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All right. Welcome back, everyone.

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Today on Street Strong, we're honored to have a truly inspiring guest,

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Bryce Hancock, the heart and soul behind Mile High Recovery Center.

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From the streets of Congress Park, Denver, to the forefront of addiction recovery,

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Bryce has turned his personal battle with substance abuse into a lifeline for many.

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As the CEO and founder of Mile High Recovery Center, he's not just a visionary,

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he's a survivor who's dedicated his life to helping others find their path to recovery.

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Bryce's journey from a career musician and entrepreneur to a leading figure

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in addiction treatment is a testament to the power of transformation and resilience.

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Join us today as we dive into Bryce's story, the innovative approach of Mile

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High Recovery Center, and the unwavering mission to rebuild lives beyond addiction. Addiction.

0:53

Bryce, so happy to have you. Welcome to Straight Strong.

0:56

Thank you. It's nice to be here. It's a real honor.

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Of course, of course. It's our pleasure. So Bryce, to kick things off,

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I'd love to go back to the beginning. Could you tell us about your journey and what initially led you down the path.

1:10

To not only confront your own struggles with addiction, but also to decide to

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dedicate your life to helping others through recovery? Sure.

1:18

So I guess it started when I was 18 and I moved out of the house.

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I went to college and I I became a daily blackout drinker.

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So I was always prone to depression and anxiety and, you know,

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have my own story of childhood trauma.

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And so, like I said, when I hit 18, daily blackout drinker, immediately things,

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I knew things were wrong. I wasn't drinking like a normal person. I was an alcoholic, like right out of

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the gate. And then when I graduated and most of my friends matriculated to regular

1:48

life and got careers and families, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland.

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And within a few years, I was addicted to heroin and crack.

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Yeah. So I hung around Baltimore. I played music there and then owned a recording studio.

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So I'm an entrepreneur and I was always trying different businesses.

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Crashed and burned there, completely addicted to heroin, and then moved to Denver.

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I followed my parents to Colorado and drugged the bottom in Denver for a couple decades.

2:20

Shades um yeah i played music though so i was sort of able to always dial back

2:25

my drug use and just drink because i had this passion and it's hard to be addicted

2:31

to crack when you're you know it's hard to do music and that so dial my back

2:37

you know dial back my drug use and then i was.

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Playing music just playing music and booking bands and the book of my own band

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and then i was so good at booking my own band i started booking other bands

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and then i was next thing I know I'm a booking agent.

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So I'm doing that. And then I was booking a couple of clubs.

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And then one of the clubs said, do you want to own this club?

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Want to own a bar? And I was like, yeah, sure. I do, but I don't have any money.

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And he said, I'll carry the loan for you, which means I walk into being the

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owner of a bar with no money. And I, you know, a huge, you know, problem with substances.

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And so I was, you know, seven years into that 2013, I got sober.

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So a couple, you know, a couple of years before that, I made it out of the doctor,

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and he, he, he said, we're going to do a blood test on you.

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And they did a blood test. And he said, he, I remember I came back to his office

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and he showed me the chart and it said alcohol abuse severe.

3:36

Year he said you're a late stage alcoholic

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your liver is cirrhotic your pancreas is totally stressed i'm surprised you

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haven't had a heart attack and i give you a year to live if you can't stop drinking

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and i could not stop drinking i drank for well over a year and finally eventually,

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ended up in a psych ward i so i started going to aa meetings right i'm a product

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of 12 step So I started going to AA meetings.

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It's free. It's easily available. Those are my people. They drink the way I drink.

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They did the drugs that I did. And so I kicked around in there for a while and

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then had this super bad relapse where I ended up in a psych ward and got out

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of that and really dove into 12-step and did some IOP,

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intensive outpatient treatment. Yeah, yeah.

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I did all that. And so I got sober with much drama and it was really difficult.

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I'm not going to lie, it was hard. So getting sober is difficult.

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Staying sober, I find pretty easy.

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So I was about, you want me to just keep going? I'll just keep going.

4:47

Well, I love this so far and I appreciate you being so open.

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I'm sure the listeners are so happy to hear that too. It encourages them.

4:55

So a lot of folks that I meet on Skid Row, they have a really hard time staying sober.

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I want to ask about that a little bit later, but when we talk about the psych

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ward and intensive outpatient that you've pursued,

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for the listeners, intensive outpatient is a sort of in-between where you're

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not fully hospitalized 24-7, but you are getting really robust mental health

5:20

care treatment, usually going every day, Monday through Friday.

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Can you talk about the role of mental health treatment in your sobriety and

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kind of stay there for a moment and how that maybe reshaped how you approach

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sobriety and your general goals. So this is my experience, right?

5:37

My experience was that I was on all kinds of antidepressants.

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And so when I was 21, I started doing antidepressants, Prozac,

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Paxil, all these things.

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And the SSRI sent me into a manic episode. And so they were like,

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like, oh, you're bipolar. Meanwhile, I'm smoking crack and doing heroin and drinking every day.

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So it's really hard to tell what was wrong with me. I was definitely an addict

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and definitely an alcoholic, but I always had this thing like, oh, I'm bipolar.

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And so in the psych hospital, I said all the things that I knew would get me

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that diagnosis because I wanted the meds. And so they diagnosed me bipolar one with rapid cycling and post-traumatic stress

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disorder, order from early childhood trauma. And I was...

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Believe it or not, I was pleased to hear the diagnosis because one,

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it meant, like, I'd rather be like, like, I would have rather been mentally

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ill than admit I was alcoholic or had an addiction problem. Right.

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And so I was like, I didn't know.

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I'll just keep talking about it. And so they put me on all this stuff.

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You know, they put me on Paxil, like all these mood stabilizers and all this stuff. And I felt awful.

