Free Daily Podcast Summary
I Love Being Sober: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Tim Westbrook
Hello my friends, and welcome back to yet another episode of I Love Being Sober. My name is Tim Westbrook and I am the CEO and Founder of Camelback Recovery here in the always sunny and always sober Scottsdale, Arizona where my team and I over the course of many years have helped thousands of people on their path to long term recovery. I started this show because there is so much misinformation about addiction treatment, mental illness, and addiction recovery in general. There is much more to recovery than just going to inpatient treatment, seeing a therapist, and going to 12 step meetings. Those things are important and AA saved my life. However, to find long term recovery and live happy, joyous and free, there is a lot more to it than just stopping the drinking, stopping the drugs, or stopping any addictive behavior. Sobriety and recovery can and should be fun. That’s not to say that the recovery process is going to be easy and it’s not to say that there won’t be difficult times ahead. However, to live the life that you deserve and for it to be exciting and fun you need new lifestyle habits. New healthy lifestyle habits that promote your mental, spiritual, and physical health. That my friends will lead you to living a KICK ASS SOBER LIFE!
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 5 days ago55 min
Sober But Still Not Yourself
You got sober. You did the work. And you still wake up exhausted, foggy, flat, and unmotivated — and everyone around you says give it more time.Sometimes that’s the right answer. Sometimes something underneath is actually broken.Dr. Amie Hornaman spent her twenties competing in bodybuilding and figure competitions. Then the scale started going up while she was training twice a day and tracking every macro. Six different doctors inside a major medical system looked at her labs and told her she was normal — eat less, exercise more. The seventh doctor was the first one to physically touch her throat. She found nodules, and a diagnosis.Today Dr. Amie is “The Thyroid Fixer,” founder and CEO of the Advanced Thyroid and Hormone Clinic, host of The Thyroid Fixer podcast, and author of The Thyroid Fix.In this conversation she makes a case our clients hadn’t heard before: getting sober is a physiological stressor, and stressors are exactly what flip thyroid and hormone problems from dormant to active. Pregnancy does it. Perimenopause does it. Divorce and grief do it. So does removing a substance your body has spent years adapting to. Which is why she argues thyroid and hormone testing belongs in early recovery — not eighteen months later when you’re wondering why you don’t feel the way everyone promised you would.What we get intoWhy six doctors missed it, and what the seventh did differentlyWhy TSH alone is not a thyroid test — and the full panel to ask forWhat long-term alcohol and substance use does to cortisol, blood sugar, liver detoxification, and sex hormonesWhy thyroid dysfunction looks almost identical to burnout, depression, anxiety, and post-acute withdrawalWhat alcohol does to estrogen in men, and why testosterone often can’t be fixed without addressing itSHBG, and why your hormones can test “normal” and still not be reaching your cellsWhy she says you can’t put hormone therapy on a dumpster fireThe 30/60/90-day timeline for feeling differentAnd why chasing every biohack can raise the same cortisol you’re trying to lowerTim also shares his own experience — two to three years sober before anyone checked his thyroid, and what changed 90 days after they did.FREQUENTLY ASKEDCan getting sober cause thyroid problems? Dr. Hornaman’s position is that sobriety doesn’t cause thyroid disease, but it acts as a major physiological stressor — and stressors are what activate a dormant autoimmune thyroid condition. She places getting sober in the same category as pregnancy, perimenopause, andropause, grief, and divorce.Why do I still feel tired after getting sober? Persistent fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, low mood, and low motivation in sustained sobriety overlap almost completely with the symptoms of hypothyroidism and low sex hormones. Her recommendation is to test rather than wait it out.What thyroid tests should I ask for? Dr. Hornaman names six: TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3, and the two antibodies — TPO (thyroid peroxidase) and TGA (thyroglobulin). She argues TSH alone is a pituitary measurement, not a thyroid measurement.Does alcohol lower testosterone in men? In her clinical experience, yes — and it simultaneously raises estrogen, both directly and by burdening liver detoxification. She describes a case with an estradiol of 343 in a man in his fifties.How long until I feel better? Her typical timeline: mental clarity and energy around 30 days, changes on the scale and early hair regrowth around 60 days, and the full effect around 90 days.
