Today on The Addicted Mind Podcast, I sit down with Justin B. Long to explore a journey that will resonate deeply with so many of you listening. Justin opens his heart about childhood trauma and how alcohol became his desperate attempt to silence the pain that began so early in his life.
We dive into something that touches the core of so many men’s struggles—the devastating lie of toxic masculinity that tells us we must suffer in silence. That showing emotion makes us weak. That vulnerability is failure. Justin and I unpack how these destructive beliefs become prison walls, keeping us trapped in our pain and unable to reach the healing that’s waiting for us.
What you’ll hear in this conversation is raw hope. Justin doesn’t just share his story—he offers a roadmap for anyone who recognizes themselves in his struggle, anyone who’s ever felt like they’re drowning and alcohol seemed like the only life raft.
Justin is the author of The Righteous Rage of a Ten-Year-Old Boy: A Journey of Self-Discovery, a book that took incredible courage to write. In it, he excavates the deepest, most painful parts of his story—because as he beautifully puts it, the more sunshine we let touch our secrets, the less power they hold over our lives.
When Justin began his recovery journey in his mid-thirties, he discovered something profound: healing meant going all the way back to the beginning, to that ten-year-old boy who learned he wasn’t enough. He grew up with parents who were drowning in their own pain—a father whose rage and workaholism filled their home with tension, and a mother who turned to extreme religiosity, hoping God would heal what she couldn’t face herself.
These weren’t bad people, but they were broken people raising a child with no emotional tools, no safety net, no way to help him make sense of a world that felt hostile and unsafe. Justin learned early that nothing he did would ever be good enough in his father’s eyes.
Carrying that burden of unworthiness, that bone-deep discomfort with himself and distrust of the world, Justin first found refuge in books—a way to escape into stories where heroes existed and endings could be happy. But then alcohol entered his life, and for the first time, he felt what it was like to be comfortable in his own skin. To feel accepted. To feel worthy.
Of course, what felt like salvation was actually another prison. But Justin’s story doesn’t end there—and neither does yours, if you’re listening and seeing yourself in these words.
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Supporting Resources:
If you live in California and are looking for counseling or therapy please check out Novus Mindful Life Counseling and Recovery Center
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