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I felt worse. and so i had

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a decision to make for myself like do i want to be

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a mental patient or do

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i want to just admit that i'm powerless over drugs and

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alcohol and so i went back

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to you know right back into 12 step and dove

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into the actual work like going to 12 step is

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great going to meetings is great but there's actual like work

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to do and as i did the work i got

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better and i'm not on any meds today

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so that's why i say this is just my experience and you

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know i own a treatment center now a lot of people are

7:30

on meds and by golly i believe

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they need it and it helps you know for myself

7:36

my addiction was first i

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needed to admit that i had a disease as well as

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maybe a mental illness and it was

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like the my problem then was

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i couldn't make it through a day without drinking

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when i would take a drink i would not be able to stop and on the rare occasion

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that i could stop i couldn't stay stopped i couldn't stop thinking about it

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right so the more i dove into like working on my my my alcoholism the better

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my mental health got and so i had this It's like, yeah, it's a chicken or egg thing.

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Am I depressed because I'm drinking or am I drinking because I'm depressed?

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And it turns out it's all connected, you know?

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Oh, yeah. And so that was my experience as a, as an alcoholic and an addict is that,

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I got I don't I'm not on any meds anymore. You know, I'm grateful for that.

8:30

Right. Well, that's that's a wonderful story, actually.

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And it does go to show how complicated this can be, you know,

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whether it's addiction that comes first, whether it's mental illness that comes first.

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How do we figure that out? And especially how do we figure that out when we

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are actively addicted to some kind of substance, when we're not thinking clearly

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and it really hijacks our brain and that makes it even more difficult?

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What would you say, Bryce, to one of our friends on Skid Row now who might be

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listening to this, who can't imagine what life could possibly be like with X,

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Y, or Z substance? Maybe it's cocaine. Maybe it's methamphetamine. We get a lot of that on Skid Row.

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What would you say to that person who's like, you know, maybe they don't even

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say it out loud, but they're thinking it as they hear this podcast that they

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can't survive without that thing. What can you tell them about the other side of the prairie?

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Well, going through it myself is that I have a bird's eye view.

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If you will just commit to doing – I mean, you don't need to commit to doing

9:33

the work. Go to a meeting today. If you can go to a meeting today or tonight and then don't drink or use before

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tomorrow, you're going to have to detox, right?

9:45

You might have to go to the local hospital to detox. I'm let me come

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on I'm talking to addicts we've all detoxed on our own you got

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to do it right and so if you can just one day

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at a time and I and I don't I was going to three meetings

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a day because I didn't know what else to do I had nowhere

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else to go so I was just going to meetings and I was staying sober

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and like what I know now is that

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if you can just do that 24 hours at a time

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one day at a time and just stay in it your

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life is about to get super amazing it just like I

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said it's hard at first you know and i understand it's hard to

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think your way out of this problem and my advice is don't don't think about

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the problem stop love that yeah trust people that want to help you because they

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want to help you like the 12th step is i have to give back what was freely given

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to me i have to carry the message to other addicts and alcoholics and.

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That's how it works you know so it's like a mentor-based program and i don't know what else to say.

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It's like, the faster you admit you have a disease, you have a mental illness, ask for help.

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And a lot of times it's like this. It's like, I'll ask for help.

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And someone like yourself will say, absolutely.

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I'd love to help. Here's what the help looks like. And I'll go,

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I don't want it to look like that. I want it to look a different way. But it's like, you got to accept what people

11:08

like yourself or like myself are willing to say and just Just accept that.

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That's what the help looks like, whether I like it or not. And trust the process.

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That's fascinating. And I love that. That's a theme we hit home a lot here on

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Street Strong. We talk about faith. A lot of my, I'd say the majority of the friends I meet on Skid Row,

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my patients are huge into faith. It's something I didn't really understand at first, to be quite honest.

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I didn't understand how that happens, what is going on there.

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And it's just fascinating because it's true.

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When you're in the throes of addiction or mental illness, you have to believe,

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you have to have faith that there is going to be a different reality if I do

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X, Y, and Z, and you cannot see it in the moment.

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It's impossible if you're depressed or anxious or addicted.

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You cannot always see and prove to yourself. No one's gonna show you with a

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dry erase board that this is possible, but you do have to trust.

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And I really, it's powerful coming from you who runs a recovery center,

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that it's just, you have this process process and people have to trust it.

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And so maybe let's pivot there and talk about that for a moment.

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So when they do come to a recovery center or if they're in recovery period,

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what are some of those elemental steps that they should trust that you've just

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seen bring somebody to sobriety in just a more reliable way?

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What would you say about that process generally?

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Yeah. So, you know, I got, like I said, I got so verbosely in AA.

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I own a treatment center. So when you go to like, if you're fortunate enough

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to get into residential treatment, really all that's going to happen is you're

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going to get detoxed, assessed, and stabilized.

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And what happened to me was I didn't even realize that I was suffering from

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alcohol as a bit addiction until I stopped drinking and using drugs.

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That's when I really began to suffer. And that's when I realized alcohol and

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drugs, they're not my problem. They're my solution.

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And so I had to sit in that, right? And I had to, I had to, had to suffer through

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it. And I had to have faith. Like, I believe that, I believe something was out to get me.

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I did. I believe that the world was out to get me.

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And having faith is just, you just twist that.

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It's like positive paranoia. You believe something's out there to help you.

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You know what I mean? Oh my God. And if you have faith, you've got half the battle right there.

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Like if you've got the faith that something's out there to help you,

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you have access to that power now, this second, today.

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Do you know what I mean? I love that. Positive paranoia. I've never heard that before.

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Is that something that you feel like with time gets stronger as you just cultivate

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that mindset that people are trying to help and then it just becomes this new lens?

