What’s This All About?

I know I know, “The Manic Addict” is quite a bold title for a blog. I’m certain it has inspired some curiosity about what this blog is to be about.

It’s a label that is certainly an appropriate descriptor of my state at various times over the course of the past 16 years. It’s a label that has at times made me feel like a pariah, outcast, and black sheep.

But it’s a label I’ve kicked to the curb with the enthusiasm of the clean up man in an adult kickball league. That man worked his ass of to sit atop his kickball throne just as I have worked tirelessly to develop the self-awareness to assess my symptoms and hone the tools I carry with me daily like Bob.

Time the Tool Man was more akin to Manic Addict Ryan.

I digress, what’s this blog about you say?

Will I be reveling you with the absolutely bonkers truths of things I’ve said and done during my previous manic episodes? Yes. In jest.

Will I be dropping wisdom on the things I’ve done that have and haven’t worked to help me get and maintain sobriety? Yes also.

But the most important function of this blog is to document my new life as a digital nomad. A dream life that I stepped into on Saturday June 27th, 2026. A life filled with connection, adventure, mountains, amazing conversations, new foods, and more blatant croctch/ass adjustments than a not quite fully transitioned transgender swimmer at the woman’s meet while I’m driving from here to timbucktoo.

I picked this as the title for my blog for 2 reasons:

1. I’ve been a professional marketer for 20+ years and shock value is tried and true
2. I want anyone and everyone who has experienced one or both of those states (mania and addiction) to know that they are not a life sentence nor a ball and chain. Embarking upon your dream life IS possible.

I say this with the conviction of a man who has tumbled into a solid 5 rock bottoms and pulled myself up out of them.

At this time in 2024 I was in active addiction and booze or marijuana were the only things that distracted my mind from suicidal thoughts. I even wrote notes. I put myself in the 5th detox of my life.

Fast forward a week or so and it’s the 2 year anniversary of admitting myself into a psyche ward for the first time.

Take another leap in time to August 19th and that’s the anniversary of stepping into a sober living home in Chicago 3 days after getting out of my second residential rehab. Sleeping in a tiny twin bed my 6’3″ frame had no business folding into with a roommate named Art sleeping 6 feet away.

Art is an 80ish year old man who eats more cheese than Sicily. An extremely kind and gentle soul who occasionally emitted the unmistakable smell of urine in the morning.

And today is my first full day living in Montreal, Canada . Stable and thriving enough in my job as a Senior Account Executive helping advertising agencies navigate the world of Google and Facebook marketing for their car dealership clients to be able to jump ship from Chicago and hit the road full time.

Confident enough in my self-awareness to manage my Bipolar Disorder symptoms when (and it is when) they do arise in new enviroments. Jaded enough from rehabs and climbs out of cellars to never relapse again.

Financial fit enough to have paid cash for a 2018 Used Rav4 to be my chariot across the great unknown.

Grounded enough to realize that every new city or place I land in is where I LIVE and not where I’m vacationing. Even if I do plan to do all the touristy things.

For example, in 2.5 weeks I’m taking hike to a beaver dam in the woods outside of Quebec City to enjoy a picnic of local delicacies and Non-Alcoholic beers. With goats carrying the goodies in saddle bags. THAT is living!

I am living my dream life, traveling around the world (North America at the moment) chasing beauty, nature, human connection and every amazing experience I can soak up.

And 2 years ago I was spending my days surrounded by people who couldn’t keep themselves out of crack houses.

This blog is going to document all the things along the way. So buckle up, we’re in for the ride of a lifetime.