STICK WITH THE WINNERS! –
Sept. 8, 2026 – Joe Schrank is a social worker, journalist, and recovery advocate who co-founded TheFix.com back when nobody was quite sure the internet needed opinions about addiction — turns out it did. He’s been sober for decades, which he does not consider a virtue but a necessity.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?
A. Alcohol. I think I’m an anachronism. I should have been in a different era. At USC, there was all kinds of drug use but I was mostly interested in scotch and isolation, like some kind of Hemingway novel.
Q. Is there anything special in your sobriety toolkit that helps keep you sober?
A. Movement. I’m very dedicated to working out. It’s a serious part of my maintenance level. Credit where credit is due, I’m very dedicated to it. I’m also very dedicated to pizza to counter all the workouts.
Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?
A. I think addiction is a very complex malady that has characteristics of many things. Near as I can tell, there’s an incredibly strong genetic component, so disease works in my mind. I think there is a resistance to that because people misinterpret that to mean we aren’t responsible for our behavior.
