I’m so happy to bring you my interview with Dee Rambeau. It’s a different conversation than we normally have on Cured in that Dee has not experienced mental illness outside of what a psychiatrist might have diagnosed as Substance Use Disorder. Dee was never diagnosed, but he was an addict who recovered. Because co-morbid conditions are so common (substance use disorders and psychiatric conditions), it’s somewhat rare to find people like Dee and me. He experienced “pure addiction” and I experienced “pure mental illness,” if there are such things.
In this interview, we talk about the similarities and differences between recovery from addiction and mental health recovery. I learned a lot from Dee and think you will too.
Dee has careened around life like a Triumph Rocket III motorcycle (actually his motorcycle of choice these days). His life has followed many paths, from a career on Wall Street to a decade in sports television to the founding of a software startup, and finally to a corporate VP job after selling his company. He used alcohol and cocaine. After a family intervention and the professionals at the Betty Ford Center in 2009, he retired to a ranch in the Texas Hill Country and started his Substack newsletter “Of a Sober Mind.” He serves on the Hazelden Betty Ford Philanthropy Council and is also a Board Member and volunteer for Wimberley Valley Radio, a community radio station in his hometown, where he hosts the Empowered Community talk show every Friday morning. His home is filled with love and recovery with his longtime partner Ann and four seventy-pound rescue mutts.
Enjoying Cured? Check out the prequel, Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins):
Stories of Healing: Dee Rambeau