- 1 weeks ago1h 16m
The Doctor Who Beat Addiction — Without A 12-Step Program
Dr. Sharon Stills started drinking at twelve. By nineteen she was sitting in a parking lot in the Hamptons, too high to walk into the party — and that was the night it broke. She got sober at twenty, without AA, without rehab, and thirteen years later became a naturopathic medical doctor.In this episode she explains addiction the way she sees it after twenty-five years of practice: not as a moral failure and not purely as a brain disease, but as a nervous system trying to regulate itself. Which is why, as she puts it, we don’t quit addiction — we graduate from one to the next. She’s blunt about her own: coffee, work, the phone, hot yoga.Recorded live in front of our clients and staff at Camelback Recovery in Phoenix, with about twenty-five minutes of unscripted audience Q&A at the end.WHAT WE GET INTO:Why the physical body has to be fed before trauma work can landThe nutrient deficiencies she finds over and over in newly sober patientsWhat’s actually happening when someone says they’re crawling out of their skinHow progesterone, testosterone and estrogen drive cravings through GABA, dopamine and serotoninPerimenopause as an unrecognized relapse riskThe “backpack” model of toxic loadWhy she’d rather you eat a Big Mac in joy than organic food in stress.ABOUT DR. SHARON STILLS, NMD — Naturopathic medical doctor, 25 years in practice. Graduate of Sonoran University (2001). Trained in European biological medicine under Dr. Thomas Rau at the Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland and served as a co-lead North American lecturer for the Paracelsus Academy. Board member, Bio-Regulatory Medicine Institute; former board member, the Archive of Healing at UCLA. Former host of The Science of Self-Healing podcast. She practices at Lasting Wellness Center in Scottsdale, Arizona alongside her son, Dr. Ben Stills.FIND DR. STILLS — Website and newsletter: drstills.com · Instagram: @drsharonstills · Her free five-day online summit opens for signup September 1 and runs live starting September 12, with 40+ expert interviews. Join her newsletter at drstills.com to get the invitation.ABOUT THIS PODCAST — Tim Westbrook is the founder and CEO of Camelback Recovery and holds an MS in Addiction Counseling. The I Love Being Sober Podcast records live every Wednesday at 10 AM in front of the clients and staff at our Phoenix outpatient center.If any of this sounds like your situation, a conversation could be a reasonable next step: camelbackrecovery.comThis episode is educational content and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and it is not a substitute for clinical assessment by your own physician. Products and brands mentioned are named at the guest’s discretion; Camelback Recovery has no sponsorship, affiliate, or financial relationship with any of them. Views expressed by guests are their own.
- 2 weeks ago51 min
Addicted To Looking Away: What Happens When You Finally Get Quiet
On this episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast, recorded live in front of a client audience at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with master life coach, speaker, and labyrinth designer Elaine Glass, author of the bestselling book Get Quiet: 7 Simple Paths to the Truth of Who You Are, published by Hay House and endorsed by Dr. Mark Hyman and Stanford behavioral scientist BJ Fogg.Elaine spent three decades as a dental hygienist, sitting one-on-one with more than 40,000 patients, while living what looked from the outside like a perfect life: a house in Paradise Valley, a surgeon husband, two sons in private school. Inside, she was waking up alone and afraid, getting physically sick, and, in her words, becoming a shell of a human being. She describes the moment she finally asked for a divorce, what it cost, and how she rebuilt from nothing.The turning point came from a stranger at a Phoenix coffee shop, a man in addiction recovery who told her to visit the Franciscan Renewal Center. There, in the desert behind the property, she found a labyrinth: a 4,000-year-old meditative walking path with one way in and one way out. She almost turned around at the gate. What she heard when she finally walked it changed the direction of her life.Elaine is clear that she never had a substance addiction. What she had was a behavioral addiction to looking away from the truth of her own life, a pattern she calls close to universal. The conversation digs into why we are so afraid to sit alone in a quiet room, what rushes in to fill the space when a substance is finally gone, how to tell the calm voice of the soul from the racing voice of fear, and why she believes abandoning yourself is a slow death of the soul. She also shares the twelve-month experiment that rebuilt her confidence after her divorce, starting with a single Toastmasters meeting, and walks the room through her seven paths and the body-centered energy points behind them.For anyone in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or beyond who is navigating addiction recovery, sobriety, grief, burnout, or the quiet work of finding out who you are without the noise, this episode is a practical and deeply human roadmap to getting quiet.Camelback Recovery is a leading sober living and outpatient addiction treatment provider serving Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.
- 3 weeks ago1h 5m
Transforming Human Suffering: Facing What You’ve Been Running From
On this episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast, recorded live in front of a client audience at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Marine combat veteran, speaker, and mental performance coach Akshay Nanavati, author of Fearvana, a book endorsed by the Dalai Lama.Akshay came home from Iraq carrying PTSD, depression, and an alcoholism that escalated to a bottle of vodka a day and, one morning, a knife in his own kitchen. He walks the room through that rock bottom moment and the slow, non-linear climb out of it. This is not a story about a single decision that fixed everything. He broke his sobriety many times before the change held.The conversation digs into why he believes the mainstream approach to mental health gets it wrong, how he reframed his diagnosis from post-traumatic stress disorder to simply post-traumatic stress, and why inner peace is the acceptance of chaos rather than its absence. He explains Fearvana, the idea that fear is not the enemy but the doorway to a meaningful life, and how the same principle that carried him across Antarctica applies to anyone in early recovery: the only way out is through.Along the way he shares the science and spirituality behind his darkness retreats, his world-first 60-day solo expedition dragging a 420-pound sled across Antarctica, and practical tools anyone can use today, from choosing your future self first to sitting with hard feelings instead of numbing them. For anyone in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or beyond who is navigating addiction recovery, sobriety, trauma, or mental health, this episode offers a hard-won, practical roadmap for turning suffering into fuel.Camelback Recovery is a leading residential inpatient and outpatient addiction and mental health treatment provider serving Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.
