The Addicted Mind Podcast

Today, we have a great conversation with Jen Sugermeyer. She shares her story of addiction and recovery, and she talks to us about overcoming her shame and her fear of reaching out, and how she managed to change her relationship with herself. Jen's addiction started at the age of twelve, with an eating disorder. At the time, she did not realize that she was paving the way for her brain to become accustomed to satisfying her reward system. When she reached her mid-thirties, she was an alcoholic and she had been trying to get sober for more than a decade. Looking back, Jen could see her pattern of gaining control of one addiction, and then that leading to another one. Jen was living an extremely chaotic life, running in and out of jails and hospitals, and then straight into work. She was trying to keep the two parts of herself separate and it was eating her up inside. She even became suicidal towards the end, from living such an unmanageable lifestyle. She kept trying to fix her symptoms when she was the problem. She couldn't get a hold on her addictions, and she knew that at some point, she would have to come to terms with the fact that she needed to work on herself. Although Jen really wanted people close to her, she could never get too close to anyone because she only wanted people to see one part of who she was. And she was working in Corporate America, where there was a stigma around having any kind of mental health issue. So there was a constant battle raging within her between the two aspects of herself, and she felt very alone because there was nobody that she felt she could talk to. It was around this time that she became suicidal because it seemed the easiest way out. It was only when she was about twenty-five that Jen admitted that she had an addiction problem. And it took at least another five years before she could admit to being an alcoholic, even though she had to acknowledge before that, that there were things about her behavior that didn't line up. From the age of twenty-five, she was in and out of AA for about ten years.Jen had to learn to love herself. This became abundantly clear to her when the man she was dating told her so and it was his words that finally launched her into sobriety. This was the first time that she understood what she needed to do. Coming out and talking about everything has been an interesting road for Jen. She has been well-received and she's found the experience more liberating than she imagined. However, she realizes that there's still a lot of work to be done. Although Jen gave herself an entire year to work on her recovery, she knows that will have to continue working on herself every day, after that. Because, since she was twelve, she has never really felt her emotions and she has always been suppressing her feelings.About five years ago, Jen finally started admitting to her alcoholism. She got sober and began wrapping her head around the recovery process. Although it took a long time for her to find her sobriety, she's okay with it because she doesn't think that she would be the person she is today if she had found her sobriety at the age of eighteen.There is a whole lot of forgiving that goes with recovery. Not just for others, but yourself as well. Jen knows that she would not have been where she is today without having learned to let go. Jen has written a book, called RESET (Recognize, Eliminate, Standardize, Elevate, and Transform). She started writing it on the first anniversary of her sobriety. It's about what she went through, and how to claim the life that you deserve. It will be coming out in the spring of 2020. You can sign up on her website for the VIP launch, to get a copy of her book for only 99 cents.Jen also has a 101 coaching program that will be coming out in 2020.Links:Jen's website - www.jensugermeyer.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.

Today, Dr. Faye Mandell is with us to talk about spirituality, connection, and how being in the present moment and looking at our reality from a quantum perspective can help us find more joy and happiness. Dr. Mandell is a practicing Awareness Coach. Although she has a Ph.D. in psychology, she does not use the old paradigm psychological framework that she learned in graduate school. Dr. Mandell wanted to continue educating herself so she went to the Cambridge Adult Education building in Massachusetts and decided to randomly choose a course. At the time, she did not yet know that random was the order of the universe. She had never studied anything to do with physics, before, and by chance, the course that her finger landed on was called Quantum Physics In The Face of God.The course was given by Fred Allen Wolfe and it completely re-oriented Dr.Mandell's life and changed the way that she interacted with people from then on. She started to see things clearly and understand that reality is not what it seems. You cannot solve a problem with the same information that you used to create it. Thought moves you in time, so when you're thinking you cannot be in the present moment. When you are in the present moment, however, the mind is quiet and the information from your body becomes what you focus on, and what's intelligent for you. This is because the body has superior intelligence.All our cells have memories, and memories are intelligent. They can sense what is good for us and what is bad. And we're getting information from all our cells continuously, moment by moment. This kind of information is known as natural codes and it does not require any input from the mind. The function of the mind is to create and innovate ways to connect with the present moment.Our feelings are the information from the body to ourselves. Built into each feeling is the right action to perform to recalibrate ourselves to come back to the present. So, to get the body to use its superior intelligence, we need to pay attention to our feelings. This is the exact opposite of what our culture tells us to do. Anxiety and frustration are examples of the type of feelings that give us information.Feelings lead to thoughts and negative emotions are feelings plus thoughts. We need to learn how to separate the feeling from the thought so that we can stop pulling lower emotions back into ourselves. We want to listen to how the thought is structured, rather than the content of the thought, so that we can find out where we are in time and space.Our experiences create forms that then become our belief systems. This locks us into a false belief about what reality is and it can make us lose our creative ability. Dr. Mandell calls this being in the matrix. She helps people by reframing things for them so that they can see them from a different perspective.To get people off their addiction to listening to their stories, and to move their attention to the structure of their thoughts rather than the content, is the challenge of awareness.Addiction to thoughts is as powerful as an addiction to a substance. Shifting your focus is the key to your freedom. When you are free from addiction, you become able to make choices and become driven by the wonderful six drivers of behavior. They are service, compassion, integrity, accountability, courage, and gratitude.  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.

