Recovery Internet Radio

Rob R. started young in the drug world and subsequently started young in the recovery world.  It wasn’t an easy road or even a straight line to success. He was always a man with a dream…a goal for himself.  Ten years and an MBA later Rob is building a career owning, managing and consulting to rehab facilities across the country.  Join us this week to hear about Rob’s travels.

Believe what and how you want…skip organized religion entirely if you like (even though they might just know some things) but find what’s personal to you.  Bob D. did just that.  White knuckling for 18 months a beer looked pretty good.  Nine years later, looking down the barrel of a lonely (read divorce) life Bob tried AA.  With some AA sobriety on both sides of the families previous generation it...

She’s been determined to make a difference in the lives of her kids and the kids of the community.  She knew that it wasn’t easy for kids to grow up in today’s world and she knew it wasn’t easy for her kids so she decided to do something positive about it.  Brenda and a group of teens got together and started a place called “The Break”, a place for teens to gather, socialize and do positive things...

The first time he drank it was magic…he fit in…he thought he found the answer.  A car lover to the bone he found a way to wreck five Mustangs…yeh…five different Mustangs and every crash was alcohol related and somehow none resulted in a DUI.  He thought he might need some hobbies to stay out of trouble so he took up fishing and drinking, then soccer…and drinking and pretty soon, drinking…and drink...

Most people wouldn’t consider an alcoholic or drug addict a good candidate for enlightenment.  How is it then that recovering alcoholics and addicts find a “spiritual program”, a “power greater than themselves and are able, with the guidance of that new found power to recover.  It seems nothing short of miraculous that people with this devastating disease are able to swim up from the depths of des...

CJ Harmer and Trish Justis are two of Pioneer Center's youth program superstars. Their philosophy and that of the whole youth services team is one of respect for the kids they work withand support of each other.  They ask for kids to examine their thinking, take responsibility for their actionsand they celebrate even the smallest of successes.  CJ works as a prevention specialist in schools a...

Ryan joined us tonight to talk about his travels in recovery. Sat, 25 October 2014.

Most of the big industrial cities particularly Boston, Chicago, New York and Seattle have dealt with the heroin problem for years.  The problem however, seems to have metastasized into the surrounding suburbs where younger more affluent kids are getting into opiates.  These developments in our area have forced local departments to make changes in the way things are done.  With heroin comes overdos...

Coming from a background of addiction and neglect, Annabel pretty much made up her own rules.  She and her brother did their best to survive, sacrificing "normal" in the process.  A longing for love and approval led down a path of pills, booze and empty relationships.  Living in a downscale Hollywood apartment trying to manage her pill supply led to the gift of desperation.  Hoping to dr...

He came out of the gate angry and drinking heavily.  The environmental and genetic ingredients were all certainly present.  Fending largely for himself he was out-drinking his buddies at age 12.  Drinking, drugging and “supplementing his income” he managed to buy a house just after high school shortly after his Mom notified him she was moving to Florida and he should find a place.  He married a ba...

Pete was a kid torn from one parent and then torn again.  He was moved from place to place with little supervision.  Angry and hurt he acted out and was seemingly arbitrarily institutionalized at an early age.  He would tell you that the youth homes and jails were “gladiator schools” where he learned the rules of the street and animal survival.  Leaning on his survival instincts and increasingly o...

Jerry, his brother and Mom spent a good deal of their life on the run from a violent Father; moving from city to city, changing names, schools, friends and keeping secrets.  He desperately needed a sense of belonging and found drugs, alcohol and instant friends at age 14.  His use was way short of normal right out of the gate.  By age 16 he had gone to his first AA meetings.  He left in a hurry an...

Jeff started his journey after his parents’ divorce at age 13 with alcohol, weed and of all things, screwdrivers.  By high school he was living a double life, bi-sexual but hanging with the gangbangers.  Unable to manage high school behaviorally, heavy into pills and booze he disappeared to Nashville with an older lover.  He returned, confused and drug addicted with HIV.  He launched into a six ye...

