The Addicted Mind Podcast

On today’s episode of The Addicted Mind Podcast, Duane speaks with Gill Tietz, a biochemist and the host of the Sober Powered Podcast. Gill shares her alcohol addiction journey, the connection between our brain chemistry and addiction, and how she used her knowledge of science to achieve sobriety, change her way of thinking, and ultimately change her life.Gill had her first drink at 18 years old and, after feeling shame and guilt, she decided not to drink anymore after that. Four years later, when she was at grad school, she started drinking with her colleagues. Having dealt with bullying and trauma early in life, Gill just wanted to fit in. Once she had just one drink, she thought it was magic and the best feeling in the world. Best of all, she finally felt included. Within a year, she became a daily drinker. Drinking was a huge part of the culture of the lab she worked at so she thought it was normal behavior. By the second year, she was drinking a lot more with 80% or more alcohol in her drinks. She was blacking out several nights a week and going to work massively hungover. Towards the end, she started having several mental health issues, hating herself, and becoming very suicidal. Finally, Gill braved through her alcohol issue by accepting reality and looking at her drinking for what it was versus what she was hoping it could be someday. By removing emotions from the equation, she started to look at things from a more scientific perspective. Having removed feelings of shame and guilt, she opened herself up to self-compassion. In this episode, you will hear: What it’s like to be in a work culture where drinking is normal  How drinking impacts mental health The science behind addiction How understanding the science behind it opened Gill up to self-compassion How sobriety is achieved by looking at facts and removing emotions How brain chemistry is related to addiction The study looking at endorphin levels for social drinkers and people with alcohol issues The misconception about dopamine The concept of neuroplasticity Key Quotes:[10:08] - "I really didn't think my behavior was weird. I was just doing what you're supposed to do."[19:42] - “In science, you're trained to be very objective. Your thoughts and beliefs about something don't make it true.”[20:07] - “The big reason I was able to stop – I finally accepted reality and looked at my drinking for what it actually was."[22:56] - “When you can disconnect yourself from that, and just look at the actual facts of what's going on, it's helpful to make a good decision."[24:47] - “It's a bunch of different risks that add and subtract from each other. And if they add up enough, your risk of having a problem is very, very high. And then bam, you have a problem."[29:15] - “As you abuse alcohol, it makes changes to your reward system and other areas of your brain. [29:27] - “Not everyone's brain reacts exactly the same to alcohol.”[32:26] - “Endorphins actually trigger the release of dopamine."Supporting Resources:Sober Powered PodcastEpisode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today’s episode of The Addicted Mind Podcast, Duane talks with author Benjamin Hardy about his personal experience with addiction and the chaos that comes along with it. Benjamin describes the process overcoming his own addictions involved going through a “redemptive process,” which involved forgiving his father and rebuilding the relationship there. With trauma, you’re always looking in the rear-view mirror, but you need to make meaning going forward. Meaning is not going to strike you—you have to make it yourself. The beauty of this is that you can change the meaning of your past, Benjamin says. It’s key to have empathy for your old self.  Benjamin also talks about how writing about your trauma can really help. Turning away from the past, you can have hope for the future. Without a hope for the future, Benjamin says, the present becomes meaningless. You can also choose to ascribe a meaning to your past. We call it “meaning-making,” Benjamin says. Part of becoming emotionally-developed includes this idea of choosing the meaning of your past.He shares a story about how you can actively work to a solution for something that didn’t go exactly how you planned instead of snapping to a quick decision. You can choose to frame it in a new way instead of being defined by a failure. Choosing the meaning going forward can change how you store that forever. In his story, Benjamin points to the fact that he was vulnerable enough to share his feelings with the people in question as part of the process.Moving onto his book, Benjamin unpacks the idea that your personality is going to change, and that you have the power to choose who you want to be in the future. Your personality is just how you consistently show up. It’s crucial to have your identity based on who you actually want to be in the future. The same courage that moves you to say “I need help” is the courage it takes to tell people who you want to be in the future. It takes courage, as Benjamin says, because it’s uncertain. You’ll realize you might be rejected, but that you also need to do some “rejecting” to get you where you ultimately want to be. When you are open and honest, nothing is hiding anymore. Key quotes:05:05 — “There’s capital ‘T’ trauma and lowercase ‘t’ trauma.”07:55 — “While I was running, I think I was subconsciously building confidence and thinking about my future.”09:25 — “Memory is not objective; it’s more of a set of meanings we’ve given.”12:40 — ”You’re a normal person even though