I Got Out of Jail for Drink Driving, Walked to the Minimart Around the Corner & Chugged Two Drinks Before My Stepdad Picked Me Up

Episode 45 | Ryan Kennedy — Rock Bottom With Ryan: Airlifted, Arrested & Almost Out of Time in Washington State

In this raw, funny and deeply honest episode, Jimmy sits down with Ryan Kennedy — host of the Rock Bottom With Ryan podcast — whose story spans a chaotic childhood in Seattle, fraternity drinking, a toxic marriage to a bartender, an abusive relationship, a DUI he drove away from to get a drink, and a face-plant fall down brick stairs at 4am that ended with a helicopter airlift to Spokane. All before his rock bottom.

Ryan grew up in Seattle with parents who split when he was seven. His mother moved him constantly through her relationships, changing schools every year until Ryan found himself living in a basement, not welcome upstairs, developing the social anxiety that would dog him through high school. At 12 he started smoking weed; he barely drank in high school, partly because his first ever drinking experience ended with someone elbowing a bottle into his mouth and knocking his teeth out. He drove people home instead.

College was different. Freed from his dad’s strict household and arriving at Washington State University at 18, Ryan was invited into a fraternity on his first week. Day one in the frat house: the older members got him hammered. He went to class still buzzing the next morning, thought it was brilliant, went back and did it again. For the next five and a half years he was rarely fully sober.

After college the drinking escalated from social to solo — beer runs to the minimart, then bars alone, then hard alcohol, then waking up with uncontrollable shakes he didn’t understand were withdrawal. He started work at a cell phone company, sought out the colleagues who wanted to party, added cocaine to the mix, and began a life of cycling through drinking, relationships, and fresh starts that never quite reset anything.

Then the fall. At 4am, still drunk, deciding to go for a run as part of his commitment to stop drinking, Ryan face-planted down brick stairs — broke his teeth, gashed his eye, split his lip, head injury. He finished the run. Went to bed. Woke up to find blood everywhere. Was airlifted to Spokane with injuries the local hospital couldn’t handle. His mum stayed in a hotel for a week just to be near him.

He got 90 days in AA. Felt good. Slowed down. Relapsed for six weeks. Hospital again. A nun he’d known from childhood walked into his room and asked what he was going to do this time. He said he was going to go to rehab. He did 60 days. He has not had a drink since.

Now approaching one year sober, hosting his own podcast, Ryan is finally learning who he is — and his story is just getting started.

You can find Ryan on his Instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/rockbottomwithryan

His Podcast Rock Bottom with Ryan is here:

https://linktr.ee/rockbottomwithryan?fbclid=PAdGRleAMzt3pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpypULW2wRB_bI7XHJouwmcYM7SfS7kSRM1v62P9OcuN_DpqcHoRXn7zvcqCO_aem_JviN1OhOYAaC6zErHq85vw

Forged in Silence Podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z8hxu2cDovocvyJUzqaAA?si=14859864934b426b

Leaving Las Vegas with Nic Cage:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113627/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

My Instagram is:

https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…

https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Support the show

My Instagram is:

https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…

https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter

https://a.co/d/0854fIb6

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace

https://a.co/d/0gy6mT9Z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

https://a.co/d/0jdcIjGb

Donate:

https://motiv8.im/donate/

https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/

My Instagram is:

https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…

https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter

https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace

https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:

https://motiv8.im/donate/

https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.