Steve Rio, Founder of the Nature of Work is our guest today. Today, we’re talking about work and recovery and what affects the recovery process. In a quest to live our best lives, we want Steve to share his take on how we can optimize our lives and live in a way that fulfills us.Episode Link>>www.theaddictedmind.com/81Steve is a futurist, technologist and researcher born in Vancouver BC, Canada. Steve is founder and CEO of Briteweb, an international social impact agency delivering strategy, branding and digital, and the Founder of Nature of Work, helping people be more productive, creative and happy in their work and their lives. Steve thrives at the intersection of social impact, culture and technology and is an expert in exponential organizations, remote and distributed teams and workforce wellness and performance. He has real world experience leading remote and distributed digital teams as well as implementing technology and systems for over a decade. It’s through the lens as a freelancer turned business owner and entrepreneur that he thinks about performance for modern workers.   Social media has invaded our daily lives and because we are engaging with technology in such a persuasive way, we now have one of the most addictive devices in our pockets at all times. It’s hard to separate ourselves from social media because we feel like it is a way to engage with our friends. However, we forget that social media platforms have been engineered to be addictive. Steve founded Nature of Work out of his own need. He wanted a quiet space, close to nature, where he could do his deepest and best work. Despite his best efforts, he still could not calm his mind and focus in the way he expected. Because many of us have complicated relationships with work and technology, we can’t just control our external environment to get a productive outcome - we have to look internally as well. Our time, attention and focus are pulled in a million directions each day, and the technology we use to accomplish our work, is also what causes us the biggest distractions and the lowest productivity. We are in the information age, and our tools can be used across multiple platforms to accomplish various tasks. In previous times, the tools used for work could only accomplish the task we were working on - think about a shovel. You wouldn’t be able to check Facebook on a shovel, so you could have long periods of attention and focus in order to accomplish the task. Steve advocates optimizing your work so that you can be more productive, but also so that you can have a higher quality of life and an increased level of fulfillment. We work ourselves to burnout level without taking into consideration the quality of our lives. When we get back to basics with our daily routines and practices, we can begin to see profound changes. Our time and attention are the 2 greatest assets that we have. They are non-renewable and determine the quality of the experience of our life.   Resources: Nature of Work Steve on Instagram Steve’s Podcast - Now with Steve RioSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-addicted-mind-podcast/donations 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.