you’ve made mistakes—and by the way, we’ve all made mistakes.”16:45 — “We get stuck remembering the past rather than imagining the future.”29:45 — “You shorten the refractory period by taking action.”33:30 — “Identity and personality are two different things.”36:50 — “Who you want to be is part of your true self.”38:30 — “We’re more likely to believe the stories we tell people about who we are.”41:15 — “There is potential for you to look back at this thing you’re going through and be grateful.”Supporting Resources:Check out Benjamin’s website at https://benjaminhardy.comEPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today’s episode of The Addicted Mind Podcast, Duane speaks with Dr. Joseph Volpicelli, a world-renowned scientist clinician whose research led to the discovery of naltrexone (a drug that treats alcohol addiction) among many other discoveries related to addiction treatment.  Today, he talks about how naltrexone can help someone struggling with alcohol addiction reduce their cravings. With the help of naltrexone as one of the tools in their toolkit of recovery, people can now start to build a meaningful, purposeful life. They also talk about the importance of the other component: not just the medical intervention, but also the psychosocial interventions for recovery.Dr. Volpicelli has been interested in addiction treatment and research for 40 years now. Such interest started when he was a medical student working with individuals who were returning from Vietnam who had developed an alcohol addiction. Many of them were using opiates but when they came back to the United States, they started drinking more alcohol. For a long time, he has been interested in the relationship between stress, alcohol drinking, and opiates, and has taken that observation into the laboratory working with rats. What he found out was that the ability to control trauma had a very profound effect in terms of one's ability to fight something like cancer. When you're exposed to uncontrollable trauma, your brain releases endogenous endorphins and endogenous morphine-like molecules that help kill the pain. The problem with addiction is that the behavior makes you feel better temporarily but it sows the seeds for the next episode when you’ll need to use alcohol or drugs again, thereby creating an addictive cycle.Dr. Volpicelli discovered how naltrexone helps moderate the highs and lows and, therefore, helps break that addictive cycle. This then gives a person a chance to find other things in life and gives them a sense of purpose and social connectedness.In this episode, you will hear: How Dr. Volpicelli got interested in addiction treatment Trauma and its effects on physical or behavioral disorders How stress is related to alcohol addiction Withdrawal from your own endogenous opiates The endorphin effect that happens in addiction How naltrexone breaks the addictive cycle Understanding the logical brain vs. the emotional brain The BRENDA Approach to enhance adherence Key Quotes:[04:06] - “The ability to control the trauma had a very profound effect in terms of one's ability to fight something like cancer.”[08:05] - “When you're exposed to uncontrollable trauma, your brain releases endogenous endorphins and endogenous morphine-like molecules that help kill the pain.”[09:24] - “A lot of times when people have a very stressful week, on the weekends, they just feel like sitting on a couch eating potato chips, and for some folks when they drink, it helps improve their mood… that's probably withdrawal from your own endogenous opiates.”[10:53] - "The problem with addiction is that the behavior, drinking alcohol or any other behavior, makes you feel better temporarily. But it sows the seeds for the next episode where you need to use the drug again. And so it creates an addictive cycle."[13:58] - “The naltrexone helps moderate the highs and lows so it helps break that addictive cycle.”[15:33] - “By breaking that cycle, the medicine then gives a person a chance to find other things in life to give them a sense of purpose and social connectedness.”[23:24] - "Rather than fight our emotional brain, it's important to understand how it works."[25:55] - "We like to do something purposeful and meaningful in our lives. And people who establish that have much less risk of going back to relapse."Supporting Resources:https://volpicellicenter.com Episode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's episode, Duane speaks with Howard Lipp about the recovery he experienced after coming up against a wall that he couldn't move. He also shares about the experience he had in rehab that led him to do some work with psychedelics. This enabled him to transcend and find a way out of his suffering and pain.Howard jumped into the world of recovery in 2002 after hitting a wall with drugs and alcohol which he describes as impenetrable. He later realized he had a callous on his forehead from running into the same wall for such a long time without realizing it. Although he wasn't actively suicidal, he no longer wanted to live the way he was living.Therefore, he went through a Pavlovian conditioning program that worked for a while. The problem was that it didn't solve the internal conflict he had within him: his feelings of worthlessness and all the pain he carried from his past of abuse and bullying. Howard went through most of his life believing there was something foundationally wrong with him. It was easy to grab evidence from his experience as a child and from the fact that he needed something outside of himself to feel okay in his skin. The only thing