He believes that addressing deep-seated childhood trauma is essential for achieving and maintaining long-term sobriety.

“and the therapist that I was going to said Russ until you deal with your childhood trauma said you're never going to stay sober that every time one of your family members dies you're going to relapse”

Achieving sobriety is essential for personal growth and requires complete commitment to avoid self-sabotage.

“I immersed myself completely if it was at school it was the army wasn't the army was the gym and if it wasn't that me and my girl was on some hours playing my cats wasn't I wouldn't let anything derail me”

Recovery from addiction requires more than just meeting attendance; it necessitates active engagement with tools like the 12 steps, meditation, and daily rigorous honesty.

“It's putting that pen to paper. It's that like energy flowing through the fingertips that where you're do like the word alcohol has the word alchemy in it.”

Lee Stuckey maintains that abstinence from alcohol is crucial for maintaining clarity and mental health for those struggling with trauma or depression.

“once I got away from it and realized there was nothing productive that came out of that and I was healthier without it and I had more clarity to make the right decisions for my life and my wife, I gave it up completely.”

Riley believes that alcoholism is a progressive and unmanageable disease where the person loses the ability to stop once they start drinking.

“Actually, the way we kind of see it, the way that, you know, it's defined us is like once you start drinking, you can't stop.”

Alcoholism is a severe physical dependency that requires medical intervention to safely stop because withdrawal can lead to fatal seizures.

“alcohol is the only thing that you actually need medicine for and it's so sad and I hate it every time I take a drink I hate it it's almost like the devil”

Alcoholism is an addictive state that can affect anyone regardless of their background.

“I think that they see the idea of addiction in a problem and like drinking too much is something that can happen to somebody who's like that but not us. And I think that it was they they drink but mostly like socially and regularly but I'd say in a pretty consistent sometimes high volume.”