Not Your Average IV User

The man of few words speaks, a lil bit. 

"What I was born into, I do not have to become." The poverty.  The abuse. The drug centered lifestyle. In Ep. 036 Tish takes us from being the person who through the best house parties to being homeless. She opens up about growing up alongside her parents, ultimately losing her mom to a drug overdose, and making the decision to not continue that pattern in her daughters life.  We interviewed Tish'...

In the late winter of 2023, I had just finished a workout with the 9a CrossFit class. A tall fella stood at the end of the gym - dressed in all black, with a fresh pair of J's on. I thought, "This is my guy."  This was Paul. Paul has been a senior writer at Rolling Stone for thirty years. He covered the NFL concussion scandal, including the Aaron Hernandez story, was the first to report the horror...

Healthcare is all about measurements: survival rates, success rates, no show rates, outcomes. But the addicted population can be terribly difficult to get and keep any data on.   A lot of us receive treatment in facilities where our information is protected by federal law (HIPPA & 42 CFR Pt. 2, for all my industry nerds out there). A lot of us stay clean in fellowships that are centered in anonymi...

NYAIVU has largely hosted individuals in recovery and given them the platform to address stigmas, stereotypes, and preconceived notions about the nature of addiction, treatment, and recovery. Their stories have challenged societal norms and we've heard from people who have pushed the bounds on what a good comeback story looks like. We have also been lucky to have a few episodes where we have discu...

Some people are led to places in life that give them a sense of clarity and purpose that fix everything. Timmy recounts that one day in his life, where he changed – and people around him noticed the change. He recalls, "It made for a slow Senior Year of High School." Unfortunately, that period was only a small harbor of reprieve and Timmy would return to using, going on to the bitter ends of activ...

Stories of addiction and recovery demonstrate the resiliency that humans possess; to go from the darkest pits of despair to leading meaningful lives in the light.    Ep. 031 Guest, Melissa Stacy, takes on a journey through losing her mother, foster care, the Department of Youth Services, human trafficking, and being hopelessly addicted to being a mom & wife, a counselor, an anti-human trafficking...

NYAIVU has been both humbling and rewarding - having guests discuss their deepest and darkest days so candidly while simultaneously choosing this platform to share their hard won victories and triumphs. In Ep. 030 we welcome Philip Eil, a freelance journalist based in Rhode Island, who has been at work for over a decade chronicling a story closely related to this project. Below, from Philip: "I'm...

Substance Use Disorders have the ability to affect a person's entire existence – mind, body, spirit. While recovery can be a journey of improving and restoring ones mental and physical health, spirituality is a hallmark of numerous recovery pathways like nature, church, or the anonymous fellowships. With that being said, there are those of us that feel the spiritual malady a little deeper and such...

Sometimes the universe just seems to bring people together.  Through a friend of a friend of a friend - I got hooked up with J Troy Gray.  Troy is the Pastor at Zion Baptist Church and the CEO & founder of Another Chance Ministries. One thing he and I have in common is feeling called to be active personally and professionally in the addiction treatment field and recovery effort in Ohio. Moreover,...

Teamwork makes the dream work. Very on-brand with the Comeback City, Jacob and Bruce represent the parallels of what personal recovery does for community recovery. Once burdens to the taxpayer, whose main accomplishment was keeping their families worried sick about them, these guys have been able to find their way into long term recovery and make the most out of it. No longer frequent flyers in ja...

"Ha! Liles! The last place I saw you was…", Anthony started off as he began to tell a story about me slamming a powdery substance into my face in the middle of a crowded field of concert goers.   When we ran back into each other, I was working at a treatment center, one I was alumni of, and Ant (known by many other names, discussed in the episode) was making one of his numerous trips through that...

I've known Terra for a long time. She was one of the people that came before me in my areas recovery community and kept the door open for me until I decided to show up.  During her time clean, she's gone through some tough stuff - some for better and some fore worse; from going to graduate school losing her father (I've got a soft spot for Dads),  but she always seems to keep her recovery at the f...

Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction; 2 of which closely connect to the NYAIVU project - Dreamland and The Least of Us.   Dreamland  won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015. It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, S...

What reservations am I holding on to? In treatment and recovery, a reservation refers to a set of circumstances where someone has not totally committed to sobriety should that particular situation arise. A chance that "if this happens…" an individual may turn back to drug or alcohol abuse; a situation where the person doesn't think they would make it through clean.  Reservations largely revolve ar...

"OH YEA, THOUGHT WE WAS DONE? NAH." (in my best DJ Drama voice) Fresh off of 2022 Summer Bummer at the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts, headlining artist Lil Brows sat down with his partner in crime, Chin, to talk about being in Portsmouth, how they connected and bonded through music, and drop some advice on identifying what you want and going after that goal.  Lil Brows, the artist formerly known...

How many chances does someone deserve at treatment? If we were talking about any other ailment outside of substance use disorders it would be a pretty straight forward answer...    As long as a medical professional believes that there is the potential positive outcome, and as long as the individual needing medical intervention is motivated to continue - treatment would go on until the disease stat...

Addiction is full of contradictory and paradoxical behavior. From numerous guests, we've heard stories of growing up around or being exposed to a drug centered life at an early age. Often times it's recognized by the person as being not something that is desirable - and they make the commitment to themselves: "I am going to do something different." Natasha never planned on becoming inmate W090737...

How do you spot a successful outcome?     Is it… Dozens of trips to treatment… Relapses and continued use after having some time clean… Multiple incarcerations including jails, community based correctional facilities, & prison - all linked back to a drug centered lifestyle?   Or is it… Getting the job you always wanted… Having multiple years of recovery… Starting your own business… Going back to s...

"It all kind of circled around the need to be accepted and be liked in whatever environment I was in." Drugs and alcohol can be the magic that helps us feel comfortable in our own skin & offer us connection with people around us. It can also be that divisive force that results in a total loss of self and walls is off from the people who love & care about it most. And if it's true that 90% of peopl...

"There used to be a 1-800 number, you pay someone $50 and they'd give you the number… You could call and in 3 days you would have whatever shipped to your door." Self described as a late bloomer who was really trying to avoid all the bad stuff that she had seen and heard about alcoholism and addiction Missy opens up about how, unfortunately for her, as a person with a substance use disorder - we o...

A hallmark sign of substance use disorders are the repeated failures of fulfilling major life roles and the continued use despite those consequences. The types of shortcomings that sacrifice jobs, lead to criminal records, and disconnects families. In Ep. 016, Josh talks about watching his life go by on the fringes of society and how treatment & long term recovery have offered him an opportunity t...

Drugs are a lot of fun... Until they're not  It's important for people to know that in some instances, individuals start using drugs because it offers a value to their life. Drugs can sometimes show up as a benefit.  However, at some point, people with substance use disorders reach a point of diminishing return. The drug stop working like they used to. The drug turns on an individual - from being...

Garett is just a guy. 

Chronic homelessness is defined as a person being homeless for more than one year or experiencing being homeless four or more times in a three year span. On any given night in the U.S. there are around 100,000 people living chronic homelessness. For more than 5 years, Sarah cycled through various public parks, hospitals, and treatment - just trying to find some reprieve. In Ep. 013, Sarah talks ab...