Jul 22, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min · 14 segments
This week, we bring you another episode of Recovery Talk on the Voices in Recovery Podcast. Steve and I begin talking about grieving losses in recovery, as we engage and accept parts of ourselves…
Steve ArchambaultGuest
For me, I left the church and I went back, I left the church and I went back, and I left the church and I went back, and there was always this missing thing, and it was because, and then once I grieved the identity that I thought I was supposed to have, I was like, oh, and guess who doesn't go back anymore? Who doesn't chase it back? And it was just like grieving that space.
And in recovery, you know, when we talk about grieving identity, it's like...
We have to become, when they say you have to become somebody new, it's not.
You just have to realize the pieces and parts of you that no longer serve you.
And then if it's something that doesn't serve you, just going, it doesn't serve me anymore, doesn't always work.
I like it.
And so welcome back to another episode of Voices in Recovery.
And this is Recovery Talk with Steve...
Oh my God, I don't want to butcher your last name, so I'm going to say Steve from Stonewall Recovery Center.
Because all of a sudden I was like, Archambault? Yeah, that's it.
Oh, fuck, I got it.
Nice.
And yeah, welcome back, Matt.
And we're talking about, as you heard probably in the beginning here, grieving the loss of identity.
And grieving identities, like, how I thought about it when we first mentioned it, and you reminded me just like 10 seconds ago that this is what we were going to talk about.
But like, I think of...
The fact that when I first sobered up, which was a while ago, I did not have any idea who I was.
Like, honestly, if I had to stop then, I would have been a prostitute who also worked in social services and also used drugs, right? So that would have been my identity, really.
For me, I left the church and I went back, I left the church and I went back, and I left the church and I went back, and there was always this missing thing, and it was because, and then once I grieved the identity that I thought I was supposed to have, I was like, oh, and guess who doesn't go back anymore? Who doesn't chase it back? And it was just like grieving that space.
And in recovery, you know, when we talk about grieving identity, it's like...
We have to become, when they say you have to become somebody new, it's not.
You just have to realize the pieces and parts of you that no longer serve you.
And then if it's something that doesn't serve you, just going, it doesn't serve me anymore, doesn't always work.
I like it.
And so welcome back to another episode of Voices in Recovery.
And this is Recovery Talk with Steve...
Oh my God, I don't want to butcher your last name, so I'm going to say Steve from Stonewall Recovery Center.
Because all of a sudden I was like, Archambault? Yeah, that's it.
Oh, fuck, I got it.
Nice.
And yeah, welcome back, Matt.
And we're talking about, as you heard probably in the beginning here, grieving the loss of identity.
And grieving identities, like, how I thought about it when we first mentioned it, and you reminded me just like 10 seconds ago that this is what we were going to talk about.
But like, I think of...
The fact that when I first sobered up, which was a while ago, I did not have any idea who I was.
Like, honestly, if I had to stop then, I would have been a prostitute who also worked in social services and also used drugs, right? So that would have been my identity, really.
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