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What if the opposite of addiction isn’t willpower, but connection? Tony sits with Host, Jo Summers and opens a life shaped by early chaos, a family history of both addiction and recovery, and a relentless hunt for validation that slid from weed and alcohol to K2, meth, and eventually heroin. He names the seductive lie of that first meth high—how it felt like confidence and kindness—and the spiral that followed: expulsions, arrests, couch surfing, and a fentanyl overdose that landed him in ICU, across the hall from his grandmother. Call it God or coincidence, he calls it conviction; either way, he walked out still chasing the next escape.
The turnaround wasn’t a single victory lap. Tony cycled through treatment in Indiana and California, tried to outsmart addiction by swapping substances, and even used in rehab. The shift came in small, human moments: realizing he could stop crying when someone entered a room, deciding to leave a trap house before prison or death found him, and saying yes to a sober-living bed offered by a friend who was being kicked out as he was let in. He learned to cut ties that fed the cycle, to ask for chances to help with his hands and words, and to let service quiet his anger. He launched a moving company with integrity at its core, found a workable faith through simple prayers, and built two and a half years of sobriety—until he stopped working his program and relapsed.
What brought him back wasn’t perfection; it was practice. Prayer stayed. Boundaries got real. He chose a tribe that protects his values. Now he works in behavioral health, offering the compassion he once needed during intake assessments, and he’s honest about the weight of a field where we don’t save everyone. We talk relapse warning signs, the danger of chasing validation, tools for overwhelm (service, solitude, self-care), and why connection is the most underrated recovery strategy. If you’re navigating addiction, relapse, or the lonely middle where change feels possible but fragile, this story offers practical hope and a map you can follow.
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From Rock Bottom to Rock Solid.
We all have them...every single day, we wake up, we have the chance to make new choices.
We have the power to make our own daily, "Breakfast of Choices"
Resources and ways to connect:
Facebook: Jo Summers
Instagram: @Summersjol
Facebook Support: Chance For Change Women’s circle
Website: Breakfastofchoices.com
Urbanedencmty.com (Oklahoma Addiction and Recovery Resources) Treatment, Sober Living, Meetings. Shout out to the founder, of this phenomenal website... Kristy Da Rosa!
National suicide prevention and crisis, hotline number 988
National domestic violence hotline:
800–799–7233
National hotline for substance abuse, and addiction:
844–289–0879
National mental health hotline:
866–903–3787
National child health and child abuse hotline:
800–422-4453 (1.800.4.A.CHILD)
CoDa.org
12. Step recovery program for codependency.
National Gambling Hotline 800-522-4700