Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From "Fat Doctor" Pills to Celebrity Addiction Expert: Dr. Cali Estes
13 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: How did Dr. Cali Estes' journey into addiction begin?
back again back again for another episode of like it says in the opening man the podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to go and today in the studios and i got a i got a rock star today for you guys this person has been called the female dr drew she has been called the battery recharger she is an expert in all things clinical psychology neuroscience cutting edge biohacking
She has helped clients break free from addiction, from burnout, from ADHD, from anything that ails you. And I think I have all of that.
Chapter 2: What are the three markers of addiction that we should recognize?
So this is going to be an exciting dive into my personal psyche today. But I am super excited to be here. She is a six-time bestselling author. I mean, what hasn't this person does? She has a top 10 ranked self-help podcast called Unpause Your Life.
Chapter 3: Why is sugar considered a gateway drug for many people?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. This is Dr. Callie Estes.
Callie! That has got to be the best intro I've ever had. Yes.
That's awesome.
Chapter 4: What is the myth of the 'functional addict' in high-pressure careers?
They turn it off if you don't hook them. I found.
Yeah.
Yeah. Because especially on video, because I'm working with this, which is not helping. It's not helpful. Right.
Chapter 5: Why do traditional rehab methods often fail high achievers?
So I got to have good looking guests like you to make things happen. So I want to dive right into this. Let's do it. Which is great. So what got you started in this field?
I'll give you the short version. Yeah. So I wanted to be an FBI agent.
Chapter 6: What is the 'Brain Dump' technique for improving sleep?
That was my goal. Yeah. I was going to do that. Why? Just cause I like to figure out why people do what they do. I'm fascinated by human behavior. Like someone will tell you, I wanna do this and then they do something else.
Chapter 7: Can ADHD actually be leveraged as a superpower in business?
And you're like, well, why did you do that? It doesn't make sense with what they tell you. So I always started profiling people as a young age and I could kind of get it on the mark of what they would do. but I'd be really good at this as an FBI agent.
But I was in college studying to be an FBI agent and all the girls would go out, you know, ladies nights, Thursday night, and they would all hook up with guys. And I was always coming home solo.
Chapter 8: How can we reset our dopamine baseline to combat addiction?
So at one night I was like sitting on the floor and I'm crying and I'm eating cake with my hands. And I'll give you the visual. There's cake on me, cake on the wall, cake on the dog. Like it was bad, bad, bad meltdown. And one of my roommates walked in and she's like, dude, that's not normal. And I said, what do you mean that's not normal? I've always done that. Did that in my household.
So she's like, you need to see a therapist. So I went to a counselor who said, okay- According to the DSM, you're not bulimic, you're not anorexic, you're just fat. So she sent me to the fat doc, back in the 90s, back to the fat doctor. Fat doctor put me on Fen-Phen. So I went from 160 pounds to 90 pounds in two months. And I was like, this is amazing. Because I can eat anything I want.
And now I'm thin. Then they discontinued Fen-Phen. Well, I was addicted. So then I turned to Ripule and Ephedra and Speed. And I became an addict.
Real fast.
So... I ended up in the hospital in Dallas of all places. with I thought I was having like a heart arrhythmia and the doctor's like, you're eating the lining of your heart with whatever you're taking. And of course, you know, you're 23. You look at the doctor and you're like, what do you know?
I live forever.
10 years of medical school. Yeah. Yeah. You don't know. Six months later, New York city, different doctor, different hospital, same scenario. That one dropped the F-bomb and he was very explicit and he's New York. You're going to die. And now I'm like, Ooh, the F-bomb, this must be serious. So that's when I said, okay, something's wrong.
And I tried to get sober and I couldn't, I couldn't get off the stuff. And I didn't have money for rehab. You know, I'm a broke college student. So a friend of mine dragged me to a yoga class. And I remember it was hot. I was uncomfortable. I couldn't touch my toes and I'm complaining. And she's like, just shut the F up and do yoga.
And at the end of the class, the instructor came over and he's like, I'm going to help you get sober. We're going to do it on a yoga mat. And I said, okay. So I learned to deal with my trauma and my childhood crap on a yoga mat. And I got sober and I was like, okay. And then I said, maybe this is what I should do. So I took an addiction class and the instructor put everything on the board.
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