The Real Dope Podcast

When Presley Gerber died at a rehab facility, the headlines quickly found someone to blame. His parents. Beth and I know that blame well. My mother-in-law blamed me for my husband's addiction. Strangers have asked us, "Couldn't you have done something?" That kind of judgment never helps. It isolates families. It silences the truth about addiction. And it piles guilt on people who are already carry...

When you love an addict, your own memory works against you. They come home from rehab. They promise to be better. You want it so badly that you forget what life was really like. Then they tell you it never happened, and you start to wonder if you are the crazy one. In this episode, Meridith and Beth make the case for keeping a record. Beth shares the journal she kept while living with an active ad...

You saw the commercial. A pill. A monthly plan. A telehealth visit from your couch. And for one hopeful moment, you thought: this could be the answer. That hope is exactly what Beth and I want to talk about. Telehealth companies now advertise medications like naltrexone for alcohol and Suboxone for opioids on cable news, the Golf Channel, and the Tennis Channel. Some offer licensed providers and g...

You've asked the questions before. "If you loved me, you'd quit." "Couldn't you have done something?" "Haven't you suffered enough?" They feel logical. They come from fear and love. And they do not work. In this episode of The Real Dope, sisters Meridith Elliott Powell and Beth Brand get honest about the well-meaning words that make everything worse. Drawing on decades of loving addicts, including...

Meridith and Beth take on the question everyone has an opinion about: is alcohol actually good for you, or have we just been telling ourselves that for decades? They dig into how the moderate-drinking-is-healthy myth got started in the first place, what those early studies actually left out, and why an addiction specialist's blunt answer, that there is no amount of alcohol that is good for you, ch...

Meridith and Beth get honest about the connection nobody talks about: trauma, hopelessness, and addiction. They break down the difference between single-event trauma and the complex trauma that builds slowly, from growing up in a home with alcoholism to living through war. The truth is uncomfortable. Most of us never connect our coping behaviors, drinking, overeating, overworking, controlling, bac...

Privacy feels like protection. In an addicted family, it is usually the opposite. In this episode, Meridith and Beth unpack the line between healthy privacy and dangerous secrecy, and why so many enablers never learn where that line is. They share the moments they lied to cover for an addict, the safety risks that secrecy created for the people they loved, and the relief that came the first time t...

No one hands you a rulebook when addiction moves into your house. You just learn to live by it. In this episode, Meridith and Beth name the unwritten rules that took over their childhood home and, later, their own marriages: the addict comes first, the family's resources go to the addiction before anything else, you handle everything and feel nothing, and you never, ever talk about it. They trace...

Every generation faces its own perfect storm. For today's kids, it is the loss of community, the loss of trust, and thirteen hours a day on a smartphone. In this episode, Meridith and Beth dig into Jonathan Haidt's research on the anxious generation and ask a hard question: are we raising children who will self-medicate their way into addiction? They talk about what kids lose when they stop playin...

Hypervigilance is not a personality trait. It is a survival response to living with active addiction. In this episode, Meridith and Beth trace anxiety back to its roots: the sleepless nights, the constant phone checks, the inability to sit still at dinner with friends. They talk candidly about how anxiety shows up in the body long after the addict is gone, why it steals your ability to think, crea...

You know enabling isn't helping. So why can't you stop? In this episode, Meridith and Beth get honest about the fear, compassion, habit, and emotional payoff that keeps enablers locked in. They also share the first practical steps to begin breaking the cycle, including the one question that can change everything.

You didn't wake up one day and decide to become an enabler. It happened slowly, one small compromise at a time. In this episode, Meridith and Beth walk through the stages of how enabling takes hold, from helping to protecting to living in fear, and why understanding that progression is the first step to getting out.

Shame is the silent force that keeps enablers hiding, covering, and spiraling deeper. In this raw and honest conversation, Meridith and Beth dig into where shame begins, how it evolves, and why the only way out is to drag it into the light. If you've ever felt responsible for someone else's behavior, this one is for you.