She never felt like she belonged.  Gawky, pale and thin she never felt like she could compete with the “popular” girls.  By the end of high school she was a tall, shapely blonde with big blue eyes…the boys couldn’t get enough but underneath she still felt small, unlikeable and unloved.  Her quest for love started a long string of lies to herself which began to require more and more alcohol to assu...

He was a lost child…on his own in many respects. He felt alienated and not a part of anything.  It was a perfect set-up for addiction.  He was always searching for meaning…for something bigger but the bottle became his higher power. Even before recovery started he’d had a spiritual experience, in fact he’d had several and thought seriously about the ministry but once again, the bottle stepped in a...

Within months of his first go around with Vikes he knew he needed more.  Later a shady Doc gave him a prescription for 240 Norco a month and he managed to use that in two weeks.  He knew he was out of control and it went on for another seven years.  He graduated to oxy somewhere in that time span and had to hustle to manage enough of it to avoid getting sick at $80 a pill.  Stealing, “borrowing” f...

She finally got sober in her home area of South Bay.  She went to somewhere around 700 meetings in the two years that she slipped, slid and hid her drinking before she found solid ground.  Weathering the shame and embarrassment she continued to “keep coming back”.  After a beautiful sober retreat weekend with her sponsor she went home and got loaded.  Scared and unable to stand her husband’s disgu...

We’ve had a couple years now to allow the drug court process to mature.  We’ve had several “graduating classes” and a very good track record.  We talked to the initial sitting drug court judge to get the framework of the court’s operations so now, let’s talk to several recent drug court participants and hear their stories from the inside.  Join us this Sunday evening as we speak to Dan and Kurt an...

More than a few years ago a small group of parents began to meet in a therapists office.  They talked about their struggles to stay sane while living with the insanity of their behaviorally or addictively challenged kids.  They shared their fears, their shame, their struggles with difficult decisions and their small victories over staying out of the destructive vortex.  Some of these folks started...

You could call our show this week a love story of sorts.  Mary and her husband adopted a beautiful baby girl they named Kellen at 8 days and although her childhood was in some ways idyllic she started “cutting” by 6th grade.  By college there were serious alcohol and relationship problems that resulted in the early termination of her college career and a stint in rehab.  A medical evaluation revea...

Ibogaine is an extract from an African plant.  It produces a number of effects that we’ll find out about tonight but among them is the elimination, for most clients, of cravings and even desire for addictive substances.  Ibogaine came into mainstream view in the last decade  through its use as an alternative to largely unsuccessful attempts to help heroin addicts.  The drug and its use are banned...

Meet one of the most alive and articulate guys around.  Father Jerome is a well-known and well-loved Catholic Priest.  He’s full of contradictions; gregarious, gentle, caring, opinionated, humble and strong.  Join us as we cover his own struggle with addiction; his recovery process and how he blends his religion with his recovery.

She went to church, got good grades, was popular and funny but…her Mom was a “full blown alcoholic” and her Dad had an anger management problem.  Ann would say her family lived lives of “quiet desperation”.  She was always the first to start drinking and the last to stop.  She had her first “honest” drunk at 14.  Her management of her drinking during her first pregnancy brought up feelings that fu...

Tonight’s show is an unusual opportunity to look inside the world of young people; a glimpse into how kids experience life.  Our panel will be composed of high school aged people who are not actively involved with the drug culture.  They may be able to give us some perspective on what parents should be concerned with and what is hype.  They may be able to give us some perspective on today’s “norma...

He grew up in the City.  It wasn’t easy.  His first run at sobriety was at the Northwest Edge Alano club but between not being ready and the “marijuana maintenance program” it didn’t last long.  His second run was after the fateful “three point turn DUI” in Champaign Illinois.  With tragic losses in and out of sobriety Johnny is a miracle.  Join us this week for a story of tragedy and transformati...