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What if the biggest mistake families make in addiction recovery is focusing on the wrong mountain?

In this episode, Jason shares a deeply personal reflection after celebrating his birth son’s 19th birthday—a moment that reminded him just how impossible recovery once felt.

For years, addiction felt like an endless cycle of trying, failing, promising, and starting over. The distance between hope and reality felt impossible to cross.

So what changed?

Jason breaks down the 3 essential ingredients of hope that every family and individual in recovery must understand:

✔️ How to clearly see the destination
✔️ Why most people can’t see the path forward
✔️ The overlooked factor that determines whether lasting change is even possible

You’ll also hear why recovery isn’t built through quick fixes, silver bullets, or treatment alone—and why people recover through relationships, identity change, and small, meaningful wins over time.

If you’re exhausted from trying to help an addicted loved one—or if recovery feels impossible right now—this conversation will help you rethink what real progress actually looks like.

In this episode:
• Why hope breaks down in addiction recovery
• The “mini summit” strategy that builds lasting momentum
• Why long-term sobriety feels impossible in the beginning
• The surprising reason treatment alone doesn’t work
• How identity—not just abstinence—creates lasting change
• A healthier way families can measure progress

Recovery is possible. But it may not look the way you think.

🎧 Subscribe for weekly conversations on addiction, family recovery, boundaries, healing, and hope.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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If you have an addicted loved one and you have been holding everything together for longer than you can remember, this is the episode where it starts to come apart, in the best possible way.

Jason takes you inside one of the most pivotal weeks of the six-week Live Unhooked Masterclass. You will learn why cleaning the goldfish never works, what really happens in Step Four of recovery, and the one psychological model that explains why the same loving move you have made a hundred times keeps producing the same painful result.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[01:00] Jason sets the tone: "This is the masterclass. We go deep, quick."

[01:36] Why powerlessness is not weakness, and why calling addiction a brain disease changes everything.

[02:31] The story of Jason naming his disease "Sancho" in his fifth treatment center.

[05:18] The goldfish framework: why cleaning the bowl matters more than rinsing the fish.

[10:23] "The cave we fear to enter holds the treasure we seek." Joseph Campbell sets up Step Four.

[13:45] A live five-round box breathing exercise with Jason.

[21:01] Steps Three and Four: the decision to surrender versus entering the cave.

[25:19] The Drama Triangle introduced: rescuer, persecutor, victim defined.

[30:26] How all three roles can show up in the same person on the same day.

[43:32] Jason gets personal: how the Drama Triangle has shown up at home during Brin's battle with cancer.

[50:36] This week's assignments: the seven-day personal experiment and the Step Four workbook.

[57:09] "Trust the process." Jason's closing challenge.

THE DRAMA TRIANGLE

Jason walks the group through the Karpman Drama Triangle, named by psychologist Stephen Karpman in the 1960s. Three roles families touched by addiction tend to cycle through.

The rescuer fixes everything and is exhausted. Their identity depends on the chaos continuing. The persecutor weaponizes love and feeds shame, and shame fuels addiction, it does not stop it. The victim says I cannot, and the suffering becomes an identity.

The part nobody tells you: these roles rotate. In a single day, the same person can rescue at breakfast, persecute at lunch, and collapse into victim by evening. Awareness is the first step out.

THE GIFT INSIDE THE CAVE

Jason discloses that the Drama Triangle has shown up not only in his recovery work but at home as his wife Brin has battled cancer. He has caught himself using bravado as a mask for victimhood. The awareness is not shame. It is a gift.

He introduces a core teaching: our greatest weaknesses and our greatest strengths are two sides of the same coin. His anxiety drives the habits that built Brick House Recovery. His ADHD, harnessed with intention, becomes a superpower. Step Four is not punishment. It is a treasure hunt.

THIS WEEK'S WORK

The seven-day personal experiment. Give up one thing you depend on (coffee, scrolling, snooze, sugar) for seven days. Not for deprivation. For empathy. You cannot fully understand what your addicted loved one is up against until you have sat with your own brain bargaining.

The Step Four supplemental workbook. A daily self-inventory designed to surface patterns, ego defense mechanisms, and the roles you play in your family system.

"Place your recovery first. This is the very thing I am asking your addicted loved ones to do. All the other areas in your life will be blessed in time."

RESOURCES

Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover by Jason Coombs (Audible, Amazon)

Brick House Recovery: https://brickhouserecovery.com

The Live Unhooked Masterclass

If this episode moved something in you, share it with someone carrying the same weight.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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You're still functioning. You're answering the crisis calls, researching treatment centers, watching for signs, holding the family together. But underneath all of it, your own oxygen is getting thinner. In the opening week of the Unhooked Masterclass, Jason Coombs sits down with families who love someone with substance use disorder and names what most of them already feel but rarely say out loud: addiction can slowly take the air out of your own life. This episode is the first step toward putting your own mask on first, and it starts with two questions that change everything.

