PODCAST

LOL Sober

Nelson H.

How to laugh your ass off in sobriety nelsonh.substack.com

All Episodes

4:38

The good greed of gratitude

LOL Sober ·

2024/08/30

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!When was the last time you were very, very grateful and also very angry? Or very grateful and feeling road rage? Or very grateful and jealous?I bet the answer is that you can’t remember a time like that. I know I can’t. The truth is, I’ve never been that

6:40

Haha humility

LOL Sober ·

2024/08/23

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!What is humility?That’s a deep question, isn’t it? There probably is no official answer, and I bet everybody has their own definition of what humility means for them. The dictionary definition says humility is being humble, and having a modest opinion of

4:32

A revelatory exercise

LOL Sober ·

2024/08/15

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!A friend shared something the other day that he found to be an epiphany, and I ended up feeling the same way. I’ll throw it your way and you let me know if it is profound to you.He shared that at a 12-step meeting once, a guy asked everybody in the room

5:35

The Nike part of sobriety

LOL Sober ·

2024/08/07

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!Of all the things I have heard in sobriety that stick with me, the one I have been thinking about the most lately is that sobriety isn’t for people who want it, and it’s not for people who need it—it’s for people who DO it.I have found that to be so true,

5:09

The sneaky part of "working with others"

LOL Sober ·

2024/08/01

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!We read a section from “Working With Others” recently at a meeting. If you’re not familiar with that part of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, it’s worth a read. That section of sober literature makes a compelling case that one of the biggest keys to helping

7:00

Into (and out of) the woods

LOL Sober ·

2024/07/25

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!A friend of mine tells a great story about a topic that I also experienced. He had about a year sober when he ran into some difficulties that pop up for newly-sober people. He found others still not trusting him entirely. He found himself having trouble

4:31

I never got what I deserved

LOL Sober ·

2024/07/19

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I was at a meeting recently where some people were sharing about the glorious, insidious nature of self-pity—the idea that it can be such a warm bath to lay back and think of all the crappy things we didn’t deserve but got anyway. Self-pity is one of

8:43

Don't. Get. Back. In. The. Trash. Can.

LOL Sober ·

2024/07/09

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I was thinking recently about some of my internal dialogue when I meet somebody coming back from a relapse. It’s not great sometimes. I really wish I had undercover footage of me in 2011, when I had about three years of good sobriety and then decided to

7:46

The 7-second plan

LOL Sober ·

2024/07/03

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I have a sober friend who I really respect, and he always talks about the 7-second plan. His theory is that no matter how tense or aggressive a conversation is, you always have the opportunity to pause for 7 seconds before you speak, and that when you

5:01

I never wanted The Promises

LOL Sober ·

2024/06/25

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I had an interesting conversation with another alcoholic recently where he referenced The Promises, and it dawned on me that I never wanted any of them until I did. Let me explain.I put a link into the written version of this newsletter where you can go

5:10

Sometimes it's just the sober vibes

LOL Sober ·

2024/06/19

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I went to a giant meeting the other night at a church where we usually have a pretty sweet side room that accommodates what is always a big crowd of 75 men.Well, as so often happens with busy churches, there was another event going on and the church asked

4:39

The Gremlins still can't be watered

LOL Sober ·

2024/06/11

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I heard someone once call her character defects “Gremlins,” and she said that the Gremlins were already there before she started drinking, then they multiplied and got bigger and scarier once they got wet.In case you’re not familiar, that was basically

3:53

Finding Bigfoot in sobriety

LOL Sober ·

2024/06/04

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I went to a meeting the other day where a guy talked about remembering going to his first meeting, and it really made me laugh. He said he’d never met a sober person until then, that he was about 30 years old and as far as he knew, he didn’t have any

7:03

Minding my own business (meetings)

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/29

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I was at a business meeting recently for one of my favorite meetings, and I brought up a proposal to change the format. The meeting goes around the room in a circle, and it’s always been a small enough meeting that everybody gets a chance to share.Well,

4:39

Giving is receiving

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/23

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I belong to Anytime Fitness, and my gym does a pretty cool thing every week. The manager has a group of adults from a facility for men living with cognitive disabilities come in and clean up around the gym.I always see the guys cleaning, and they bust

6:45

To speak, or not to speak

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/21

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I’ve been going to lots of meetings recently where a clipboard is passed around and people can sign up to speak at other meetings or at rehabs. I’ve consistently signed up for those opportunities over the years but recently I have just been handing the

6:15

A sober pushover's guide to fighting

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/14

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I think most who know me would say that I am a pretty easygoing person who tends to get along with most people. And when push comes to shove, I usually don’t do any shoving. I’ve gotten much better over the years at a staple of recovery: exercising

3:11

Sobriety can happen anywhere

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/09

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I went to a meeting last night where I pulled in and I saw the entire group gathered on the front steps and in the parking lot of the church. “Uh-oh,” I thought. “Somebody must have forgotten the key to the church.”I immediately tried to figure out if

7:46

If resentment is the No. 1 offender, what is No. 2?

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/07

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!Most people accept the notion that resentment is the No. 1 offender for alcoholics, that it destroys more people trying to get sober than anything else. Recovery literature often references that quote, and I wholeheartedly agree with it.I didn’t use to. I

5:25

The after-meeting meetings

LOL Sober ·

2024/05/02

If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!I heard someone speak the other day about the best way to approach a new person at a meeting. He was saying how many times he has seen people come on a little too strong, and I have seen similar situations. His suggestion was to always remember that if

416 results