Recovery Demystified - Secular Addiction Recovery and Harm Reduction for Queers, Neurodivergent People, and Their Allies – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In part 3 of Hana's miraculous addiction recovery story, she breaks down the step-by-step reality of going from homelessness to rehab, sober living, and long-term stability. She shares how she managed triggers, avoided relapse during chaotic jobs, and stayed sober while building her business and buying a home. All the while, she follows her intuition through every growth phase, confronts the reality of being a felon, and unlearns the shame society projected onto her. This episode explores setting boundaries with family, including the painful decision to cut off her mother, and what it actually takes to protect sobriety in real life.

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Connect with Hana @pickle_de_chip

Theme music: Logan Bragg

Logo: Stevie Petet

Recovery Resources that actually help, build your own recovery with secret resources you probably never heard of.

Let's take a deep dive into a neurodivergent, radical perspective on surviving the holidays with practical addiction recovery skills. We discuss tools that foster empowerment, nonviolent communication, healthy boundaries, and harm reduction that are specific to the unwanted pressure society puts on us this time of year. Family dynamics can cause added stress that fuels cravings. We talk about addressing and sitting with our loneliness without shame. You'll learn how having somatic awareness of your own nervous system can save you from getting overwhelmed. If you've been looking for an off-the-beaten-path view on holiday survival, you're in the right place.

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Want to tell your story on this podcast? Have thoughts or feedback? We would love to hear from you! info@recoverydemystified.com

Theme music: Logan Bragg

Logo: Stevie Petet

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 an adult her drinking got out of control, although she wasn't able to view it that way at the time. She experienced tragedy after tragedy, and as she did, she spiraled further and further with alcohol. No one called her out on it at the time because it's normal in our society to self-medicate grief with booze. As time went on, the death around her never stopped, and neither did the drinking. She reached a breaking point when she had a realization that her drinking was pushing people away, and she decided to change her life. She's currently in the place of trying to quit drinking but not always succeeding. This part of the process is relatable, challenging, and not often talked about.

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Logo: Stevie Petet

Theme Music: Logan Bragg

Recovery Resources that actually help, build your own recovery with secret resources you probably never heard of.

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:

How We Handle Harm by Punch Up Kick Down Distro (click here)

Love in a Fucked Up World by Deane Spade

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Theme Music: Logan Bragg

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 began using both quite heavily. Emily reflects on how her upbringing affects her relationships in adulthood. Today she is wondering: what are all these substances really doing for me?

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Logo: Stevie Petet

Theme Music: Logan Bragg

Recovery Resources that actually help, build your own recovery with secret resources you probably never heard of.

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.

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Theme Music: Logan Bragg

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 out and going to college, the lack of oversight led to an acceleration in his drinking and he flunked out of college. Working in the restaurant industry normalized this level of drinking and added cocaine to the mix. Multiple DUIs and waking up hungover still laying on his back porch pushed him to get sober during the pandemic, and he has never looked back.

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Theme Music: Logan Bragg

Recovery Resources that actually help, build your own recovery with secret resources you probably never heard of.

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 inner queerphobia/transphobia and start to love the gender diversity inside us, we can create a stronger foundation for recovery!

Books:

Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott, PhD

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man by Bill Clegg

When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

Podcasts:

Gender Spiral by Ally Beardsley and Babette Thomas

Gender Reveal by Tuck Woodstock

Translash Podcast by Imara Jones (RD is featured in S5 Ep147!)

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Theme Music: Logan Bragg

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 free pass to take shots whenever, and to be drunk at work. Eventually things spiraled out of control, and a series of drunken decisions had him kicked out of his favorite bar, lose his car, his glasses, and kicked out of his house. Amazingly, he was able to get sober while continuing to work at that same bar on Dickson Street, where he is still working today.

Want to be interviewed on this podcast? Send us an email! info@recoverydemystified.com

Want to support this work? Venmo/PayPal @recoverydemystified

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Theme music: Logan Bragg

Logo: Stevie Petet

Recovery Resources that actually help, build your own recovery with secret resources you probably never heard of.

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 that you know make you feel better when you're done doing them. Then pull out the list any time you get a craving, do something for twenty minutes, and see if the fleeting feeling has passed you by. This isn't about supressing the feeling, it's about transforming it and surviving!

Things Early likes:

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Sudarshan Kriya Yoga

Vagus Nerve Reset

Only in Dreams

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Want to be on this podcast? Send an email! info@recoverydemystified.com

Want to donate to our nonprofit? Click here to donate!

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Instagram/Substack @recoverydemystified

Logo: Stevie Petet

Theme Music: Logan Bragg