what it looked like to slowly build a life he never thought was possible. Ian is now 8 years sober, owns Everlasting Inc. tattoo shop in Phoenix next door to a sober lounge, goes into intake prison on Monday mornings, and is raising his kids with his wife, Christin Day

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics 
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!

Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction. 

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com 

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics 

Our Merch: 
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

Timestamps: 
0:00 - Cold Open: First Blackout
 0:26 - Welcome / Intro
 1:45 - Eight Years Sober This Weekend
 2:55 - Told He'd Never See His Kids Again
 4:06 - They Lied to the Courthouse
 6:52 - Losing His Sister at 32
 9:27 - The Last Time She Moved Was to Hug Me
 12:37 - First Drinks on Grandpa's Lawnmower
 13:28 - First Blackout: Let's Try Again
 15:40 - Alcohol as a Solution to Social Anxiety
 20:47 - Panhandling in High School Hallways for Lunch Money
 22:32 - I Believe Wholeheartedly I Would Be Dead Without My Parents
 44:57 - Chris Young Song in the Jail Chapel
 45:27 - God I Want to Be a Good Man — First Honest Moment
 49:16 - Homeless, Prison, or the Halfway House
 52:46 - Sponsor Says Stay
 53:44 - Two Jobs at 4am for Almost Two Years
 55:04 - Meeting His Wife at a CA Convention
 1:02:25 - God Told Him to Pay Off His Fines Instead
 1:10:09 - What Are You Going to Do With Your Power Today