that shut that up was alcohol. It worked well. The problem is, eventually every substance will fail.Howard went to a treatment center and had the most unusual experience after being awake for 21 days. Then, he didn't move for three days and had no detox symptoms or medications applied to his body. Today, Howard talks about the out-of-body experience he had at this treatment center. He also shares his first experience with plant-based medicine and how it broke through something within him. He felt an immediate connection to the presence of a great mystery of spirit. He later realized that his addiction was not to a substance but to his thinking. He believed every single thought he had and that the thinker was him rather than the construct itself. He also started to see how his experience had informed his beliefs. In this episode, you will hear: The belief that leads to a feeling of unworthiness Looking beyond the constructive self The self-flagellating false self that beats the crap out of us The belief that we’re separate from the Divine Why circumstances are not the challenge but the thinking mind is What happens when you use your mind as the guidance system for living The benefits of plant-based medicine in healing addiction and trauma Key Quotes:[03:13] - “You can't solve the problem with the thing that's causing the problem.”[04:50] - "We come from the realm of the great mystery, and land into a body and we're not received as this whole and complete being. Instead, we're given lots of reasons why we're not whole and complete."[12:28] - "As Michael Palin says, ‘If you really want to change your mind, you're going to have to address these false selves.’" [16:25] - "Nobody is really suffering from an addiction to a substance and that is a known fact that it's a symptom."[23:16] - “Psychedelics bring you into the present moment and you can't run away.”[29:32] - “My suffering is not what's happening in the moment. It's the story I tell myself about it.”[42:02] - "The greatest lie we tell ourselves and our kids is that the value of a human being can be codified or quantified by anything of this world, our job, or money or all of that. But the essence of what we are can’t be measured."If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:www.enaandhoward.com Episode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Getting through the first two years of recovery can be extremely difficult. Just when you think you've gone as far as you can go, you realize you’re only at the beginning. You need to develop the skill set to master recovery and live your best life.On today’s episode, Duane speaks with Barry Lehman about achieving long-term recovery or recovery after the first two years of sobriety. They specifically talk about what that looks like and how we can gain mastery so we can live our best life and find joy and happiness in recovery. Barry is a retired pastor and has been sober for 33 years now. While he was in ministry as a parish pastor, he discovered he was an alcoholic. He went into a treatment program and stayed in the ministry for another 11 years after getting sober. He also got his Doctor of Ministry in Counseling and got his license as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor which he has served as part-time for 28 years now.Through his recovery journey, Barry learned how to be healthy and he now hopes he can share his story with others. In his book, Mastering Recovery, Barry talks about long-term recovery. He realized that the nitty-gritty of staying sober for more than two years isn't talked about enough. When you’re in recovery, everything changes drastically. You have to find out how to live again and that’s not easy. In your first two years of recovery, you learn how to go about normal life and enjoy various occasions without alcohol. However, once you hit the third year, you can’t just go on doing things you used to do and just try doing them sober. If that’s all you do, you’ll end up having lots of cravings as well as mental and emotional relapses.  In this episode, you will hear: Why Barry wrote the book Mastering Recovery What mastery really is Practice as the path to mastery How to do a personal inventory Trauma-informed treatment Finding meaning and purpose Building a recovery-positive list Key Quotes:[07:44] - “The real nitty-gritty down and dirty way of staying sober beyond two years isn't very often talked about.”[12:29] - “Getting better at something important to you. – that's what mastery is.”[12:56] - “That's the path of mastery, keep practicing… When you think you've come to the end, you're only just beginning.”[18:42] - “Trauma-informed treatment, while it’s a buzzword, it's also very real.”[20:25] "Learning about movement, learning about exercise, is a big step that many of us need to take at that two-year mark, if not before."[27:50] - "Even when you're angry and upset, or frustrated, you begin to learn how to deal with those. And that's part of the practice."[29:45] - "I got to have that awareness of myself and my world of who I am. That's long-term recovery."