Maybe you've built your whole life around being the one who shows up. The one who runs toward the hard thing when everyone else steps back. You know the feeling of being needed. What you might not know is how long you can keep that up before you lose track of who you actually are underneath it all.

Dr. Tony Dice spent years chasing the highest version of that identity, from a remote mountain town in Northern California to the Navy SEALs, from the brotherhood of elite service to the unraveling of a nine-year addiction. What looked like strength from the outside was quietly hollowing out everything beneath it. And the moment it all became undeniable wasn't some dramatic public collapse. It was a phone pushed under a bed. A call from a daycare. A son who needed him, and a room he couldn't leave.

This conversation is about what happens after that moment. Tony has been in recovery for fifteen years, earned his doctorate, returned to the very treatment center that saved his life, and built a career helping veterans, law enforcement, and high performers face the thing they've been outrunning. His story doesn't wrap up neatly, and he wouldn't want it to. It just points somewhere real.

What You'll Hear:

• The moment Tony's addiction became undeniable, and why he couldn't get out of that room
• How the identity of "the hero" became both a lifeline and a trap
• What the decision between the SEAL teams and his addiction actually felt like in the body
• The small, unlikely moment in a treatment center that redirected the rest of his life
• Why he believes addiction is far more universal than most people are willing to admit
• What it feels like to watch someone's guard finally come down, and why that's the work he was built for

Dr. Tony Dice is a Navy SEAL veteran, 15-year recovery advocate, professor of counseling at Old Dominion University, and founder of Bishop and Dice Defense, a veteran-owned business that pairs tactical training with mental health services. He is the author of After the Trident, a raw, memoir-style account of shame, addiction, and the recovery model he developed over more than a decade of working with high performers.

https://bishopdicedefense.com/

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Mentioned in this episode:

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Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us.

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