Austin grew up in Columbus Ohio in the United States and now lives in Florida. On the show, he speaks about how he overcame his addiction which he started developing at the age of 15. Now Austin runs an organisation geared towards helping those of us in recovery called ‘Sober Evolution’. On the show, we spoke about acceptance, where you are and how to grow your self-worth. 

Austin Cooper

Austin spoke about how his life was going downhill really fast and how the first and most important step into change and grow was to accept his current situation. I feel that Austin is trying to get across the message that if you don’t accept where you are and reprogram yourself and the denial around your problems, you can get stuck in the prison of your addictions. Through accepting his own limitations Austin could see that he needed to make significant changes; he upgraded is peer group and started to develop an understanding around addictive behaviour.

Austin Cooper

Austin also struggled with his self-worth like many of us addicts do. He found that once he started drinking his self-esteem issues would go away. So that got him drinking and kept him drinking, reinforcing the pattern over time. Once he stopped drinking Austin had to acknowledge that he went back to the 15-year-old that had self-esteem problems.

Once on his path to recovery, he started accomplishing little goals. These small milestones boosted his self-esteem and gave him the confidence to strive for more. He realised that he was able to do some pretty incredible things, including giving back through his Instagram account which really gave him purpose.

Austin Cooper

Further in the conversation we spoke about the importance of personal development. Austin explained, that he would go to a lot of conferences and read a lot of self-help books.

Austin Cooper

Austin learned about the biological function of the brain; not only about the effects of the drugs he had taken but how to nourish himself and realign the chemical imbalance that drugs had created. Overloading his brain with serotonin and endorphins by all of the drugs he took decreased the natural production of these hormones. Because his brain had become dependent on the drugs to make him happy and feel good he knew that when he quit taking them the low would be very low. As he came off the drugs he changed his diet and exercised a lot, he knew these things would be able to change the delivery of chemicals to his brain.

In the episode, me and Austin also both recommended three books each that have helped us on our journey so be sure to check them out below.