[31:42] - "If you're lucky enough to have good people around you, who have been through good treatment and good therapy, you'll be able to lay down the stepping stones that will keep you growing in that area."If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:www.balehman.comBook: Mastering RecoveryEpisode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's episode, Duane talks with Faith Elicia about her nine-year journey through an eating disorder. They discuss how she struggled several times to get help and how she finally found something that worked for her. They also talk about what helped her deal with not only her eating disorder but also with her anxiety, depression, and family history of addiction and family dysfunction. Faith's story provides a lot of hope that, even when you feel at your worst and like you can't go on, there's still hope out there. Faith comes from an addictive household, being a child of an alcoholic. She used to believe that all dads yelled. She was scared of all fathers and generalized that all dads are mean. At 16, Faith saw her dad drunk for the first time, throwing a chair while she was hiding under the table. Then, he sought help and got sober for 30 years until his death three years ago.She also has a sister who found recovery in Narcotics Anonymous and another sister who found recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous. Although she was very familiar with the behaviors of addiction growing up, she wasn't aware that there was addiction in their house because of shame. Everything had to stay within the walls. After she had her third child, Faith dealt with anxiety, panic, and agoraphobia. This was in the 80s and there wasn't really an understanding of anxiety disorders at that time. She couldn't tell anyone for fear they would lock her up in a psychiatric ward. Mental health just wasn't talked about like it is now. Understandably, Faith was petrified. She was very afraid of drugs and alcohol. However, impulsive compulsive behavior can come out in other forms. Food became her way of coping and dealing with her internal chaos. Faith’s anxiety disorder turned into an eating disorder. It wasn't until she started to incorporate a mindfulness practice that things shifted for her.In this episode, you will hear: Growing up in a family with addictive behaviors Depression and anxiety during her third pregnancy How her anxiety disorder morphed into an eating disorder  Feeling guilt knowing her daughter also had an eating disorder Finding her home in Codependency Anonymous The shift that occurred when she joined the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program How she deals with the eating disorder voice that comes in Digging deeper into what’s really going on Key Quotes:[08:39] - “Addiction is a disease. It's a sickness.”[14:41] - ​​"It becomes all-consuming, weighing myself all day. It really took over."[16:26] - “It's very important for someone who thinks they have an eating disorder to seek help from someone who specializes in it and who really understands it."[19:00] - “No two eating disorders are the same. No two recoveries are the same. ... this is a process. It's a journey.”[19:21] - “This is a journey of self-awareness, self-discovery, retraining my thoughts filling that void that was always inside with self-care."[32:34] - "When the eating disorder voice is trying to distract me, it's from some feeling or situation that I don't want to deal with."If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:Do You See What I See? by Faith EliciaThe Four Agreements by Don Miguel RuizCodependency AnonymousEpisode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's episode, Duane speaks with Jan Winhall, the author of Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Bottom-Up Approach. Jan's book is a combination of over 40 years of working with trauma and addiction and reflecting on how to bring an embodied approach to addiction treatment.  We currently understand trauma and addiction from more of a top-down cognitive approach. For example, the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, sees it through a pathologizing lens. When Jan started her work, she was fresh out of graduate school where she got assigned to run a group for young women who were incest survivors. Early on, it taught her how to understand addiction through the nervous system. As feminist therapists, they were very curious about using new models because they felt the current models were misogynistic. Instead of helping women feel empowered, they did the opposite. They were shocked to see how these women who were viewed as victims of violence were actually being pathologized, getting admitted to hospitals, and being put on medications. This led to the basis of the Polyvagal model which asserted that their responses weren’t maladaptive; rather, their responses were adaptive in maladaptive environments.Today, Jan explains how our nervous system influences our behavioral choices and how we perceive the world and our situations. She also teaches how we can use the felt sense with the help of others to create a sense of safety in our lives. With that sense of safety, we will be able to choose more strategic behaviors that lead us to become our best selves. In this episode, you will hear: How the dual system of the vagus nerve works The Polyvagal model explained What happens when the body gets stuck in freeze Other blended states in the nervous system How to develop felt sensing practices to heal from trauma How the state we’re in determines how we experience the world Key Quotes:[03:52] - "It was shocking to see how these women that I viewed as being victims of violence were really being pathologized."[06:49] - “All of these behavioral addictions and substance abuse stuff were ways that we're helping them to numb they kind of got that on some level.”[09:05] - "Our autonomic nervous system is the part of us that watches to see if we're safe. And if we don't feel safe enough, then we move into that flight-fight place in the sympathetic branch."