Recovery Demystified
Recovery Demystified is a 501c3 nonprofit based out of Northwest Arkansas. Our mission is to empower people to create their own unique path to addiction recovery by providing free peer support, books, resources, and education. We are a group of people who forged their own unique paths to addiction recovery outside of the typical spiritual framework. RD is science based, non-religious, empowering, adaptive, and practical. If you have ever felt left behind or pushed to the fringes of society, you are in the right place! Recovery for the rest of us! Instagram @recoverydemystified Email info@recoverydemystified.com Donate to our cause! https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/PLEJRR76CAMHG or Venmo @recoverydemystified
Episodes
Trigger warning: Graphic description of suicide
Hana's miraculous addiction recovery story begins with growing up with an alcoholic mother who created an extremely chaotic living environment. Hana was forced to caregive and be a "friend" to their mother, a phenomenon known as parentification -- when a child is forced to be in an adult role. She got into meth and alcohol as a teen in order to make friends and be away from her home l...
In today's episode, Early and Amber Hollingsworth of popular YouTube channel Put the Shovel Down discuss data-informed methods of how to help our loved ones escape their addiction. Most people accidentally put themselves in the "villian" role in their addicted family member's life, even though their actions are rooted in love. Why is this? What can we do better? How can we use compassionate understanding to help them escape from al...
Today Early discusses more addiction recovery resources for people in recovery, sober curious folks, and anyone else on a healing journey with their relationship to drugs and/or alcohol. They discuss a book from White Bison Inc about the hundreds of years old Indigenous resistance to alcoholism, and the decolonization movements that heal Native American communities. Next is a book outlining the principals of a unique trauma therapy...
Trigger warning: brief mention of childhood sexual abuse and suicidal thoughts
Today we hear Danny's addiction recovery story as a neurodivergent person. He describes himself as being a highly emotional child who cried often. He tried LSD at the age of 11, and promptly changed his world view and became a musician and someone who ditched class. He got kicked out of multiple schools and was sent to a jail-like boarding school. After ...
Today Early discusses a bit more about their own story in addiction recovery. They outline the three most important plant medicines they have worked with on their journey: valerian root, kratom, and ayahuasca. What's right for one person may be harmful for another, and the most important thing is learning to listen to your own intuition and find what's right for you. Our relationship to plants, the earth, and each other has been gr...
Trigger warning: mention of child abuse, extensive discussion about suicide
Today we hear Kelly's addiction recovery story. Her life started with a complicated childhood: a mix of happiness, lov...
In today's episode, Early discusses the foundational ideas that the RD secular addiction recovery/sober curious support groups have been built upon. These ideas are a work in progress, but include:
-a land & history acknowledgement
-viewing oneself as a scientist and a test subject in our recovery
-the belief that we are powerful and already whole
-a practice of recognizing our addicted voice and distinguishing it from our core se...
Trigger warning: Frank discussions about suicidal thoughts and ambivalence towards life, talk of grief and death.
In today's episode, we hear Brittany's addiction recovery/sober curious story. She grew up with parents in active addiction and experienced abandonment and trauma in early childhood. When she had her first drink, fireworks started going off, and she knew that this was the key to feeling better... for now. As she became ...
In order to rewire our brains, we must feed them new information. Or bathe them in a soup of new information. Today, Early recommends a few books and podcasts to support addiction recovery. They also start the conversation about accountability for harm caused during addiction.
Books:
How to Eat to Change How You Drink by Brooke Scheller, DCN, CNS
Dry by Augusten Burroughs
The Places That Scare You by Pema Chodron
Podcasts:
Trigger warning: Mentions of domestic violence, grooming
Today we hear Emily's addiction story and about how she became sober curious. Emily's childhood involved having one parent in severe addiction, and the other parent covering for them. She discusses the complexity of loving someone who is abusing you, and using sex as a young person to seek the approval she wasn't getting at home. She began drinking and smoking pot, and soon b...
In today's episode, Early discusses the two pivotal mental shifts they made in their life that turned recovery from feeling impossible to being possible. Once they made these mental shifts, they were no longer "trying to quit drinking." Instead, they finally just quit.
Want to donate to our nonprofit? Donations in any amount can be sent to our Venmo or PayPal @recoverydemystified
Trigger warning: brief mention of suicide.
Today we hear Bill's addiction recovery story. Bill first saw the destructive powers of alcohol when his dad started drinking a lot after his parents got divorced. His own experimentation with binge drinking led to blackouts early on. In high school, he recognized that his drinking and weed smoking had started messing up his life and he decided to move in with his grandmother. After moving...
Today we explore more secular addiction recovery resources for sober curious people. What works for you is what works for you! Try everything and see what sticks. Maybe understanding your shadow self will help. Perhaps reading about someone else who has been on a crack bender will make you feel less alone. Maybe the practical tools of Buddhism will soothe your anxious mind. Everything is connected, and perhaps if we can destroy our...
Today we hear Jonny's addiction recovery story as a neurodivergent veteran. Jonny grew up with a father who drank quite a bit. He made it to the age of 19 without ever drinking or using drugs, and then after signing up for the navy, he started to party. Drinking felt like a better version of himself - at first. After leaving the military he started working at a bar on Dickson Street. The drinking culture of bartenders gave him a fr...
In this week's episode, Early shares a bit about addictive cravings and how to survive them for sober curious people or folks in addiction recovery. They also share a few resources of things that have been helpful for them along the way. However, what's most important is to find what works for you. Do you like running? Music so loud your ears bleed? Yoga videos? Do you like calling your mom? Make a list of things that you like, and...
Trigger warning: brief mentions of sexual assault and self-harm.
In today's episode, Early speaks with Hope about their addiction recovery story as a queer and neurodivergent person. They were raised by their grandparents due to their parents being in active addiction. Hope was determined to not be like their parents, but things didn't turn out the way their kid self had planned. They began by smoking weed to alleviate cramps, and ...
Let us continue to bathe our brains in a soup of new information. This month's list contains two addiction memoirs and a book on attachment theory, as well as three single-episode recommendations for podcasts on attachment theory.
Addiction recovery stories help us feel less alone, and understanding attachment theory can help us lead a healthier sober or sober curious life!
Books:
I'm Black and I'm Sober by Chaney Allen
Pill Hea...
Obsidian returns to discuss their ongoing addiction recovery story as a queer and neurodivergent person! In today's episode, we discuss the complexity of using again after a period of abstinence. Our healing work doesn't just disappear, and it can inform our experience when we use again. Picking back up again can be very different, end quickly, and be a reminder of why we quit in the first place. The danger lives within our perspec...
Today we hear Randy's addiction recovery story. Randy's life started with tragedy and abandonment trauma; he was the sole survivor of a car wreck that killed his mother and two brothers when he was only 9 months old. Growing up he was always the odd one out until he found drugs and bad kids. He managed to keep his life together for a long time while drinking and using a variety of drugs. Eventually, crack became his downfall. Years...
In today's episode Early goes over our inherent need for both community and alone time, why your social anxiety makes you normal, how alcohol advertising targets our "wound of existence", anti-individualism, why normal things don't feel good anymore, and the ultimate question to ask while socializing:
"Why am I here??"
Follow along with the slideshow: Click here!
Johan Hari's Ted Talk: Click here!
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