Recovery from addiction is a particularly challenging process for women, who are also mothers, to go through. Emily Lynn Paulson, author of the book, Highlight Real: Finding Honesty and Recovery Beyond the Filtered Life, is our guest for today's show. She shares the story of her addiction and her journey along the path of the process of recovery and healing. Emily used to dislike herself a lot. She had difficulty with being honest, both with herself and with others. From a very young age, she used to tell white lies to cover up the things she didn't like about herself and to make up for the things she thought she lacked. When Emily started drinking, it helped her to cover up, and make up, for the things she didn't like about herself or that she thought she lacked. The first time she ever drank alcohol, she realized that it affected her differently to the way it affected her peers. Rather than just having fun, when she drank, she felt that she was finally the person she was always meant to be. This theme wove its way into different areas of her life and followed her until she found recovery.As an adult, Emily had five children and she didn't drink while she was pregnant. So she continued denying her problem for quite some time until the consequences of her drinking finally started outweighing what she thought she was getting out of it.Emily didn't believe she was an alcoholic at first because she thought she could stop drinking. She made several attempts to stop but she always started again. Deep down, she knew that she had a problem but she was not willing to let it go forever. That is alcoholic-thinking, and it is very common. Eventually, it got to the point where Emily could no longer deny her alcoholism. All the dishonesty, secrecy, and lies of omission can make addiction a soul-crushing condition. Other people are often not fully aware of what is going on, so they don't step in and offer to help.Although Emily came to realize that dishonesty didn't work, it was still very hard for her to become fully honest. She found that coming out with her sobriety, and also writing her book, helped her to make the connection and become truthful about who she was, and about the things she still needed to deal with. She knew that she could not start afresh without first dealing with everything that had come before.It's very easy to give a false impression of what is going on in our lives with social media. And many people fall into the social media "comparison-trap". Having to confront her kids with her alcoholism was the most difficult part of recovery for Emily but it was also her biggest blessing because it brought about some very necessary conversations. Alcohol is not something that women have to do to survive their kids. For Emily, her book is an important message to women, telling them how necessary it is, to tell the truth to other women about what alcohol does to mothers. Since Emily started putting her sobriety first, she has been able to be there for her family in a way that she has never known before. Her life has become so much better. She's not perfect now, but her best day when she was drinking was always way worse than her worst day, sober. Links and resources:Emily's website - www.emilylynnpaulson.com Emily on Instagram - @highlight real recoveryYou can find Emily's book on Amazon 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.

Today's guest is Maureen Stanton, the author of the memoir, Body Leaping Backwards, Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood.  Maureen spent about forty years writing her book but she kept avoiding taking it to the point of getting published because there was shame in it for her. So she only started writing the book seriously in 2014, once her dad had passed away. He had done the very best he could for her so she wouldn't have wanted him to feel ashamed of her. Episode Link>>www.theaddictedmind.com/79Maureen wanted to tell the story of what happened with her so long ago because she believes that it is still relevant and that it will still resonate with teenagers today, even though the specifics are different.  Maureen's teenage years were a time of great anxiousness, sadness, and confusion. She felt that she wanted to disappear. She had feelings of self-doubt and she lacked self-confidence to the point of self-loathing. So she turned to drugs to self-medicate. She started using Angel Dust, a dissociative anesthetic that was a very prominent drug in the 1970s. It numbed her, helped her to escape from the emotional pain that she felt as a teenager, and allowed her to stop thinking about her insecurities and sadness. Maureen is now in her late 50s. She kept all her diaries from before she was using, and from the time when she began feeling a sense of despair and started doing drugs. Reading through the diaries as an adult, she was able to remember just how she had felt then, so she was able to convey that very clearly in her book.A lot of kids start using drugs or drinking during their fraught teenage years while crossing the bridge over the treacherous terrain from childhood to adulthood. Children who are suffering from psychic pain, and don't have guidance, are more likely to start using drugs and alcohol. Maureen started with alcohol and marijuana. Her friend's older brother then introduced her to Angel Dust. As it was smoked in a joint, it seemed to Maureen to be very similar to marijuana, and there were no warnings at the time about the dangers of using this terrible drug. There was still a part of her, however, that realized that it would cause damage to her brain cells.  Mauren believes that essential loneliness and discomfort are felt by teenagers because they don't yet know who they are. Maureen feels shame about her terrible, delinquent behavior while she was using drugs. She does, however, feel extremely fortunate that there was no lasting harm, that she knows of, done to anyone. Who we are, as individuals, is defined by our passions and our interests. Maureen gave all of that up for getting high. She progressively stopped doing the things she loved as she slid deeper into her addiction. So although the drugs helped her escape and provided some relief, she continued to erase herself. She eventually became so empty and despairing that she knew she had to ask for help. Her mother arranged for her to see a counselor and Maureen paid for her counseling herself with the money she earned working for a gas station. Maureen believes that the culture of a society impresses itself on teenagers in a way that they don't necessarily understand. In the 1970's the American culture was a bit lost, and there was a sense of despair, due to immoral leadership, the Vietnam war, and Watergate, and Maureen's journey seemed to mirror that to some extent.Looking back, Maureen realizes that some of the things she had to face were very hard, but she wanted to give something back and touch the hearts and minds of other teenagers. Her book is a public confession and she has written it in the hope of helping other people.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-addicted-mind-podcast/donations 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.