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Did that happen for you where it just grew and grew and today you're more of

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just a fundamentally different person than that, that, that the kid you were

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many years ago? I just hit this point, man, where I was like.

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I was so broken and so down and just, I hit this point where I didn't trust

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my own thinking anymore. And I just like surrendered and reached out for help.

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And the help came in a way that I didn't want it to come in,

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but it was the help. And at least somebody was there to help me.

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And so, yeah, I mean, it's hard to like, man, it's hard to be positive when

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you're addicted to drugs or you're on the street or any number of bad things

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are going on. It's hard to stay positive. So yeah i didn't immediately have this like

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aha moment and like all of a sudden i'm just rocking and

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rolling it was like every day i still

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wake up in a bad mood to be honest with you but i know my steps to get out of

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it and so when you're in that space and it's just going even worse every day

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and i want to be up here like i want to be you know a certain kind of person

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I don't have access to that kind of person.

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But what I do have access to is to stop the downward spiral.

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Ask for help. Do one good thing. Get myself into a safe place. Do you know what I mean?

15:09

Yeah, absolutely. And then build on that.

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Yeah, that's so key. Do one good thing, because it's so hard when you're overwhelmed

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to do to have too much in front of you.

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And it reminds me of what you said a few moments ago to just when you when when

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you have a mental health provider for the first time and they have this batch

15:27

of treatment and it's like, well, I'm not ready for X, Y and Z.

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I mean, that's that's like moving a mountain.

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I can do one good thing. I can attend a meeting today.

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I can attend maybe two today and I can only focus on today.

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So I think that's just really incredible perspective for the people listening

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is to just do this one day at a time and do what's manageable in the moment,

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not to overwhelm that person, because then they'll just quit.

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I mean, I would imagine that's too hard for an addicted brain to just like take

15:55

on too much at once. It's nearly impossible.

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And that's why, like I said, if you're fortunate enough to get into a treatment

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center and you can physically remove yourself from the substances,

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it's painful and it's definitely no fun.

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And you'd much rather continue to use the substances, even though you know they're bad for you.

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So if you can get away from it into like

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a safe place and go through the detox and

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just kind of i kind of committed to being miserable but

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staying sober and the truth is once i

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did that it was a short time after that

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it's a i don't know one maybe it's not short when you're there it was like four

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or five months i got really happy i got like things got really better and it's

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not like i was like swimming in money and had like you know a hot girlfriend

16:42

and all that But I was working. I was going to meetings.

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And it was definitely a step up at the time. And it felt amazing. So you felt.

16:53

And I don't mean this to be an obvious question or a trick question,

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but you felt legitimately better when you were not on crack and you were just

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living a normal life and getting fulfillment in other ways.

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And and it just was not like it was just maybe it wasn't the high wasn't as

17:08

high, but it was just more meaningful and life was better. Yeah. Life is amazing.

17:12

I feel like I've had two lives and I understand that dopamine.

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I don't understand what happens when you take a hit of crack. It's wild.

17:19

I don't miss it because it's insane it's

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crazy you're not supposed to feel like that the things that us addicts do are

17:27

not normal they're not normal and normal people can't understand them I understand

17:32

them right and that's why I do what I do because I love addicts and I love alcoholics

17:37

and I love success stories right like lights me up but.

17:42

There's dopamine rushes and I guess controlling that kind of thing it's not

17:47

not, it's really no way to live. Yeah. And I think society pressures us to live that way.

17:53

It's about happiness and short-term solutions and short-term happiness and be

17:57

happy now and don't delay your gratification.

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There's a lot of pressure, especially with swiping and liking.

18:04

It's set up to build that dopamine now. I imagine it's really hard for an addicted mind to navigate that.

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I imagine. And it's, you know, like I was kind of obsessed, especially

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when I was still using like why am i like this why is this

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am i is it genetic is it this is it that the truth

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is it doesn't matter none of that matters is society more difficult i don't

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know is this bad for me i don't know what i do know is that i have to do certain

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things every single day to manage my disease of addiction and to stay to keep

18:36

it in remission like i gotta stay sober, i think the hardest thing is kind of going the only thing that works is abstinence for certain,

18:45

people you know like no i can't go smoke

18:48

a joint i can't go have a beer i'm done it's

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done i cannot safely use substances and that's the hard part for me it was the

18:56

hard part for me to wrap my brain around initially because you know it's the

19:01

first drink that gets you drunk it's not what happens after that i can't have

19:05

that first sip i can't have the first hit uh or whatever it is.

19:11

Yeah, that's extremely challenging, especially for folks who live on the street.

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And what I get, the kind of feedback I get every week, every single week is

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with patients of mine that are battling addiction, they have to go back into

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these environments and they're surrounded by queues. They walk down the street

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and there's 13 different drug users, different kinds of drugs.

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They're being offered drugs all the time, every day, twice on Sunday.

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It's hard to navigate those queues and triggers. yours.

19:37

And so many of them are desperate for housing because once they get housing,

19:40

they're a little bit insulated from that, but it's just ensnares them right back.

19:45

And especially when they're feeling miserable.

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And so this is maybe a harder question.

19:50

I don't know if there even is an answer to it in the world, but I mean,

19:54

what do you do when you're surrounded by those twos and it's just impossible to get out of them?

19:59

I mean, you go into AA meetings and then you're back on on the street.

20:03

What can you do in situations like that? What is your take from your experience?

20:08

Well, my experience, you're right. There's probably not a real answer.

20:11

I mean, but it's okay to say, I don't know. And all I can do is share my experience.

20:16

My experience was I owned a bar and my wife had her, I was married at the time.

20:22

I'm no longer married to her, but she had her own issues with drinking.

20:26

I didn't have anywhere safe to go. I didn't know anybody that It wasn't a,

20:29

you know, basically an alcoholic or an addict.