If you have been pouring yourself into someone else's recovery while quietly losing your own peace, your own sleep, your own clarity, this episode is for you.

In the opening session of the Unhooked Masterclass, Jason Coombs walks families through the foundation of what it means to live unhooked from the chaos of someone else's substance use disorder. He covers confidentiality, emotional safety, powerlessness, the disease of addiction, and the difference between love and control.

He also introduces the oxygen mask metaphor that runs through the entire six-week journey. You cannot help your loved one recover if you are slowly suffocating while trying to save them.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

The oxygen mask moment and why securing yours first is not selfish, it is survival.

Why substance use disorder is a disease and not a moral failure, and why that distinction frees families to respond from a clearer place.

The line most families cross without realizing it: where love quietly turns into control.

How the Vow of Silence creates space for honesty, clarity, and personal revelation.

The dual letter assignment that helps families begin separating the disease from the person they love.

Hope as a three-part process: a clear goal, a path toward that goal, and the belief you can take the next step.

The Emotional Raincoat Daily Inventory and how to use it before the storm hits.

Key Frameworks Introduced

Oxygen Mask Moment. Vows of Silence. Goldfish Bowl Metaphor. Hope as a Process. Dual Letter Assignment. Emotional Raincoat Daily Inventory. Surrender Blueprint. Serenity Circle Support Groups.

Episode Highlights

[01:00] Welcome to Week One of the Unhooked Masterclass [02:39] Why confidentiality creates safety and trust in the group [05:35] Treating the masterclass as an oxygen mask moment [07:27] The role of Vows of Silence and spiritual reflection [09:14] How the 12 Steps open the door to conscious contact and personal revelation [11:12] Why pausing before reacting prevents painful decisions [13:15] Introduction to the Serenity Circle support groups [15:04] Stacey shares her story as a mother of a son with substance use disorder [16:31] Week one focus: powerlessness, addiction as disease, and what you can actually control [17:44] The goldfish bowl metaphor and why environment matters [18:10] Hope as a three-part process [21:50] Overview of the six-week Unhooked Masterclass roadmap [25:00] The Helios flight story and the oxygen mask lesson [30:09] How families become hypoxic while trying to fix addiction [33:13] Vow of Silence prompts: unmanageability and confusing love with control [49:49] The dual letter assignment: writing to the addiction and to the loved one [50:55] Separating the disease from the person [55:56] Introducing the Emotional Raincoat Daily Inventory [58:01] The Surrender Blueprint as an off-ramp from fear [59:03] How to use the private community for support and questions

Reflection Questions for This Week

What has addiction made unmanageable in my life? Where am I confusing love with control?

Sit with these. Write about them. Take them to prayer. They are the doorway into the rest of the work.

About Jason Coombs

Jason Coombs is the founder of Brick House Recovery, a faith-based outpatient treatment program in Idaho with locations in Boise, Idaho Falls, Coeur d'Alene, and telehealth. He is the national bestselling author of Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover, host of the Get Unhooked Podcast, and a person in long-term recovery since March 19, 2009.

Resources Mentioned

The Unhooked Masterclass: a six-week live virtual experience for families impacted by addiction.

Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover, available on Audible and Amazon.

Brick House Recovery: brickhouserecovery.com

The private Live Unhooked community for ongoing support and questions.

Subscribe and Share

If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, share it with one person who needs to hear it. Subscribe to The Get Unhooked Podcast so you never miss a new episode, and leave a review to help more families find their way home.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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EPISODE 57 -DESCRIPTION 

Two commercial pilots had a checklist for a cabin pressure problem. They followed every step except one. The plane crashed and everyone on board died.

If you love someone with addiction, you've been making the same mistake.

In Episode 57, Jason Coombs teaches the emotional raincoat: the one shift that separates families who burn out from families who create the conditions for their loved one's recovery. You'll hear the Tuesday morning scenario most families know by heart, the loving response Jason calls "Vitamin NI," and the night his parents put on their own raincoats and changed everything.

You don't stop loving them. You just stop drowning next to them.

Jason's book Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover is available on Audible and Amazon. Learn more at brickhouserecovery.com.

SHOW NOTES

Jason teaches the emotional raincoat: how to love someone through addiction without losing yourself in the storm. A real aviation tragedy, a Tuesday morning scenario every family knows, and the night Jason's parents stopped absorbing his consequences and finally created the conditions for his sobriety.

Timestamps

[01:53] The airplane tragedy that mirrors what families of addicted loved ones experience

[06:51] Introducing the emotional raincoat

[11:02] Why our natural caregiving instincts make addiction worse

[14:59] Tuesday morning scenario: without the raincoat vs. with it

[17:53] "Vitamin NI": the loving, boundaried response

[21:04] How the raincoat changes the weather in your home

[24:55] Why your loved one won't want recovery if sobriety looks miserable

[36:14] How Jason's parents created the conditions for his sobriety on March 19, 2009

[42:47] The prayer that cracked open Jason's path to lasting recovery

Key Quotes

"You cannot control the weather. You can't fix a storm."