- Aug 18, 20261h 0m
Reclaiming Your Identity After Addiction: Turning Rock Bottom Into True Purpose
What does it take to survive what should have killed you and come back stronger? In this live episode of the I Love Being Sober Podcast, recorded in front of an audience at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with speaker, coach, and author Kevin J. Parker.Born into generational addiction and trauma, Kevin spent four months in a hospital fighting for his life. He flatlined three times, a priest read his last rites, and he lost his leg to addiction. Doctors said he would never walk again. Two weeks later he took his first steps, two months after that he was running, and he has since run an eight-minute mile on a prosthetic leg.Kevin shares how he traded a victim identity for radical responsibility, why forgiving himself was the hardest and most freeing work of his life, the daily discipline that keeps him grounded, and how serving others became the foundation of his purpose. For anyone navigating addiction recovery, sobriety, or mental health in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or anywhere along the way, this conversation is living proof that rock bottom can be a firm foundation. Kevin is the founder of True Warrior Success and the author of Winning Against All Odds: Discovering the True Warrior Within.
- Aug 4, 202655 min
100 First Dates Sober: Building Secure Relationships From Chaos
What happens to your relationships when you get sober? In this episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast, recorded live at Camelback Recovery's outpatient treatment center in Phoenix, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Melissa Nanavati, a TEDx speaker, author, and relationship coach for executives and high performers.Melissa's story will resonate with anyone navigating sobriety and connection. After graduating college at nineteen, she began drinking heavily to fit in, was clinically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and struggled with anxious attachment and people pleasing. She went on more than 100 first dates over ten years, about fifty of them completely sober, before meeting her husband. Now eight years sober, she hosts alcohol-free gatherings of 80 people in the Scottsdale area, had a dry wedding with 100 guests on the dance floor, and teaches the neuroscience of connection to high achievers around the world.Tim and Melissa dig into why your romantic relationship is either the biggest energy leak or the biggest force multiplier in your life, and how unresolved friction always falls into one of three buckets: unmet needs, unseen efforts, or unresolved issues. Melissa breaks down the four types of relational courage most people never consciously practice, then walks through her complete BRAVE framework for having hard conversations: Begin within, Request the time, Affirm and ask, View and validate, and End with action, including why you should always be seated, touching, and why a thirty-second hug changes everything.For couples rebuilding after addiction, Melissa explains the three neurochemicals behind chemistry and desire, dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin, and the practical weekly habits that rebuild the spark. For singles learning to date sober, she shares how to create real chemistry without alcohol, why hiking dates and daytime dates work, and how she made a goal to never have a bad date again. The live audience Q&A covers healing while dating, dating apps, and how to meet value-aligned people in person.Whether you're in recovery in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or anywhere in the world, this conversation is a masterclass in building secure, resilient relationships in sobriety. The I Love Being Sober podcast is produced by Camelback Recovery, a leading provider of addiction treatment, mental health support, and sober living in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.