[09:24] - “The dorsal branch of the vagus nerve simultaneously helps you and kicks in when you're in a big trouble by shutting everything down in the body.”[10:42] - “Our bodies have this way of protecting us when we really need to shut down. The problem is that we get stuck there.” [12:40] - “You can see when someone gets triggered, the traumatic experience becomes as fresh as if it was happening right now.”[17:32] - “Through the practice of felt sensing, you're learning slowly, over time, how to feel safe enough in your body to connect with your feelings and let go of dissociating, and numbing, and being more and more and more present with yourself.”[21:32] - “To take responsibility, you have to be present and you have to be gentle with yourself.”[24:53] - "How we feel, how we experience the world is determined by what state we're in."If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:https://janwinhall.com/Episode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today’s episode, Duane speaks with Dr. Karol Darsa about how to recognize trauma as well as some of the first steps you need to take to deal with trauma. Karol is the author of the book, The Trauma Map: Five Steps to Reconnect With Yourself. She dives deep into how trauma impacts us in our everyday life as well as what we can do to deal with our traumatic histories so we can heal and feel better.If you have struggled with some trauma in your past, hopefully you will get a lot of insights from this episode as Karol shares her professional wisdom on recovering from trauma. A licensed psychologist for 23 years, Karol found herself repeating certain information over and over again. She realized what was really missing in a lot of people's minds was the understanding of what trauma is and what it does. Maybe they knew what trauma was but didn't understand that it could impact them to the degree that it was impacting them. Many people think trauma only applies to people who have been to war or were sexually abused. They don't consider other things to be trauma. However, trauma can also result from smaller incidents when people didn't even realize they felt traumatized. Hoping to explain the basics of trauma and how it works, Karol decided to write the book, The Trauma Map: Five Steps to Reconnect With Yourself. Karol also noticed an overarching characteristic of self-blame among her clients who were dealing with trauma. They were quick to judge themselves much more than they should. Therefore, Karol also wrote the book as a great tool for minimizing self-blame.In this episode, you will hear: What trauma is What the different types of trauma could look like Why the power of positive thinking sometimes backfires for people Recognizing relational trauma How trauma causes you to disconnect from your body Why people find it difficult to face painful situations Dismissing your feelings means a lack of self-acceptance How to eliminate self-blame Key Quotes:[03:49] - “What was really missing in a lot of people's minds is really the understanding of what trauma is, and what it does.”[04:57] - “The power of the positive thinking, sometimes that actually backfires for a lot of people.”[05:56] - “Many people think trauma means if you been to war, or maybe if you were sexually abused, but other than that, people don't consider other things as trauma.”[06:31] - “Trauma is a situation where it's so overwhelming that it makes you feel powerless, basically unable to cope.”[07:13] - “The most common trauma that people minimize is relational trauma.”[09:30] - "In the relational traumas, reactions don't function that way. People have to be able to look at their symptoms and recognize it."[13:50] - "We have a limited capacity to actually face painful situations. As human beings, we all are that way."[17:17] - "One of the problems of dismissing feelings or putting things away or dismissing our body is that we are ultimately not accepting who we are."If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:The Trauma MapEpisode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We cannot overstate the impact this pandemic has had on our healthcare providers. When you think about all the stress and pressures these front-liners are going through day in and day out, you can see how a lot of aspects are playing in that are leading to clinical burnout and, ultimately, addiction. Yet, we need to recognize that this is just a part of a larger system that's going on in the individual.On this episode, Duane talks with clinical psychologist Michael Tkach as he shares about addiction and other issues that healthcare workers are facing during these COVID times. A clinical psychologist by training, Michael is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Behavioral Health Officer for Affinity Empowering, a technology-based solutions provider that supports overall health and wellness endeavors and that has also become a major provider of COVID-19 testing.Michael recently conducted research on medical care providers who are providing care to individuals diagnosed with terminal illnesses. What was highlighted in the research was a sense of powerlessness. These providers have no power to change the course of the etiology of the disease and they’re left with no other option but to simply manage the disease. Michael was drawn into the mental health field after growing up in a neighborhood with a high prevalence of addiction as well as death by suicide. He eventually ended up at Hazelden Betty Ford for postdoctoral residency and then later came on staff there holding a variety of different roles. Today, Michael