Recovery Internet Radio

The U.S. has been a leader in medicine, the humane treatment of mental health and more recently addiction however we approach treatment from the perspective of our own particular needs.  Other countries approach their mental health and addiction issues with their own needs and cultural parameters.  Join us this week as we speak to Dr. Elizabeth Nyang  Ed. D LCPC about her practice here in the U.S....

Rachael was drinking shots at thirteen.  In high school she could drink most of the boys under the table and was proud to be a party girl…it was her identity.  Empty and scared inside but able to tell no one her secrets she marched off to therapy for years but skipped the alcohol part.  After some years of hard drinking she met a sober friend and the journey to recovery began.  Rachael's happ...

Pot wasn’t much of an issue; neither were pills. Boyfriends were largely to blame, she thought.  When he started selling and later using heroin she joined him blaming him for her use.  Later when he started using heroin IV she angrily felt like he was leaving her out and joined him….for years.  He died of an overdose and she began the journey to get well.  Multiple treatments and many bumps in the...

He was the youngest of eleven so that was the reason he drank?  Nahhhh…he drank because he didn’t know a better way to deal with life.  He used because he was an alcoholic and a drug addict.  It’s just the way it was done where he came from.  He drank because he suffered through a number of family deaths?  Nahhh…he drank because it was all he knew and by the time he wanted to stop he couldn’t.  He...

Join us for a lively discussion with Ray Chlebicki, the former national sales manager for Roxand Labs, one of the three largest manufacturers of methadone.  Methadone, originally a drug developed by the Germans during the Second World War as a synthetic opiate pain reliever, has been used in this country both as a pain reliever and as a substitution therapy for heroin addiction.  Many have found s...

 Some people can travel quite a few miles before the “ism” catches up with them.  Taking all things into consideration I would have to say our guest ran about as fast and as far in front of the tsunami as anyone I know. But as Mark will tell you, you can’t run fast enough or far enough to outrun alcoholism.  Having bopped around the US, joining the military and “seeing the world” marrying a Brit a...

Our guest this week is Chris Gleason.  Chris is a nationally recognized substance abuse treatment professional who specializes in working with adolescents.  He’ll tell us how treatment works and the things parents can do.  We’ll talk about the developing adolescent brain, the disease concept and how adolescent development and addiction interact.  This is a must hear show for families dealing with...

Some say that addiction is an attempt to fill an emptiness inside. Many with addictive disease say that they never felt like they were enough; that they never fit in or belonged even if, to all appearances they were popular, successful and happy.  Our guest is one such person who despite outward success always felt he had “a hole to fill”.   “Good” was not enough and “best” was only a temporary fi...

If sustaining a relationship isn't hard enough these days throw in the need to recover from both sides of the addictive disease.  Our guests are John and Lori, a "recovering couple" who've been together many years and have been in recovery a long time as well.  They'll share how they have come to terms not only with their own addictions but each other, how they've fac...

News Flash: Big disagreement over Legality of Marijuana. Join us this Sunday for a lively discussion about the relative merits or lack thereof of our friend cannabis sativa.  Chris and I will take opposing sides of an argument that spans subjects from medical benefits to long term physical and emotional effects, from legality and decriminalization to morality; from social norms to addiction treatm...

He came in kicking and screaming.  He wasn’t anywhere close to an easy convert, in fact, it might have been a gaggle of ferocious resentments at people in the program that kept him coming back if only to prove them wrong.  He describes himself as “off the charts” in the area of analytical thinking and control and admits it’s a miracle that he stayed sober.  He’ll tell you that he’s “learned to tru...

 In his world drinking wasn’t a problem it was a way of life.  The question was never whether or not to drink but only how well you managed the drinking. Traumatic events in his teens led to withdrawal from relationships, more drinking and an early visit to AA.  Later further drinking helped to end a marriage which led to another more serious visit to AA. Shortly after the visit began, however, he...

Our guest this week has the personal experience to know the power of recovery.  His own time in the barrel gave him the sensitivity, the knowledge and the skills to intervene in the disease process largely in the lives of young opiate and benzo addicts. Brian J. has learned and has much to offer about the “science of addiction” and the importance of neuroscience in the recovery process.  He travel...

Welcome to our second annual Holiday Show.  Join us to talk to Scott D. about Christmases past in the "not so good old days" and how he manages a joyful and sober Christmas present.  We'll also feature some live music and conversation with our old friend Russell T.

They were sick and tired of seeing people suffer; family, friends, classmates, boyfriends and girlfriends.  They were tired of the stigma associated with drug addiction and tired of the lack of awareness around them about the heroin epidemic.  They decided to combat their feelings of helplessness and do what they could to have some impact on the issue.  They work with, as their founding member sta...

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...

Sometimes we try to forget about the painful things that happen and what could be more painful than losing a child? But Carolyn and her other daughter Shelly won't forget. They are activists, advocating for THE IGNORED; the depressed, addicted, self-injurers and the suicidal.  Her daughter Dani overdsoed on prescription medication.  She fell through all the protective safety nets in the syste...

Clearly, everybody’s story is different and twelve step programs have wide and open arms.  Our guest tonight started her recovery in Adult Children’s groups, graduated to AA and later added Sufism, her current spiritual practice.  Her family had struggled with addiction and several members of her family found some measure of recovery although both her brothers eventually succumbed to the disease. ...

OK Let's face it.  The odds aren't good for a young person to stay sober....right?  Well, the odds aren't really that good for anybody to stay sober so if we waited for the odds to be good there'd be no sober people at all. There are, however, some things that people can do that will increase their chances.  Like any other potentially terminal disease, chemical dependency will...

She had no intention of staying sober for more than a year.  It had been sex, drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll and in her head, that wasn’t going to change permanently.  Her EAP and a king-sized intervention landed her in treatment.  Now she faced the shame and the stigma associated with being a female drunk; her internal shame about her Mother role, the promiscuity, and being a pariah in her own family. S...

Most of his ups and down in life were in sobriety.  He got sober at 17 and is still that way 28+ years later.  For people that think young people haven’t done enough personal damage to need to get sober (these are the “I spilled more than you drank”, types) or for those that think young people have to relapse at least six times to “get it”, listen up.  Chris S. has a story of hope and recovery tha...

Pot wasn’t much of an issue; neither were pills. Boyfriends were largely to blame, she thought.  When he started selling and later using heroin she joined him blaming him for her use.  Later when he started using heroin IV she angrily felt like he was leaving her out and joined him….for years.  He died of an overdose and she began the journey to get well.  Multiple treatments and many bumps in the...

All you have to do is read the paper or listen to the news to know that there’s a heroin problem in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago; but like most people we feel that as bad as it is, it won’t happen to us.  But it happened to Ken and his family.  It happened to his daughter earlier this year and it launched Ken into the desire or maybe the need to get the message out to other parents who think t...

Isn’t drinking just part of what a hardworking, hard driving attorney does?  Isn’t a little relief after a difficult case; a hard day in court just what we do? Maybe for some but for Mike it left the territory of “normal”, “hard drinking” and “relief” and into the territory of trouble, family upheaval and powerlessness. Mike is a long-time recovering person with a admirable resume including a lead...

Sobriety is more than the containment of a compulsion; it’s a fundamental shift in consciousness.  Is change a prerequisite of sobriety? It has been said that “the same man will drink again”.  Is change a random event, a willful management of behavior, a miracle or something else?  Is change an event or a process?  These are some of the topics that we’ll explore with our guest this week, suitcoat...