20:32

So I just went to the rooms. I just went into AA.

20:36

And like I said, I was going to three, four meetings. I just go there and hang out.

20:41

And, but I put, I put a few days together and I would just hang around.

20:46

And I think, you know, maybe they felt sorry for me, but they started to talk

20:49

to me and they started to share. And then I got a sponsor. And then that was like my guy.

20:54

He's my guy. He's going to help me. no matter

20:58

what problem i'll hit them i'll hit them up and once

21:01

i started to guess like i said stop the downward spiral

21:04

it starts to go up just a little bit right you're right i'm not gonna be i'm

21:09

not gonna be happy or joyful or ecstatic it's not even about that it's about

21:13

not killing myself with drugs and alcohol and having a safe place to live place

21:21

to live and I wasn't homeless,

21:23

I'm fortunate I'm grateful that I mean I spent a lot of time couch surfing but

21:29

it's not the same thing I never had to lay my head down on the concrete,

21:32

or you know I knew where my next meal was coming from for the most part but

21:36

it was still tough I didn't I didn't have a place to live I stayed in these by the week.

21:43

Motels with other people even when I got sober I would do that until a,

21:49

I don't know. Things got better. They just got better. But nothing got better

21:53

until I stopped using it. Right. So it sounds like it was just, like you said in the beginning,

21:59

it was a process and it wasn't overnight. And there was some hellish months there, a lot of uncertainty,

22:03

a lot of hard, hard work, it sounds like.

22:08

What motivated you in those months just to keep going, given how hard it was

22:13

and how it is a little, can be kind of long term?

22:15

What kept you motivated? motivated i know some

22:18

of that you shared already just thinking day by day but was

22:22

there was there something that just kind of whether it was like a goal or a

22:25

dream or something i think i had well one i had a kid although that wasn't and

22:31

i hate to say it but that wasn't really my aspiration i think it was mostly

22:34

i didn't want to die yeah i knew i was going to die i just was too scared to die,

22:41

and I knew I was miserable using and I and I attempted sobriety and I knew I was miserable.

22:49

Being sober and so I committed to being

22:52

miserable being sober and I did the work I got like I said I got a sponsor and

22:58

I said I don't think this is going to work and he said you don't have to think

23:02

it's going to work you just got to do it and things slowly got better wow yeah

23:09

that's That's incredible. It's a huge success story. And I think a lot of our listeners are going to be

23:13

really motivated to hear that. For AA, just a brief little tips.

23:19

What's the requirement for folks who've never been to an AA meeting before out there, may want to go?

23:24

Can you show up to an AA meeting with any kind of substance use?

23:28

Can you be, you have to be sober for X amount of hours?

23:32

What would you say to like the brand new AA wannabe?

23:35

Be it's best not to go loaded okay fair enough but the only desire the only

23:43

rule to be there is a desire to stop drinking or a desire to stop using okay

23:49

i don't know any hardcore i don't know anybody anymore that only drank.

23:54

Everybody does substances, right? And so some of my best friends in AA were

23:58

definitely drug addicts. I was a drug addict. But for me, it was like the last thing that I was holding on to was alcohol.

24:07

And so it was also the first thing that I really started with.

24:10

So pick whatever, NA, CA, AA.

24:15

Try not to be loaded when you go there. If you're in AA, say I'm an alcoholic.

24:20

If you're in NA, say I'm an addict. respect it's

24:22

just you know out of respect listen for

24:26

your you know listen for your story and what people share and when somebody

24:31

starts to share something that you connect with go up to that person after the

24:35

meeting you're not going to bother them they're not going to judge you or look

24:38

down on you they have to help you like i said that's the 12th step and that's why we're there,

24:45

is to see people get better there's no other reason to continue to go i've been

24:50

going for for 10 years and I only go because I want to see people get better.

24:54

Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, I've heard nothing but good things from AA.

24:58

I have had a few patients that get sober and they start applying for jobs and

25:03

they'll go their whole lives. It's, you know, they could be sober 11, 12 years. They're still there religiously.

25:08

I don't think that's an inappropriate word to use. I mean, it's like it's religiously they will be there and it's something they

25:14

look forward to. Actually, it's not even an obligation to many of my patients.

25:18

They, you know, I don't know if you You can relate to that same feeling,

25:21

but they seem kind of giddy to go to those meetings. It's a design for living.

25:25

It's a spiritual program. I love it. I hear hilarious stories.

25:30

It does something to me when I go into a room. I always leave in a better mood.

25:36

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it's just I don't know what it is about why it worked

25:41

for me because it doesn't work for everybody. It definitely worked for me, but it's free.

25:46

You know, I don't know. It's just awesome. That's great. I love it. That's wonderful.

25:51

Now, thank you for sharing that. Now, I really want to pick your brain on some

25:55

things because you made me think about it when you talked about just your career

25:59

in music and owning a bar. And so it seems like something you were passionate about. We talked a few episodes

26:05

ago about positive addictions. I had a patient on Skid Row who said, I asked him, I said, what's your secret to beating addiction?

26:11

He said, get addicted to something else. So I'm really curious what you make of that statement.

26:17

How does that jive with what you've seen at Mile High Recovery Center?

26:21

What role do positive passions have to play? Is that necessary to beat addiction?

26:27

A lot of questions at once, but just kind of pick in your brain,

26:29

whatever jumps out. So, you know, people will say you're just addicted to a 12-step program.

26:36

And I believe that is 100% true.

26:40

I'm not going to die in a 12-step program. It's a design for living.

26:43

It's going to help me with everything, with my relationships,

26:47

my, you know, being a good dad, a good husband, a good whatever.

