Sep 1, 2026 · 49 min · 12 segments
What happens when addiction becomes your identity—and you no longer know how to live without it? In Part 1 of this powerful episode of From Beer to the Bible, Ervin Lee and special guest host Aaron…
Meredith DePriestGuest
Ervin LeeHost
Aaron StaceyHost
Well, addiction to me is a disease, you know, of the mind, you know, and so like the medical society has labeled it, it's a, you know, a disability.
I think there's a lot of complexities when we talk about addiction and was it the chicken or the egg or, you know, so, I mean, but for me, before I ever picked up substances, I I definitely was dealing with anxiety, trauma, depression, you know, different things like that in the.
But once I use substances, it there was something inside me that said, we're going to continue to do this every day.
Um, and the reason that was is because it was a solution to how I was feeling at that time.
There was usually some intervention along the way, whether that was police, family, um, you know, whoever that may be.
Um, and, um, You know, and then when I wasn't using it, I was obsessing about how I was going to do it again.
And it's funny that you said that you had that burden this morning because I had been praying and thinking about it.
And so as I get into my story, you'll see that whenever I was able to realize my identity is when I was able to finally stop identifying with the addict inside me and glorifying the addict inside me, which is what I did a lot.
And so it became just like this um, competition of, you know, being the best addict and the biggest addict and the worst addict.
You know, I wanted to be at the bottom of the bottom of the barrel to have the worst story.
Well, addiction to me is a disease, you know, of the mind, you know, and so like the medical society has labeled it, it's a, you know, a disability.
I think there's a lot of complexities when we talk about addiction and was it the chicken or the egg or, you know, so, I mean, but for me, before I ever picked up substances, I I definitely was dealing with anxiety, trauma, depression, you know, different things like that in the.
But once I use substances, it there was something inside me that said, we're going to continue to do this every day.
Um, and the reason that was is because it was a solution to how I was feeling at that time.
There was usually some intervention along the way, whether that was police, family, um, you know, whoever that may be.
Um, and, um, You know, and then when I wasn't using it, I was obsessing about how I was going to do it again.
And it's funny that you said that you had that burden this morning because I had been praying and thinking about it.
And so as I get into my story, you'll see that whenever I was able to realize my identity is when I was able to finally stop identifying with the addict inside me and glorifying the addict inside me, which is what I did a lot.
And so it became just like this um, competition of, you know, being the best addict and the biggest addict and the worst addict.
You know, I wanted to be at the bottom of the bottom of the barrel to have the worst story.
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