Our guests for today are Mark Sheeran and Michelle Dunbar of the Baldwin Research Group. They have a thought-provoking conversation about The Freedom Model of addiction treatment, which is a non-Twelve Step, and non-disease model of treatment.Mark is 49-years old. He is the chairman of Baldwin Research and he is one of the authors of The Freedom Model. Mark co-founded the Saint Jude Retreat, which is where The Freedom Model is taught.Episode Link>>>>www.theaddictedmind.com/78Mark was involved in a serious drunk-driving accident thirty years ago, at the age of nineteen. This made him realize that he needed to change his life. He was mandated into treatment and found that he disagreed vehemently with what they were teaching him because he did not believe that he would be an alcoholic forever. His treatment experience was so bad that he knew there had to be a better way. After completing eighteen months of treatment he decided to figure out a better way for people. Within one year, he coined the phrase "non-Twelve Step”.Mark spent the next twelve years, doing research. He then met Michelle and they continued doing the research together, along with some others. Together, they developed the skeleton of what was to become The Freedom Model. The model was perfected over the next twenty years.Michelle is the Executive Director of Baldwin Research. She is also one of the co-authors of The Freedom Model. Michelle is the Director of the Saint Jude Retreat and she teaches the program.Mark and Michelle spent the first twelve years of the thirty that they were doing their research in AA, trying desperately to make it work and become more effective. But they were heretics at the same time. Where AA was saying that you never get over the problem, they were saying that you most certainly do.Mark went to over 3000 AA meetings. First, as a member, then as a skeptical member, then as a researcher, then as a researcher that was fairly anti-AA when he got to truly understand the facts.According to Mark's research, people do move on from their addictions. Over 90% of drug addicts, alcoholics, and heavy substance abusers move past the problem as they get older, whether they treat it or not.With The Freedom Model, you have to undo the mythologies so that you become free to move on.As a young person, the idea that you are going to struggle with your "disease" forever can be very daunting.The Freedom Model debunks 23 of the grand myths that people are told about addiction so that people can make the choice as to the benefits of their using. Because people use because they like it.The Freedom Model helps people question why they make decisions and why they are motivated to use, based on their behavior, their belief systems, and the myths by which they may be living their lives.It is more natural to move on from addiction than it is to keep one. And it is much more natural for a human being to change than it is to remain static in a behavior. The key to recovery is to move the locus of control to the self.Shame sits in the way of recovery.At their residential retreats, people spend four weeks attending classes where they work with the 450 page Freedom Model curriculum. They don't take away people's cellphones and laptops or treat them like babies or criminals. It is a very conducive, quiet, learning environment. By the time that everyone leaves, the myths have been undone, they know that they can be free, and they have usually chosen either moderation or abstinence. Life in recovery doesn't have to be a daily struggle.It all comes down to a choice that we make to deal with difficult experiences. Mark and Michelle help people by challenging their beliefs that a substance will help them to deal with stressful situations. Links and resources:The Baldwin Research Group - https://www.baldwinresearch.com/Website for retreats - www.soberforever.netWebsite for the book and all services - www.thefreedommodel.org 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.

