Addiction2Recovery

"The Parable of an Alcoholic Who Was Stuck in a Hole and Could Not Find His Way Out" is the inspiration for this episode. We will first discuss the 'whys' of Alcoholics Anonymous in relationship to this parable and then we will give an overview of each of the 12 steps. These steps, and this program, have stood the test of time and have helped countless people with substance use...

Our final installment on Alcohol 101- the chronic effects of alcohol use. We will discuss the most frequent negative impacts that alcohol has on the body's organ systems from the most thought about, liver, to the less understood, cancers. Alcohol can negatively impact every system in the body impacting not only the length of life but also the quality of life. Quitting drinking, or even cuttin...

Alcohol Awareness Month Part 3! A significant number of adolescents use alcohol (15.1% in the last month in a survey of 12-20 year olds), 3 times the number who used tobacco products (5%) and 1.3X the number who used cannabis (11.8%). Youth tend to partake in binge drinking at higher rates, leading to significant acute health complications, accidents, and risky behavior. 20% of all high school stu...

Part 2 of Alcohol during Alcohol Awareness Month! In this episode we will further discuss the 'how much' concept. When is drinking considered 'at risk' vs 'acceptable'? (Disclaimer- no amount of any kind of alcohol is considered 'safe'). We will also discuss what is actually considered one drink. Finally, we will dive deeper into the effects of alcohol and t...

April is alcohol awareness month! This episode will begin our multi-episode series of Alcohol 101, with what defines 'drinking too much'. We will discuss the data in terms of how many people are affected by alcohol use disorder and how much it financially impacts all of our country.  Finally, we will talk about how one would know if they are at risk of developing an alcohol use disorder....

You do NOT want to miss this episode! Every parent who suffers from the disease of addiction has guilt and shame surrounding their kids, but what do kids think? We have the absolute HONOR of having Josh's oldest son, Ben, on today. The episode will start with Josh describing his parenting before his use started, while he was using (and the 2 years he was completely absent), and now in recover...

Ted Hartwell, Executive Director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, returns to discuss more details surrounding, and about, gambling addiction. We will cover some risk factors that differ from substance use disorders, the progression of this disease, different treatments, as well as the often not discussed or heard about ramifications.  Individuals who gamble, "we tend to impact 7-8 o...

Tom Gonzalez, an expert in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), joins us as we discuss trauma and the relationship with addiction. Persons with the disease of addiction often find substance to be a way to cope with "the emotional pain from a trauma that was likely done to me." He discusses how the medical model of addiction misses a huge component that often led to the substance use diso...

As we now enter the 4th wave of the opioid epidemic, what does the data actually show? And, even more importantly, why does it keep happening? We will discuss how things have evolved over the last 10+ years and explain why deaths keep happening. Also, what does an overdose even look like and what are the reasons overdoses result in deaths. This data is staggering, and it happens to anyone! For que...

Pastor John McKinzie, the lead pastor for Hope Fellowship Church in Frisco/McKinney/Prosper, Texas (just outside of Dallas), joins us today to discuss forgiveness, love and addiction. This man single-handedly helped Josh in his recovery journey and continues to inspire so many with grace and acceptance and love, often leading with, "I'm sorry that you experience that." In terms of a...

Officially the only behavioral addiction, gambling is far more common than what is seen and known. We are joined today by Ted Hartwell, the Executive Director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling. On this episode, Ted will share his personal story with gambling addiction and, throughout, highlight the risk factors for gambling addiction. We will also emphasize the parallels with substance use...

Pastor Rich Scherber, the 'God-father' of Mn Adult and Teen Challenge, returns for Part 2! We left off last week with Pastor Rich and his family just returning from South Africa where they had served for 5 years and fully planned on returning, but it seems that God had other plans! A quick meeting at a church, an offer that everyone would and should refuse, and nothing but rejection late...