shares his expertise and wisdom about addiction treatment and how we can help individuals struggling with addiction, especially our frontline healthcare workers who are working so hard to provide the best care they can under extremely difficult circumstances. If you're a healthcare worker out there struggling, please reach out for help so you can get the support you need. In this episode, you will hear: Looking at addiction from a much larger scope Clinical burnout caused by a sense of powerlessness The perfect storm of many social supports not being there The lack of social support when people are looking to reduce stress and disengage How alcohol sales have increased during the pandemic The overlapping Venn diagram of prevalence between traumatic experiences and substance use Getting in-person support vs. virtual support Key Quotes:[05:23] - "The way that I approach addiction and addiction treatment is how all of those factors coalesce and come into a single point to affect the individual rather than trying to be reductionistic." [09:26] - “When we start looking at what happened with COVID and how places were overwhelmed, what you started seeing is that clinical burnout that goes along with that feeling of helplessness.”[13:39] - "A lot of times, we think of addiction as a disease state that really thrives in isolation, people have shame. They hide it, they want to downplay how much they're using."[14:38] - “During the beginning of the pandemic, globally from April to June of 2020, alcohol sales increased over 34% to the year prior.”[18:15] - “There are those traumatic experiences where people are talking about loss, they're talking about those experiences and those pressures to keep going that leads towards burnout.”[18:25] - “There is this overlapping Venn diagram of prevalence between traumatic experiences and substance use."[23:53] - “As much as we love to think that therapy is therapy and supportive support, it is a different skill set to do it virtually than to do it in person.”If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:Affinity EmpoweringEpisode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Entrepreneurs and high-performing individuals are highly persistent and driven. Oftentimes, they are in control as they push themselves to success. They look really good on the outside. However, when they have an undercurrent of hurt and pain that is never expressed or paid attention to, they’re also likely to numb out from the pain through alcohol, drugs, sex, or something else.Let’s add to that the fact that drinking is pretty normalized in Canada, the US, and Western Europe. It’s even more normalized in many businesses as their way of closing deals. Unfortunately, we need to understand the progressive nature of this disease.On today’s episode, Duane speaks with David Greer, an entrepreneur, author, and coach who shares about his own recovery journey, specifically from the perspective of being a successful entrepreneur. David was a high-functioning alcoholic who had a difficult time recognizing that he had an issue with alcohol. For decades, he was in denial because he had it all together on the outside. His moment of clarity came to him one evening while sailing on the Mediterranean under the stars. He feels that his higher power touched him at that very moment.David has been in recovery for over 12 years now. For the last six years, he has been a business coach and a facilitator of strategic planning who works exclusively with entrepreneurs. He decided to break his anonymity from the 12-step program and come out publicly to help other entrepreneurs who are running successful businesses and also struggling with alcohol or addiction so they can move to the next level.In this episode, you will hear: Drinking being normalized in certain cultures and in business Sailing through the Mediterranean Sea The moment David’s higher power touched him Hiring a coach on his 50th birthday David’s three biggest fears His breakthrough moment of admitting he was an alcoholic The #1 characteristic of entrepreneurs Why self-care is very critical as entrepreneurs Hiring a coach versus a consultant Navigating through challenging social situations when you’re early in recovery Key Quotes:[06:16] - “Drinking is normalized in Canada, in the U.S., and Western Europe. But then, in a business context, in many cases, I think it's even more normalized like it's the lubricant to close deals.”[08:43] - "I was in denial for decades because I just had a massive capacity to drink and not show a lot of adverse effects."[22:40] - "The bottom line is I don't like negative feelings... and my three biggest fears are I'm not good enough... it's my fault...and who do you think you are – to deserve a great life?"[26:08] - "I'm uncomfortable with crying because that wasn't allowed in the household that I grew up in."[27:59] - "People ask me, like, what's the number one characteristic of entrepreneurs? And my response to that is persistence."[29:04] - “There's three parts to your life… when you're setting goals for yourself for the year or the quarter – career/finances, business; your life, your relationships, your significant other, your family; and then in the middle is yourself.”[31:20] - "There's a whole myth that to build a successful business, you have to be a workaholic."If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.Supporting Resources:www.coachdjgreer.comDavid’s book: Wind in Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial GrowthEpisode CreditsIf you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.