26:50

Ever also i work out every day

26:53

i didn't work out at all when i was on substances

26:56

i work out every day i still play

26:59

music yeah i believe positive i

27:02

mean don't we all want positive things in our life don't we all want to be addicted

27:05

to good things or i believe in you know things to do and people to do them with

27:10

you know if like a friend from my childhood calls me and says i'm getting married

27:15

and it's across the country and will you come? The answer is 100% yes.

27:20

I'll absolutely go. I agree you got to get addicted to something else.

27:26

For me, my whole life was drinking at the time.

27:31

So I had to get addicted to something that was the opposite. For me, that was AA.

27:36

Ah, yeah, you know, that's and I think that's a especially for the folks who

27:41

are listening who are homeless. It's a great intro for them. I think that is a, you know, Bryce and I spoke

27:47

a little bit earlier about just the fact that it's free. It's available to everybody.

27:51

There's chapters all over the country. There's, I mean, probably thousands,

27:55

if not hundreds of thousands. It's all it's all over the country. And so that might be a good segue for folks

28:02

to just look at their mental health and sobriety a little bit more seriously.

28:07

I think that's wonderful. What would you say to the shame associated with addiction?

28:12

Folks who are just afraid to come forward. They think it looks like they're

28:15

weak. They don't like being vulnerable.

28:18

How do you approach those folks at mile high if that kind of presentation?

28:22

What's your advice? I'm very good at staying in my own lane,

28:26

owning a treatment center. I rely on my therapists.

28:29

I rely on people like yourself with actual degrees.

28:33

I get it. I understand it. Now that I'm sober, it's like, who cares?

28:39

Who cares what other people think? Does it matter?

28:43

It doesn't matter. We've got a problem now, here, today.

28:47

Let's deal with what's going on now, today, instead of what people might think.

28:52

And, you know, the funny thing is, it's like, I don't know what people think.

28:56

I used to kind of like be like, well, I feel good about myself when I thought somebody liked me.

29:02

But I don't know if they like me. I don't I don't know what they think I might think.

29:08

You know what I mean? It's like a whole crazy thing. I got to stay.

29:12

I got to worry about myself. Right. Keep my finger squarely pointed at the problem. And the problem is me.

29:21

And I wish things were different, but they're not.

29:25

And going to a meeting and saying I'm an alcoholic or I'm an addict,

29:28

it empowers me at this point. Yeah, that's that's incredible. And you're right. I mean, we there's so many

29:35

so many of us live with that.

29:37

It's like a theater in our mind. It's all made up. You know,

29:40

it's like we have this ego or this hesitancy to to just change our lives.

29:45

And like you said, your motivation is you don't want to die.

29:48

Who cares what other people who cares if the whole world is laughing as we walk into the hallway?

29:54

It's it's we don't want to die, which is just it seems like so much more of

29:58

a powerful incentive to get help, because I'd imagine that the addiction at

30:03

some point just gets kind of not only old, but just more painful.

30:07

I mean, in the beginning, there's pleasure, there's high, there's excitement.

30:10

And from what I hear, it just, at the end, it gets kind of dark and dependent and not fun.

30:17

Yeah, it's just like, at first it's fun, and then it's like a part of your life,

30:20

and then it's a part of you, and then it just totally takes over your life.

30:24

Like, I would wake up and drink, you know, I'd have to get vodka before I could drink water.

30:28

It's not normal, you know what I mean? When I was doing drugs,

30:31

that was definitely first on my list for the day. I had to get high.

30:37

I just had to. And whatever way you can break it. I mean, it's like you don't

30:43

need to have all the answers. Just take one step in the right direction. The universe will rearrange if you

30:50

stay committed to just bettering your life. And if you fail, try again.

30:55

And if you fail again, keep trying.

30:58

Absolutely. And there's help. There's tons of people out there. Yeah.

31:04

We want to help everybody. I mean, a lot of people want to help me.

31:07

Maybe a lot of people don't. Who cares to avoid those people?

31:11

Right. Yeah. I mean, there's there's people who are, you know,

31:16

attorneys and I mean, not bashing attorneys, but there's people doing other things.

31:20

There's plumbers, there's tech guys. But yes, there are like armies and legions

31:25

of people in health care that dedicate their lives to just trying to connect

31:30

the dots for these folks. Folks and and they need you to come forward i mean that's what

31:34

gives them gratification and hope and they want you to be there a

31:37

hundred percent i appreciate you saying that because that's why

31:40

you do this that's why i do this because we want to help and some people think

31:44

i'm awesome right and some people think i think i'm totally full of shit it's

31:49

fine i don't care you know at the end of the day like my sense of well-being

31:54

is intact because of me me and my faith.

31:58

And that's the way it's going to be.

32:01

Right. I love that. And speaking of faith, you know, our listeners are all about faith.

32:07

We did touch on that a little bit already, but walk me through,

32:12

if you can, just little pearls of inspiration or wisdom about faith and a little separate than AA,

32:19

even though AA seems like there There's a faith thing going on there.

32:23

What role does faith play? A lot of my patients actually sleep in churches.

32:28

That's what they do. And they read Bible.

32:31

They do Bible study all day on the condition they stay sober and stay in the church.

32:35

What do you make of faith out there and its role to keep us sober, to move us up?

32:41

So I don't believe I'm still sober because of myself.

32:45

I believe I'm still sober because of my relationship with my higher power.

32:49

Right in a it's really cool i'm not i don't consider myself a christian i'm

32:54

very spiritual right yeah but i was like my initial my first higher power was

32:59

the group it was the people in a.

33:03

And then at two years sober, I was really depressed. And I went through this

33:06

period where it was like, I had to, I had to get in touch with like,

33:11

you know, something more spiritual. And for me, it was just like, I watched that movie, the secret,

33:17

you know, but the law of attraction. And I just had an aha moment. Like everybody just needs a way in whatever it is.