Today, Dave Jansa, of We Face It Together, talks about how he helps people get through a part of addiction treatment that sometimes tends to be overlooked. There are some people who suffer from addiction who have not necessarily hit their rock bottom. So, although they realize they have a problem, they have often not yet suffered the all big consequences of their addiction. Dave offers coaching, to help these people change their thinking about addiction and to help them change their addictive process before they have to face the deep consequences that are normally associated with addiction. Sixty-four-year-old Dave was born and raised in South Dakota. He comes from a big family where addiction was rife. Currently, five of the eight siblings in Dave's family are abstinent from drugs and alcohol. Dave started drinking alcohol when he was in high school. He also became a heavy marijuana smoker at the time. This curtailed his education because he quit college after his first semester and he went back to work full-time. Dave stopped using marijuana in his early thirties, after many attempts at moderation, and he is currently thirty-two years alcohol-free.During his mid-forties, Dave began to become intensely curious. With the advent of the internet, his curiosity led him to immerse himself in the very confusing landscape of the issues of addiction that he and his brothers had gone through. As a result, he retired early from his very good and long-term sales position and threw himself into the world of addiction.Dave started volunteering for a local community organization, which eventually became a very innovative organization that was doing things differently and breaking down barriers. He was a great fit for the organization and has been with them ever since then.Addiction is known to be a chronic disease. The pillars of chronic disease management are to detect it early and to deal with it as quickly as possible. This makes chronic diseases easier to treat but most people don't think of doing this with addictions.Dave firmly believes that people, who are clearly showing signs of what he refers to as 'pre-addiction', would do well to have a non-judgmental conversation with a health practitioner in a clinical environment.At Face It Together, they offer non-judgmental peer coaching. They never tell people what to do. They rather make suggestions. They often initially assist people towards a harm-reduction protocol, which is on the way to recognizing and dealing fully with their problems of addiction. Sometimes people with addictions simply need to recognize that it's normal to first want to cut back on using, before going for complete abstinence. At Face It Together, they knew that peer conversations were powerful. They employed science and embraced harm reduction and motivational interviewing. They also expanded on this and developed a tool called Recovery Capital Index, with which they can accurately measure someone's addiction wellness. This tool has been validated as an instrument, by Sanford Research, in South Dakota. This has been published in the South Dakota Journal of Medicine. Addiction wellness is measured way more in terms of how an individual is fitting into the world, and less in terms of how much drug they are using. At Face It Together, they work hard on people's behaviors and they have conversations with people about their journey. The Recovery Capital Index shows them where people are doing well and where they are not doing well. Today, Dave feels exponentially better than he did during the sixteen years that he was quitting alcohol.Links:We Face It Together's website - www.wefaceittogether.org 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.

Today's guest is Gregg Champion and he will be talking about hitting rock bottom, what that means, and the significance of finding ourselves sitting at the crossroads of wanting to change from a life of addiction to one of recovery. Gregg also discusses his rock bottom, and he tells us his recovery story.Episode Link: www.theaddictedmind.com/76Gregg is the co-founder of START UP RECOVERY, located in the Pacific Palisades. START UP RECOVERY is a transformational residence that supports people through career, passion, and what Gregg refers to as a recovery play-book. Their four cornerstones are a community, accountability, education, and love. They also provide for their residents the unique service of mentorship for long-term sobriety and long-term success.Join The Addicted Mind Podcast Facebook Group>>>Gregg got sober 25-years ago when he was in his mid-twenties. He has managed to retain his sobriety by remaining willing to be willing. He maintains a mindset of life as a continuous journey going forward. In his first year of recovery, he did everything the old-school AA way, and over time, he began adding breath work, sound bath, and then Al-Anon to his play-book. He found that every time he became distressed in his disease, someone would show up with a new tool for him to try. He gets through all of life's painful problems with sobriety and with the support of the whole recovery network. He is always looking for ways to continue healing and growing.Living a counseled and supported life during the years of recovery is essential because, when left to our own devices, our ego will show up. And with pride and ego involved, we tend to make bad decisions, even when we're sober. One addict helping another really works! Rock bottom is choosing to do the same thing over again, knowing that the result is going to be bad. It can happen as a result of many different things, like childhood trauma, divorce, or addiction. At rock bottom, people often find themselves doing things that they said they would never do. It's the point when people begin to realize that they are powerless and their lives have become unmanageable. Having the compassionate support of others at this time is crucial.Developing joy in life, and shifting from addiction to passion are parts of the process of recovering from rock bottom. This does not happen overnight. It happens one day at a time and it can result in people becoming addicted to a life of recovery.For Gregg, it is important to help people to reach their rock bottom by showing them, rather than telling them, what he has done in his life to maintain his sobriety. He refers to this as co-piloting people through their recovery process. Life is difficult. So Gregg believes that the Twelve-Steps would be a very helpful tool to incorporate into the school system. He suggests introducing it to children in the fourth grade, before they have reached puberty, and before they have discovered drugs and alcohol. With this process, they could develop the essential skills necessary for living joyful and passionate lives.Recovery is a life-time process. Gregg encourages everyone to unpack their backpack of shame sooner rather than later because the longer it is carried, the heavier it gets, and the more it will weigh you down. To be tuned-in to recovery, he recommends being spiritually sound, sober, hard-working, diligent, and seriously honest.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-addicted-mind-podcast/donations 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.