Pastor Rich Scherber grew up in MN and was, as he calls it, a 'troubled kid.' Getting straight Ds and Fs, he was fonder of parties and drugs until one day, in his early 20s, he went to a favorite place to sell and party and was met by Christians who just wanted to love him. There was just something about that day that changed him forever! After burning his supply and killing his plants,...

What is AA and how did it come to be such a universally accepted practice in finding recovery? Started in 1935 by a salesman/stockbroker and a doctor, AA (Alcoholics Anonymous- now broadly includes all substances and branches which we will discuss) can be found around the world with well over 2 million members who meet anonymously with one common goal, a desire to not have another drink/hit/bump/e...

"There is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone." We start this episode with Brian getting his "bad and good" news and then have the honor to hear how his recovery journey continues. From finding humility to listening to where he was called to be, Brian has not only 'survived' the disease of addiction, but he has thrived in his actualization...

Pam, the mother of Jake, a victim of the opioid and drug epidemic, returns to dive deeper into her Family Peer Support Services non-profit, Thrive Family Recovery Resources. She discusses how, when she was caring for Jake, she received many messages on how she should "handle him" and "cope". However, Pam didn't agree with detaching, she didn't believe that she should...

The 5 Stages of Grief, ie the Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle, is well known and often applied for the death of a loved one or a similar life event, but here we will challenge our listeners to see how it, too, applies to addiction and recovery. When we can apply the same stages of grief to recovery from a substance use disorder, we can gain more empathy and understanding for those whom are struggling. For...

After hitting rock bottom when his kids were taken from his and his wife's arms by CPS and he was arrested, Brian realized he had to make a change. "I didn't know how to receive or handle what was going on in my life" he recalled. The next steps he states: "My wife got offered drug court... I got offered a prison sentence." However, he was able to make big changes, le...

Pam, the head of the non-profit Thrive! Family Recovery Resources, is a mother who, like so many others, had a child who suffered from a substance use disorder. Jake, unfortunately, inherited the strong addiction genes that ran through generations and, despite a 'stable, loving, close-knit, out-doorsy' family, still developed the disease, he did not chose it. Pam and her husband struggle...

Second chances, technically we get one every day- it's called tomorrow, but why are second chances important? Who deserves a second (or third or fourth) chance, and who gets to decide if they do? Maybe the better question is why do we make bad choices in the first place, because we all do? We will discuss bad choices as a general concept and how one can show they deserve a second chance. Barr...

Cross-Addiction or addiction transfer or addiction interaction disorder is sometimes confused with dual substance use disorder or a person who has multiple active substance use disorders. But what, then, is cross-addiction? Is a person in recovery from a substance use disorder more likely to, when in recovery, develop an alternative substance, or behavioral, use disorder? Or, rather, is a person i...

Dr Sara Polley joins us as we discuss the holiday season and how it can both positively and negatively impact the family of those suffering from the disease of addiction as well as the person themselves. The holidays should be a time of connection and togetherness, but when substance use disorder is part of the family, as it is for so many, it can get complicated. How can we navigate the holidays...

Let us introduce Rocky! Rocky's story begins with a critical life choice- hockey or rock 'n roll... What transpired from that one choice is unlike any other, as most stories are; however, Rocky's story literally took him around the world, gaining incomparable life experiences making him an invaluable asset to humans who find themselves incarcerated. His involvement with prisons star...

Meet Eddie. This is far more than Eddie's story. This episode will challenge the way you think about trauma and love and healing and codependency and shame and the pain associated with all of it. "Does my brain know it, does my heart know it and do they know it together."   Eddie also is the chair of the MN Harm Reduction Collaborative that is led by people with lived experience and...

Brian returns. When we ended, Brian had found his recovery from alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamines, only to be introduced to prescription opioids after a fluke accident at work. In this episode, many many things happen to bring Brian to his "I discovered a whole lot of new lows". At one point from 2009-2014 Brian thought, "I thought the only way to support my family was...