33:25

I don't care if it's yoga. If it connects you to that energy force out there, stay in that space.

33:33

Continue to try to connect to whatever that space is.

33:37

And for me, that's it. The harder I try to figure out my own problems, the worse they get.

33:43

The more I just kind of give it up to God, the better they get.

33:48

I love how you made a distinction between God and a higher power,

33:52

because not everyone is religious traditionally, but it's so true.

33:58

It's tapping into a higher power, something that is more organized and wiser

34:04

than you are in that moment. You may be big groups of people,

34:07

maybe like yoga has been around really for thousands of years.

34:11

Just something that's wise and ancient and beyond all of our understanding.

34:15

I love how you made that distinction because sometimes the higher power talk can turn folks off.

34:20

And yet it's such an integral part of recovery is subscribing to that in your own unique way. Right.

34:26

Yeah. But like I said, I was I mean, I was basically an atheist when I started

34:30

in the A.A. when I got sober and I just I listened to what everybody had to

34:36

say and they were my higher power, which is not sufficient.

34:41

But it got me sober. And so I just continued to grow.

34:46

You know, it just continued to grow. And now it's like I mean,

34:49

I own a treatment center and I and I apply spiritual principles to everything

34:54

that I do. I didn't go to Harvard.

34:56

It's all prayer and coincidence and miracles and just following the different

35:04

threads in my life and having faith that something is there to help me every

35:09

step of the way. And I don't do anything without faith.

35:12

That belief that there's something trying to help me so and

35:17

and you mentioned that at the very start of this just in

35:20

terms of that loan you got and being carried and and

35:23

moving your way through the the bar scene and

35:26

and so mile high recovery so walk me through that because i think at one point

35:32

we got it was a beautiful sidetrack but now i now i want to understand right

35:37

you you go from From vodka in the morning to owning a bar, live music,

35:43

entrepreneurship, and now one recovery center, and I heard it turned into nine recovery centers.

35:48

So please, there's a big gap there we all want to know about.

35:52

Yeah, I got sober. I sold the bar. I got divorced.

35:56

The bar sounds like, oh, no, he owned a bar. How amazing.

35:59

It wasn't. I wasn't making any money at all. I was broke. broke

36:02

sold it got divorced moved

36:06

out of my own with my kid who somehow

36:09

miraculously i was able to have half the

36:12

time got sober made a

36:15

the center of my life things got better

36:18

two years sober i'm depressed very

36:22

depressed and sober i've never been like that before started

36:26

going to therapy beat reached out to help got a therapist worked

36:29

through a lot of you know childhood trauma family of origin stuff and at one

36:35

point in the session she goes what's your what's your purpose what do you hear

36:39

why what do you do what do you want to do and i was like i am a realtor i'm

36:43

what do you mean i worked real hard and passed the realtor exam and she's like now what do you want to do,

36:48

and so it was like on like what do i want who am i is this what it's all about

36:53

being a sober man and just like.

36:57

Pay bills and watch tv shows until

37:00

i die or can i do more it sounds it

37:03

sounds depressing well it is depressing right it's it is depressing

37:06

i was like i want to do something like yourself you you help

37:09

people i wanted to help people but i didn't i'm not a therapist i'm

37:13

not a psych mp i don't have any like fancy degrees and so i through this odd

37:19

series of events i i was given direction i so i I went to this meeting and I

37:26

stayed after the meeting and I asked the guy that ran it, what can I do?

37:30

What can I do to get back? And he said that we need sober houses.

37:33

And I didn't even know what it was, but I knew I was going to do it.

37:38

And so I opened a sober house. What is one thinking? It would just be kind of cool.

37:43

And it was so cool that my depression lifted. I was totally up.

37:48

It turned into a new career. year and so i

37:50

just kept opening houses because it was so i don't

37:53

know awesome right and i just felt like so purposeful and

37:57

so yeah one house turned into nine and then

38:00

the city of denver said you can't keep opening these houses and so i opened

38:06

up a treatment center i opened up outpatient treatment i hired people like yourself

38:10

you know lots of therapists actual therapists and people with degrees and it

38:15

was a whole and started charging insurance which was a whole other thing.

38:19

I didn't set out to do any of this, by the way.

38:22

I just wanted to feel better. I wanted to get out of my own depression.

38:27

And so I just kept doing things and doing things.

38:30

And now I have 35 employees. We have residential treatment all the way down

38:34

to outpatient treatment. We still got six or seven houses.

38:38

And I just took one step forward in the universe rearranged and whatever whatever felt good, I just did.

38:45

So I don't, yeah, I don't know. And that doesn't, it doesn't need to be like

38:48

amazing and grand. It's just, if it makes you feel right, do that.

38:54

Right. Yeah. It's got to come from within. And that's amazing how your depression

38:57

lifted once you had that purpose. I mean, everything you've said so far sounded like there was a lot of struggle

39:04

at times and it was a lot of hard work and grueling.

39:06

But this is the point where I think that something took off.

39:11

I mean, when you say your depression lifted, which might have been fueling your

39:14

alcohol use, for those listening, like we say, we never know what really comes first.

39:19

And so a lot of times when you do get sober, you can notice that you had a lot

39:23

of depression underneath there, a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, a lot of avoidance.

39:27

And so when Bryce talks about how that was uncovered, I guess the question is, what do you do with that?

39:33

And Bryce decided to open a sober house. Now, for the layman out there,

39:36

just for folks who are a little unfamiliar with this world, difference between

39:40

sober house and recovery center.

39:43

Yeah. So a recovery center or a treatment center has actual therapists with

39:48

degrees and we charge insurance and it's very clinical.

