A short interview transcript (from a YouTube video) in which Speaker A (Steve-O) discusses a multigenerational family history of alcoholism and suicide on his mother's side, describes an uncomfortable childhood and ongoing discomfort even in sobriety, and frames alcoholism as a progressive illness that—when treated—can lead to personal growth. The speaker expresses gratitude that his alcoholism was severe enough that he stopped and emphasizes the importance of sober practices to manage life’s problems.
Chapters
I'm so fortunate that I had alcoholism so badly that it had to stop. And thankfully, it did.
Your mom. Booze, drugs, gambling, suicide. What do you know about your mom's family history?
As family trees go, every leaf on my mom's family tree is. I think I can pretty safely say everyone except for my generation, like my cousins. I don't even think dead or dying even counts anymore. I think they're all dead. I think they all died from alcoholism or suicide.
Yeah.
Like, it's crazy.
How do you think that impacted you? I mean, just, you know, your mom's lineage.
I mean, I think that I had, like, a really uncomfortable childhood. You know, I think that I have tendencies to be super, super uncomfortable now. I mean, just because I'm, like, clean and sober doesn't mean that I don't suffer from alcoholism. You could say. It could be said that you don't really suffer from alcoholism until you get sober, because, yeah, alcoholism's a man. Depression's a. So, yeah. How it impacted me. If you're asking how alcoholism impacts me, it's up. And it continues to get up. It continues to maybe get worse, even.
Yeah.
How this thing's a progressive illness. You know, you have to, like. Like, the importance of doing the stuff that sober people do to, like, you know, manage the problems that come up in life, you know, it, like, it becomes even more important, you know? Like, I think that, yeah, I think that, yeah, alcoholism is just up, you know, it's up. And at the same time, I can say I'm legitimately grateful to be an alcoholic, because as f up as it is, alcoholism really is, I think, the only disease where after you get the disease and treat the disease, you end up potentially better than you were before you even got it. Any other disease, you can only hope to get back to as healthy as you were. But with alcoholism, because of alcoholism, when you treat it now, you can become way better than you were before.
Why do you think you were uncomfortable in your own skin?
I don't know. I think that's a pretty standard trait of alcoholism. One thing I didn't say about alcoholism before is that. That I'm super grateful that I have it so bad that I don't have to, like, wonder if I need to be involved in all of the stuff that sober people do. Because the worst thing would be to kind of have alcoholism. The worst thing would be to have alcoholism just bad enough that it really slows you down, like, destroys your potential, you know, like, gets in the way of. But it's not so bad that it has to stop. So it just, you know, just years. How many people do I know with just the years slipping through their fingers and just. They're just blowing it, just wasting everything where in my case, I'm so fortunate that I had alcoholism so badly that it had to stop. And thankfully it did. And getting into the solution of alcoholism, treating it, and like I said before, you have potential to become better than you were before.