- Jul 28, 20261h 38m
Nervous System Regulation: How Cold Plunges And Breathwork Accelerate Natural Healing
Recorded live in front of clients at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient addiction treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, this episode of I Love Being Sober brings host Tim Westbrook together with Michael Roviello, U.S. Navy veteran, certified Wim Hof Method instructor, and co-founder of Optimyze, a natural wellness company with four locations across the Phoenix Valley.Michael grew up in a rough part of Queens, New York, where blackout drinking and drugs were normal by his early teens. At 20, a Navy recruiter found him day-drinking in a Long Island bar and offered him a way out: helicopter search and rescue. Michael went on to fly combat search and rescue missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, deploying on the first aircraft carrier in the war zone after 9/11. But he came home carrying more than he realized: PTSD, severe insomnia, crippling anxiety, chronic pain from a cervical spine injury, and a drinking habit the military culture had only reinforced.After emergency spinal fusion surgery, a growing dependence on pain pills, and a surgeon telling him a second surgery was the only option, Michael drew a line: nothing from a pharmacy. In this conversation, he shares what happened next, from the Landmark Forum and Dr. John Sarno’s mind-body work to plant medicine ceremonies in Brazil and Peru, the Wim Hof Method, and the daily cold plunge and breathwork practice that has kept him off pain medication, out of pain clinics, and away from a second surgery since 2012.Tim and Michael dig into the science of cold water therapy: nervous system regulation, the norepinephrine and dopamine response, why the ice bath is a trust exercise, and how to use the suggestible theta brainwave state for mantras and affirmations. They also cover the single most underrated recovery tool Michael ever used: learning to say no, changing his environment, and letting the wrong people leave his life. The episode closes with live audience Q&A from Camelback Recovery outpatient clients on insomnia, restless leg syndrome, cold plunge timing, sauna for sleep, and nasal breathing.Whether you are navigating recovery from drugs and alcohol in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or anywhere in Arizona, or you are looking for natural tools to manage anxiety, chronic pain, trauma, or sleep issues in sobriety, this conversation is a masterclass in healing from the inside out.Connect with Michael Roviello: Instagram @michael_roviello | Optimyze on Instagram @optimyze.me | OPTIMYZE.me | Optimyze locations in Arcadia, North Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe | Jungle Rhythms wellness festival, August 1 at Mountain Shadows ResortLearn more about Camelback Recovery: CamelbackRecovery.com | Sober living and outpatient addiction treatment in Phoenix and Scottsdale, ArizonaClick Here for more information about Camelback Recovery
- Jul 21, 202658 min
How Chiropractic Releases Traumatic Stress And Resets The Nervous System
What does your spine have to do with staying sober? More than you think. In this episode of I Love Being Sober, recorded live at Camelback Recovery in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Marc Blackstone, a board-licensed chiropractic physician with more than 25 years of clinical experience who has spent the past five years bringing chiropractic care into mental health and addiction treatment settings.Dr. Blackstone breaks down the mind-body connection in plain language: how a chiropractic adjustment affects far more than the joint being treated, why addiction and mental health conditions keep the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system stuck in overdrive, and how adjustments help activate the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) response that lowers cortisol, reduces anxiety, and supports better sleep in early recovery.He also delivers one of the most important warnings of the episode: unresolved chronic pain is a real relapse risk. With more than half of chronic pain patients likely to use opioids, treating the physical damage people carry into recovery isn’t a luxury. It’s relapse prevention.In this episode, you’ll learn: how a rugby injury at age 14 led Dr. Blackstone to chiropractic; what he sees treating clients in recovery settings versus traditional practice; what actually happens in your body during an adjustment; why the body reverts to old patterns (and why one visit isn’t enough); how chiropractic supports people detoxing from opioids, amphetamines, and alcohol; the forgotten history of chiropractic sanitariums treating mental health in the 1920s; his advice for anyone in early recovery dealing with pain; and what it would take to bring chiropractic care into every treatment center in America.Whether you’re navigating substance use disorder, supporting a loved one in recovery, or running a treatment program and wondering what holistic care really looks like, this conversation makes the case that recovery has to include the body, not just the mind.Connect with Dr. Marc Blackstone: info@azchiropracticservices.com | drblackstone.comI Love Being Sober is hosted by Tim Westbrook, MS, founder and CEO of Camelback Recovery, an addiction and mental health treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Learn more at CamelbackRecovery.com.Go to camelbackrecovery.com for more information.
About I Love Being Sober
Hello my friends, and welcome back to yet another episode of I Love Being Sober. My name is Tim Westbrook and I am the CEO and Founder of Camelback Recovery here in the always sunny and always sober Scottsdale, Arizona where my team and I over the course of many years have helped thousands of people on their path to long term recovery. I started this show because there is so much misinformation about addiction treatment, mental illness, and addiction recovery in general. There is much more to recovery than just going to inpatient treatment, seeing a therapist, and going to 12 step meetings. Those things are important and AA saved my life. However, to find long term recovery and live happy, joyous and free, there is a lot more to it than just stopping the drinking, stopping the drugs, or stopping any addictive behavior. Sobriety and recovery can and should be fun. That’s not to say that the recovery process is going to be easy and it’s not to say that there won’t be difficult times ahead. However, to live the life that you deserve and for it to be exciting and fun you need new lifestyle habits. New healthy lifestyle habits that promote your mental, spiritual, and physical health. That my friends will lead you to living a KICK ASS SOBER LIFE!
Customized Recaps
AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
Straight to Your Inbox
Get key takeaways from I Love Being Sober in a 5-minute read.
Save Hours Every Week
Stay current on your favorite podcasts without falling behind.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's I Love Being Sober daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of I Love Being Sober as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the I Love Being Sober podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official I Love Being Sober product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Tim Westbrook.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts. Upgrade to Pro for 15, or Premium for 50. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
How often does I Love Being Sober release new episodes?
I Love Being Sober publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does I Love Being Sober cover?
I Love Being Sober covers topics including Business, Fitness, Health & Fitness. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Start getting I Love Being Sober summaries tomorrow morning.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.