Doing Zoom IOP With Beer In The Closet Behind Me w/ Sean Couper | The Hopeaholics Podcast #343

Chad and Natalie sit down with Sean Couper, a personal trainer and 4.5 year sober alcoholic who spent three decades functioning at a high level in corporate healthcare. 

Sean covers his full story: growing up between Florida and California without a real father figure, a first drink at five years old, thirty years of high-functioning alcoholism that nearly ended with liver and kidney failure, three DUIs exactly a decade apart, his mom dying on Christmas Day 2019, and the long road from watching HIV patients' livers shut down at work to eventually watching his own body do the same. 

He talks about hiding bottles from his family, drinking through Zoom IOP sessions, and the moment with his daughter that finally forced his hand. He did 28 days at Cumberland Heights and walked out wanting to help people immediately. Now he does exactly that. #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

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Timestamps: 
0:00 - Cold Open
0:23 - Intro
1:07 - Meet Sean Couper / Nashville
2:23 - Growing Up: Saint Pete and North Hollywood
5:02 - First Drink at 5 Years Old
5:51 - First Real Drunk at 13
8:35 - Finding Out His Real Father Wasn't His Dad
10:16 - Moving Out at 18 / Healthcare Career
11:24 - Compound Pharmacy: Mixing Meds for HIV Patients
13:20 - 30 Years as a Functioning Alcoholic
14:10 - Marriage and Family
15:45 - The Bachelorette Party Incident
19:18 - First Marriage Ends: His Ex-Wife's Pill Addiction
21:41 - Single Father, Bottle a Night
22:44 - Mom Dies Christmas 2019 / Three DUIs / COVID
24:54 - The Doctor Flags His Liver
26:57 - Physical Collapse: Jaundice, Edema, Passing Out
29:17 - Relapse: "Just One Beer"
30:26 - Hiding Bottles, Replacing Liquor with Water
33:45 - Daughter Finds the Beer / Wife Throws Him Out
34:40 - Agrees to Treatment / Zoom IOP While Still Drinking
37:50 - Waving the White Flag
39:26 - Telling His Daughter / The Drive to Cumberland Heights
42:24 - The "Let Go and Let God" Sign
44:24 - Detox, Post-Acute Withdrawal, 21 Questions Exercise
47:25 - Leaving Treatment / Wanting to Help People
48:31 - Going Back to School
50:39 - Getting Back in the Gym / Brian Welch Connection
51:18 - Becoming NASM Certified
52:48 - Life Today: Full-Time Trainer, Working with People in Recovery
55:17 - Fear, New Business, and Building Something New
1:00:01 - Chad's First Podcast Panic Attack
1:02:18 - How Natalie Joined the Show
1:09:11 - Wrap Up