Holber Addresses Campus about Addiction, Recovery

Levi Zelmer

On Monday, Sept. 13, a sober comedian discussed substance abuse, addiction and his recovery at Manchester University.

Patrick Holber noted that a lot of people look at alcohol as always a good time, and a way for them to enjoy themselves. But, according to him, it’s not always what it looks like. When Holber was a college student, he always liked to drink and have a good time, just like any college kid wants to do. But he came to Manchester to tell students that sometimes they need to think about themselves in the long run of life.

Holber is now over a decade clean and goes around to all sorts of universities making jokes, while also offering useful advice about life, and what it took for him to get sober.

A lot of students at Manchester were very glad that they got to listen to Holber’s advice. “It was a great eye opener to hear from this guy,” said Wyatt Gatewood. “He made it very enjoyable, since he was actually funny, but he also gave us real-life advice that a lot of the students here need to hear.”

For instance, many students believe the only way to have a good time is getting drunk or intoxicating their bodies with bad substances. But Holber noted that many young adults don’t think about how this will impact their lives in the long run. He offered the example of a student who goes out and gets influenced to drink “just a few beers.” After those few beers the student may feel more like he wants to go out more often and drink with his buddies because he thinks it is a great time.

After he goes out more often and drinks more often he could become addicted to alcohol substances. The more he goes out and builds up his addiction with alcohol, the longer his road to recovery will end up being. So the moral of the story from The Sober Comedian is that students shouldn’t try to do those things to have a good time. They don’t want to pick up these addictions because in the long run it leads to money being spent on recovery and a bad reputation for the student––all because they wanted to have a good time for one night but it ended up lasting a lifetime.

Holber delivered all this information about himself in a way that made his audience want to listen instead of just letting it go in one ear and out the other. He was super funny while talking about how he became sober and his road to recovery. Though his topic was serious, he presented it in an inviting manner to get students invested in it.