39:53

Sober house, there is no clinical component. The therapeutic value of a good

39:58

sober house is the vibe and the culture in the house.

40:02

And so we try to foster that vibe and

40:05

culture there's you know there's rules and

40:08

there's meetings and there's you

40:11

know events and fun things to do and you

40:14

know we just we just create a whole community in

40:17

the house and like those those people are also in early recovery and so they're

40:22

going through the same thing that you're going through and it just i don't just

40:27

all grows from there they're your tribe you know what i mean so that's that's

40:30

what sober living is for me is like that tribe of people, that community,

40:34

and that connection with others.

40:38

You know, what runs through my mind as you talk about this, Bryce,

40:40

it's almost like our society has things upside down.

40:43

It's like, why didn't we have that tribe before there was addiction?

40:48

And it's funny how once the damage is done, oh, the solution is a tribe.

40:53

The solution is support and faith and being together.

40:58

And then it's like, well, why is that on the opposite side of this?

41:01

Why is this all being done? If that's the solution to addiction and depression,

41:05

why don't we build society in a way that promotes that stuff in the first place?

41:11

I just don't understand that. If that's the solution, why is it only used when

41:16

we're knocking on death's door with a meth addiction? I assume because it benefits

41:20

the people at the top to keep it this way.

41:23

That's what I assume. Follow the trail of money or whatever it is. Right. Yeah. Right.

41:28

Right. But I don't, I don't care about that stuff.

41:31

Like I, I help people and I try to be a good person and I stay true to my moral compass.

41:37

And, you know, right. Like you said, the opposite addiction is sobriety. It's connection.

41:42

And that doesn't mean I have like a million friends, but I do have some,

41:47

you know, I have some good friends, and I just help.

41:50

And that's what the depression lifting was all about, was helping other people,

41:54

being of service. It is its own reward.

41:57

That's the key. Yeah, I mean, that's incredible. I'd imagine,

42:01

too, you don't have to open a sober house to serve other people.

42:04

You've probably seen people who, I mean, you could serve hamburgers,

42:07

and it's just something that you're doing to just bring some kind of joy to someone.

42:11

It doesn't have to be this giant thing. It's whatever lights you up,

42:15

man. And it's just like, yeah, whatever lights up inside.

42:18

I, I, like I said, do that. And it's like making hamburgers or open the door

42:23

for somebody or I don't know, whatever, whatever you can do.

42:27

Like an AA, it's like, like I said, it's a mentor based program.

42:30

So when you get through all the steps and you go, oh my gosh,

42:34

I'm sober and I have a job and the police are not chasing me anymore or whatever it is. Right.

42:41

And at home, it's like, I know what I do now.

42:45

Now it tells you go sponsor somebody else. And then that's when the real magic

42:49

starts is because like having a sponsor doesn't do nearly as much as sponsoring other people.

42:57

Interesting. In terms of how you feel? Even statistically, helping other people,

43:05

sponsoring other people has real long-term statistics of abstinence.

43:12

Oh, interesting. Oh, that is fascinating. I didn't think you were going to...

43:15

That's just an interesting angle I hadn't heard of before. Well, yeah.

43:19

I mean, like that first year was all about me getting sober and somebody helping me.

43:24

And then it's about me helping other people. And that's where the long term statistics come from.

43:30

That's why you see these people was 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years cleaning sober,

43:36

going to a 12-step program and still going and still talking about what it was

43:41

like, what happened and what it's like now. So that new people can come in and have access to that.

43:46

Yeah. Wow. That would imagine too, it gives you a sense of responsibility and

43:50

purpose again, where, and it almost holds yourself accountable.

43:53

It's like, well, I'm sponsoring somebody. I imagine I, you know,

43:56

I can't be drunk on Tuesday morning. Well, I joke around a lot. Like I would lose my job. I can't, I can't do that. Right.

44:04

Yeah. But it's true. It's like a whole sense of purpose and it is my job.

44:09

It is my responsibility. I mean, it was freely given to me and I have to give it away to keep it.

44:15

Yeah. Yeah, that's wonderful.

44:45

The steps and the mindset and just the pearls of wisdom that they need to just

44:49

keep in mind as they go about this process.

44:53

It's so much more powerful than I think hearing something that's too clinical.

44:57

Right. You know what I mean? I never connected with any of that stuff. Really.

45:02

I did end up going to IOP by the way, for two years because I was so afraid

45:06

that I was going to relapse. Oh, wow. It is a really long time. I don't even know if they suggest people do that.

45:13

Eventually they were like, dude, dude, don't you want more out of life?

45:18

And I was like, yeah, but I'm having a good time. It's helping me stay sober, you know? Yeah, yeah.

45:25

So, you know, I don't know. The clinical stuff never connected with me.

45:28

Going into a meeting and hearing people who used like I did,

45:33

and then I'd see them day after day after day, and gosh, they appeared happy.

45:39

And it was like, that's what worked. You know what I mean? hearing it from somebody

45:44

like me, not any of that stuff.

45:47

But it's also tough. When you have actual mental...

45:51

Health problems and you need medication it's tough

45:54

to get the correct medication and once you do man then

45:57

things can really start to click though yeah exactly and that that is what i

46:01

see but it's you're 100 right that you know i mean treatment's not everything

46:06

you can't just hand somebody a pill and they're miraculously sober for the rest

46:09

of their lives or their depression or trauma is eliminated there's a lot of

46:12

work i think medications can be great to stabilize folks folks,

46:16

in a way that, you know, like, for instance,

46:18

I have folks on, my patients will, you know, they'll do meth, methamphetamines.

46:23

And it's like, well, why do you do methamphetamines? I don't ask it that way.

46:26

But why do you do that? What's wrong with you?

