Just Being Sober Is Not Freedom

Getting sober is an amazing step. But as Dr. Gary Sanchez told a room full of our clients, not being shackled doesn’t mean you’re free. It just means you’re sober. The next question is the hard one: now what? Gary practiced cosmetic and sedation dentistry in Albuquerque for 32 years. He picked dentistry at 18 because his dad was a dentist and he didn’t know what else to pick. About 28 years in, sitting in an audience of top dentists at a meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, watching a surgeon rebuild a jaw, he realized he didn’t want to learn any of it. He had been good at a life he never chose. What he found next became the WHY Institute and the WHY.os, a short discovery tool built around nine WHYs: Contribute, Trust, Make Sense, Better Way, Right Way, Challenge, Mastery, Clarify, and Simplify. Everyone in the room took it before we started recording. Recorded live in front of clients and staff at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Phoenix. What we get into: why “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is the wrong question at 18, and at 40, and in early recovery WHO first, then WHAT why “just being sober is not freedom” the Halloween costume we wear when we don’t know who we are why the WHY of Challenge is the one Gary sees medicate the most the nine WHYs, one by one whether your WHY changes after addiction or trauma Tim’s own WHY.os read live (Better Way, Simplify, Challenge) a live read with a construction foreman in recovery “Drinking’s hard. Not drinking’s hard. Pick your hard.” and why “change” might be the wrong word for what recovery asks of you. FREE FOR OUR LISTENERS: Dr. Sanchez is offering the WHY Discovery free to I Love Being Sober listeners at go.whyinstitute.com/ILoveBeingSober. It is a third party tool and asks for your email address. It is a motivation framework, not a clinical or diagnostic assessment.