August 10, 2025

114 | Dr. David Berry | From homeless and addicted to chief of staff | Brain nerve connection and addiction | How to rewire the brain | Addiction stigma | Meth abuse

31 minutes

I’d like to welcome to the show Dr. David M. Berry, MD, he is a growing voice in the recovery and addiction space, an area that we deal with a ton across EMS and the emergency departments. He is an Emergency Medicine physician with over two decades of experience.

You can reach him at [email protected]

Burnout and moral injury – how do we avoid these in dealing with the addicted and psychiatric patients? We can’t control most factors involving their long term care but David says: “give these folks the best care I know how to give them.” We can control what WE do

We talk about the best way to communicate between providers when passing on patients to the next shift

Dr. Berry talks about a patient he advocated for that he felt needed in-patient psychiatric admission but had been initially turned down

He talks about the importance of working patients up appropriately and not ignoring patient complaints, getting the emotion out of it

What would you do objectively if the patient was not a frequent flyer?

Dr. Berry talks about a substance use clinic he helped open in Western Colorado

He talks about meth addiction and how recovery works in his clinic

He tells a story about the devastating effects of meth on a young patient

The danger of meth is not in the withdrawal but the effects of it on your body

Dr. Berry talks about the limbic system, the reptilian part of our brain. People who struggle with addiction have a missed connection. Normally, when the average person drinks, a message gets relayed back from the brain saying slow down, you have responsibilities, you have work, you have a family. The addict’s brain doesn’t send this message back, they just get the message to drink more cause it feels good. This applies to any addiction

Their decider is broken, that’s why they need a sponsor, and their brain can eventually rewire and make the needed connections

The anatomy problem of missed or failing brain neurons is what is going wrong in the addict’s brain

This helps us understand where the blame truly needs to be placed, not on the addict for poor moral character or poor self-control but on a brain that isn’t wired correctly

Winston Churchill said everyone has an addiction, the key is finding one that is socially acceptable

Dr. Berry talks about Recovered on Purpose, an organization in Denver, CO that is working on new treatments for addictions and help market treatment centers and help get peopl

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Everything you hear today from myself and my guests is opinion only and doesn’t represent any organizations or companies that any of us are affiliated with. The stories you hear have been modified to protect patient privacy and any resemblance to real individuals is coincidental. This is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice nor used to diagnose any medical or healthcare conditions.

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