46:30

I mean, I'm curious, because it's the answer is not because I'm morally corrupt,

46:34

and I make poor decisions, because I love making poor decisions.

46:37

That's not the answer. And it's usually something pretty mundane.

46:40

It's like, well, I, I can't focus, and it really helps me focus.

46:44

Or, you know, oh, life's kind of shitty right now. And it gives me a lot of

46:48

energy in the morning and I'm pretty depressed. And what I try to tell them is

46:52

there are medications that do that and that don't have fentanyl in them.

46:56

You know, and that you can, but again, getting those medications,

46:59

that's a different story. That's harder to do for those folks. And they also don't feel as good as,

47:04

I mean, like, you know, a good head of meth will spike your dopamine.

47:08

Like, wow, right? It just floods your system with it. And so you have to kind

47:12

of like, I don't know, Want to quit?

47:16

You sort of have to want to quit, you know, but, you know, you look at your

47:22

life, like, are you happy? Are you miserable?

47:25

If you're miserable, you got to like cut that out somehow.

47:29

I don't, it's difficult. cold. Now, you mentioned that your liver enzymes were exploding and the doctor was

47:38

getting really nervous. Do people need to hit rock bottom in your experience before that change is made?

47:45

Have you seen people in your recovery center that don't quite hit rock bottom?

47:49

I mean, you know what I mean? Is that more of a fairy tale or can that happen?

47:54

It has to be a fairy tale because we have of

47:57

fentanyl you don't want to be an

48:00

addict you can die from fentanyl so we we can't continue to say they got to

48:05

hit rock bottom you know right you have to come in with some sort of intervention

48:09

right and so smash the stigma have some conversations yeah provide support people like yourself,

48:18

Again, I don't have the answer. It's okay to say I don't know.

48:22

What isn't okay is doing nothing.

48:24

That I definitely know doesn't work. And so most of the people in my treatment

48:29

center, they don't want to be there. They really don't.

48:33

But some of them do get well. Don't get me wrong.

48:37

Some of them, they go, you know what, this is much better than what I was doing.

48:40

I just needed to be taught and to see it and sometimes to be medicated properly

48:46

or to be given different tools. Because the further down you go, the harder it is, right? I mean,

48:51

if you get in the system, you're in the criminal justice system or you just

48:54

got out of prison, you have no family. It's just so much harder. So, you know, I don't know. No, you're I mean, 100 percent.

49:03

It kind of there's a book out.

49:06

I think last year it was released, Poverty by America. Very interesting.

49:09

But they talk about it as a not. And I love that analogy because it is a not. It's not that it's very hard to untie.

49:16

And and it's every like new thing you get out of prison. Now you can't get a job.

49:21

You haven't seen your family in 10 years. You don't have social support.

49:24

Now you don't have good access to information. Now you don't know where the meeting is and this and that. that it's just

49:29

it's just very overwhelming but that's again

49:32

circling back you say one one thing at a time and

49:34

that's the key yeah and you know and it's like oh my self-esteem so of course

49:38

your self-esteem is low you're not supposed to have positive self-esteem if

49:40

you're sleeping on the street it's tough you know that's a tough situation but

49:44

it's like i said we got a problem now here today let's do something one step

49:50

in the right direction maybe and then everything hopefully Hopefully we'll, I don't know,

49:54

keep getting better. And if they don't, keep trying.

49:57

If you go to- Awesome. Just make adjustments. Just keep trying.

50:03

Keep pressing on. I think Churchill said, when you're in hell,

50:08

just keep walking. You're going to hell, you're going.

50:11

Keep going. It's sad, but it's true. And it's kind of inspiring too.

50:17

So as we start to wrap up our conversation with Bryce today,

50:21

Bryce, I want to take a moment and thank you very much for being here. It's very special.

50:25

You're on Street Strong. You're actually our very first guest.

50:28

I want you to know that. This is mainly a solo podcast and we

50:32

do get some requests but you were just exactly what

50:35

we needed we needed somebody who's been through it who can speak

50:38

to it you did exactly what we were hoping you could

50:40

do and i i really can't thank you enough yeah um you

50:43

and i both know the kind of folks who listen to this and they're going to be

50:47

very grateful you took time quality time to just be real and talk about this

50:52

so like can't thank you enough before we let you go do you have any final thoughts

50:56

or advice for our listeners out there who might be listening just if i don't

51:01

thought yeah you know if you have, the faster you admit you have a disease or a mental illness the faster we can

51:10

get around to getting better right and they're you know i know resources could

51:13

seem hard to find but they're out there if you're listening to the podcast i'm

51:17

sure that tommy has a ton of resources available.

51:21

Yeah i wish i had a magic thing to say i always think it's just say the right thing right but it.

51:27

It's like, it's not, it's just a consistent message of like,

51:30

for people like you or like me, that you got to try. You just,

51:34

it's not okay to do nothing. And I hope that's, that's the best, that's the best way to close out.

51:41

It's you just, you just have to try, you just have to press on and there is

51:44

no silver bullet and there wasn't supposed to be, but,

51:47

but I mean, for anyone who still has any questions, just replay the episode

51:52

because you, I think you spelled out a very very realistic path and a very hopeful one too.

51:57

So thank you again, Bryce, so much. It's been an honor and a pleasure.

52:00

To our listeners, if you want to learn more about Bryce's work on Mile High

52:03

Recovery Center, we'll make sure to link his resources in the show notes of this episode.

52:08

Remember, no matter the struggle, recovery is possible and there's always a path forward.

52:13

Bryce showed that today. Thank you all for tuning in to Street Strong.

52:16

Don't forget to rate, like, and subscribe. Every single like, comment, and subscription really helps the podcast grow.

52:22

Thank you all so much. Good luck to all of you and have a wonderful rest of

52:26

your evening. Okay. Bye-bye.