A woman writes to the New York Times Ethicist asking whether it's ethical to spend her retirement savings on herself while her financially irresponsible cousin faces homelessness. Meridith and Beth see something else entirely: a textbook case of enabling. This episode explores how enabling shows up outside of chemical addiction, why helping can become harm, and what it means to finally put yoursel...

Denial isn't just the addict's problem. It's yours too. In this episode, Meridith and Beth unpack what denial really looks like for the enabler, why it protects you at first, and why it ultimately costs you everything. From unconscious cover-ups at dinner parties to displaced anger and physical illness, they trace the quiet, dangerous ways denial takes hold, and what it finally takes to break free...

Tiger Woods' DUI arrest becomes the lens for a much deeper conversation about addiction's hidden victims: the children, the family members, the people left picking up the wreckage. Meridith and Beth also respond to a New York Times Ethicist letter about a bride whose recovering-alcoholic fiance wants to invite his active-alcoholic mother to the wedding. Boundaries, loyalty, and where to draw the l...

Welcome to another episode of The Real Dope! This time, sisters Meridith and Beth are exploring a topic that often doesn't get enough attention: why your own recovery is so important when you're living with or loving someone facing addiction. Drawing on their personal experiences—ranging from family ups and downs to candid discussions about enabling—Meridith and Beth open up about what it truly ta...

Welcome to another episode of The Real Dope, the podcast for anyone walking alongside someone battling addiction. Today, sisters and co-hosts Meredith Elliot Powell and Beth Brand warmly explore the topic of trauma—especially the often overlooked complex trauma experienced by those living with or caring for someone struggling with addiction. Through personal stories and the latest research, Beth a...

 Welcome to another episode of The Real Dope, a warm and welcoming podcast for anyone supporting loved ones through addiction. Hosted by the caring sisters Meredith Elliot Powell and Beth Brand—two compassionate women with personal experience loving and supporting addicts—this show isn't just for the addict, but for all of us trying to navigate the challenges that addiction can bring into our live...

Welcome to another episode of The Real Dope , the podcast dedicated to those who walk alongside someone battling addiction. Hosted by sisters Meredith Elliot Powell and Beth Brand, this show is a real, no-nonsense space for enablers, supporters, and loved ones of people with an addiction—created by people who have truly lived it. In today's episode, "The Power of Information," Meredith and Beth di...

Welcome back to The Real Dope ! In this episode, hosts Meredith Elliott Powell and Beth Brand dive deep into the vital topic of getting help—not for the person with an addiction in your life, but for you , the person loving and supporting them. Drawing from their own powerful experiences as sisters who have spent years navigating relationships with people with an addiction, Meredith and Beth lay o...

Welcome back to The Real Dope! In this heartfelt episode, sisters Meridith Elliott Powell and Beth Brand share a deeply personal and important topic: what to do when your child is struggling with addiction. They've seen it firsthand in their own families, so they understand how overwhelming, confusing, and heartbreaking it can be. They're here to be real with you, talking about how to recognize th...

Hey there, and welcome back to The Real Dope! In today's episode, sisters Beth Brand and Meridith Elliott Powell get real about something that often gets overlooked when you love an addict: protecting yourself. Whether you're married to, related to, or caring for someone battling addiction, this episode is packed with down-to-earth advice and honest stories about why it's so important to look out...

Hey there, and welcome back to The Real Dope! If you're someone who loves, lives with, or supports a person struggling with addiction, this episode is definitely for you. Based on real stories from sisters Elizabeth Brand and Meredith Elliot Powell, who've been through it all themselves, today's chat is all about what happens when you start to lose your belief in yourself while dealing with the ch...

Hey there, and welcome back to The Real Dope! This week, hosts (and sisters) Meridith Elliott Powell and Beth Brand are diving into something that might surprise you: when it comes to addiction, you can actually count on your addict to follow certain patterns. It might sound crazy, addicts often seem totally unpredictable—but Meridith and Beth are here to break down how their experiences (and what...