For years, Adrian appeared to be holding his life together. He was progressing in his career, running marathons, maintaining relationships and taking on physical challenges. Behind closed doors, alcohol had become something he structured his life around.
Two bottles of wine a night became normal. He hid how much he was drinking, crashed his car after drinking and even called AA the following day to admit that he needed help. But he never went to a meeting.
Then came acute pancreatitis.
Adrian was hospitalized because of his drinking, discharged himself once he began feeling better, and eventually started drinking again. When pancreatitis put him back in the hospital a second time, even that wasn’t the immediate end of his relationship with alcohol.
In this deeply honest conversation with Sober Dave, Adrian looks back at the years he spent trying to change everything around him without addressing what was happening inside. At one point, he becomes emotional reflecting on the younger version of himself: “I want to give that guy a hug… that person was very, very lost.”
Adrian also opens up about later discovering ADHD and autism, the role he believes alcohol played in quieting his mind, the shame and secrecy surrounding his drinking, and why connection with other sober people ultimately became such an important part of his recovery.
Today, Adrian is more than five years sober.
This is a conversation about the warning signs we can ignore, how easy it is to appear functional while struggling privately, and why sometimes even serious consequences aren’t what finally creates change.
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