Today's guest is Dr. Sonya Lott, a licensed psychologist with advanced training from Columbia University's Center for Complicated Grief. Sonya runs a private practice in Pennsylvania and she hosts the Reflections on Multicultural Competence Podcast. She is the founder and CEO of Cempsych LLC, a company offering continuing education for licensed mental health professionals. Today, Sonya talks to us about grief and loss, which is intertwined in many ways with the addictive process. She explains that living is about connection but, ironically, the more loss we experience, the greater the likelihood becomes that we will actually fear connection. Still, it is very important to acknowledge the need for connection.Join The Addicted Mind Podcast Facebook Group>>>Sonya explains that what we think and feel has a direct and immediate influence on what's happening with the neurotransmitters in our brain. This has a long-term impact on the way that hormones are released in the body. Over time, these reactions become chronic and cyclical, and they have an impact on every part of the body, including the immune system, making us more susceptible to illnesses.Episode Link:www.theaddictedmind.com/75Processing loss is important and we need to grieve to do it. Many people, however, don't frame their adverse experiences in terms of loss, even though their bodies and their hearts take it in as such. Often, people end up being diagnosed with depression or anxiety without having addressed the root cause, which is usually a painful loss of connection or secure attachment from their early childhood. It's important to frame any kind of loss and grieve for it because that awareness allows people to heal in a different and deeper way. This is crucial to the recovery process and it lessens the suffering.Losing a child is particularly challenging for parents because it goes against the natural order of things. Losing a child to an addiction is a bit like losing a loved one to suicide. It comes with a great sense of helplessness, so this type of loss could easily set someone up for complicated grief. Therapists who are well-informed about grief and addiction can be very helpful for finding meaning in life and establishing a new identity in terms of recovery from addiction. Self-help groups or groups like AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and NA (Narcotics Anonymous) also provide support for individuals who are able to recognize their experiences of loss.Links and resources:Dr. Lott's website - https://drsonyalott.com/Cempsych website - www.cempsych.com Reflections on Multicultural Competence Podcast - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/reflections-on-multicultural-competenceSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-addicted-mind-podcast/donations 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.

Today, Erin Miller shares her story of losing her son, Chad, to heroin addiction. She talks very frankly about her painful process of grief and loss, and she explains how she's managed to find meaning and purpose in what she's been through, by using Chad's story to help others.Join The Addicted Mind Podcast Facebook Group>>>Five years have passed since Chad's death. During this time, Erin has gained a lot of insight and wisdom, and her current perspective is completely different from how it was at the time of his death. Being able to help others has made the whole experience worthwhile for her. Erin explains that addiction has become an epidemic. It is on the rise and it is destroying families and people's lives. She believes that there's one kind of addiction or another running in virtually every household because both street drugs and prescription medication are so very easily available today. This is why she advocates strongly for mental well-being and helps people to find ways, other than medication, to cope with their inner pain.Episode Linktheaddictedmind.com/74Erin advises parents to be open with their kids and let them know that having an addiction is not something to be judged. And as a parent, it is important to know that your child's addiction is not your fault if you have done your best. Erin has written a book, Miller Strong Rewrite Your Story - Take a Stand and Turn Your Past Into Your Superpower, which is due to be launched soon. She spent five years interviewing thousands of addicts and people in recovery and this taught her that nobody likes to own up to their faults or to admit that they are not in control.Erin started a foundation, called Miller Strong Seventeen Foundation. It is all about purpose because most people tend to lose their purpose somewhere in their lives. Erin explains that sharing our stories is very important because for every story shared someone is needing to hear that exact story. Erin believes that we should provide help for those who need it, and lean on each other, especially on the darkest days.Erin found God with the help of a spiritual healer in Indonesia.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-addicted-mind-podcast/donations 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.