EP 224: Mike's Story

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This episode of Unashamed Unafraid introduces guests Mike (“Sacramento Mike”) and his son Weston, with Mike visiting Utah from Hawaii for his daughter’s wedding. Mike describes growing up in an LDS family near Sacramento, first encountering pornography at 11, becoming compulsively drawn to it, and being forcibly sexually assaulted by older boys around age 13–14, which deepened his shame and porn use; he later learned those boys were arrested for raping family members. At 18, after drug use, he prayed on a beach, quit drugs, served a mission in Ecuador, married, and raised a family while hiding a long-term pornography problem that escalated alongside law-enforcement work in Oakland and PTSD. After multiple deaths in his care and suicidal crises, he sought help, was retired from duty, and recounts a 2018 moment when his wife, prompted by God, prevented a planned suicide, helping him recognize God’s love. Mike has now been sober from pornography and sexual acting out for 8 years. 

Timestamps:
01:28 Wedding Weekend Banter
03:02 First Exposure To Porn
05:25 Sexual Assault And Confusion
07:14 Shame And Silence
08:43 Beach Prayer Wake Up
11:32 Mission And Marriage
13:51 Law Enforcement And Trauma
15:22 Confessing and Hiding Secrets
16:30 PTSD and Relapse Cycle
18:14 Family Distance and Regrets
21:07 Deaths on the Job
23:24 Retired and Identity Crisis
25:22 Therapy and Escalation
26:10 2018 Suicide Crisis
27:31 Gods Love and Closing
28:25 The Dream
32:59 Weston's thoughts on dad's recovery
39:11 Life After Disclosure
41:34 Warrior Heart Boot Camp
49:15 Helping Other Men
54:19 Gratitude by Brandon Lake