"You don't stop loving them. You just stop drowning next to them."

"The storm was exactly the same. The phone call was the same. The difference was you."

Resources

Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover on Audible and Amazon.

Brick House Recovery: brickhouserecovery.com

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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If you’re the mom, dad, or spouse who has become the detective, the cleanup crew, and the emotional first responder, this one is for you.
In this solo episode, Jason Coombs sits down with the families who are exhausted from organizing their entire lives around someone else’s addiction. He shares the one shift that changes everything: your loved one’s recovery begins when you change first.
Jason is not speaking from theory. He is speaking from both sides of this. He was the addicted son. Four felonies. Homeless. Five treatment programs. Heroin, meth, and crack. And now, fifteen years sober, he has spent his career walking with families through the same fog he once put his own family through.
This episode is the permission slip you didn’t know you were waiting for.
What you’ll hear:
(01:08) The mothers who have become detectives, cleanup crews, and emotional first responders
(06:54) Laura’s story: five years, a daughter’s addiction, and the gap between knowing and doing
(11:47) Jason’s own story: felonies, homelessness, heroin, and five treatment programs
(17:32) The insider confession: how addiction studies the room and uses the family’s responses
(19:11) The sentence that changed everything: “Jana, Doug, get off the beach”
(22:57) Placing his son Nathan for adoption and the promise that became Jason’s turning point
(29:34) Why “wait for rock bottom” is some of the most dangerous advice in recovery
(41:31) The five-stage framework for living unhooked
The Insider Confession
Before Jason was the one teaching this, he was the reason his family needed it. And he is honest about what was happening on his end. Addiction studies the room. It learns who responds to fear, who caves to tears, who needs hope. Every rescue delayed his consequences. Every softened landing delayed his pain.
“Every time somebody helped me avoid the full weight of what I had created, it kept me insulated from the very thing that might have made me ready.”
Get Off the Beach
A therapist in Jason’s first treatment program told his parents: Jason is out in the middle of the lake dropping boulders. By the time those ripples reach the shore, they are tsunami-sized waves crashing over your heads. Get off the beach.
His parents changed the locks. They drew clear lines. And they did not wait for Jason to get sober before they started healing. They started healing while he was still sick. He noticed.
“Their commitment to reclaiming their life and their peace sent the message I needed to hear. I needed to see it in their actions.”
The Goldfish Bowl
You don’t fix the fish by yelling at it or pulling it out for a lecture and dropping it back into dirty water. You clean the bowl. The tone in the home, the boundaries, the access, the secrecy, the panic level: that’s the water. Change the water and you change the conditions that keep the disease alive.
Takeaways for families:
Stop waiting for rock bottom. You are the one who can move the needle today.
Boundaries did not kill Jason. Clarity did not kill him. Consequences did not kill him. They exposed the pain that rescuing had been hiding.
Your healing is not optional. Addiction already owns your calendar. Getting off the beach replaces the most exhausting thing on your schedule, it doesn’t add to it.
People recover in relationships, not in institutions.
Jason’s national bestselling book Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover is available on Audible and Amazon.
Brick House Recovery: brickhouserecovery.com

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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Everyone is talking about ibogaine like it’s the cure for addiction.

I’m telling you why I’m saying no.

You’ve probably heard the buzz.

• A “breakthrough.”
• A “reset.”
• Maybe even the answer your family has been praying for.

Ibogaine is everywhere right now. Podcasts. Headlines. Conversations between people who are desperate for something to finally work.

So let’s talk about it.

In this episode, I give you my honest, unfiltered answer to the question I’ve been asked more than anything lately:

Is ibogaine the solution?

And my answer might not be what you expect.

• Not because I’m closed off.
• Not because I’m against new approaches.
• But because I’ve seen what happens when hope moves faster than truth and families pay the price.

Inside this episode, I break down:

• What’s actually true about ibogaine right now, not the hype
• The real risks most people are not talking about
• Why this is especially dangerous for the exact population it’s being marketed to
• A personal story that changed how I evaluate treatments forever

If you’re a parent, spouse, or loved one trying to make the right decision in the middle of chaos, this matters.

Because when you’re desperate, everything can start to sound like the answer.

This episode will help you slow down, think clearly, and make a decision you won’t regret.

Hit play before you make your next move.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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Seventeen years ago, I was a difficult, entitled client who had already failed four treatment centers. HR Brown owned the place where I finally got sober. He pulled me into his office one day, told me part of his story, and handed me his 12-year sobriety coin. He asked me to make a deal: in 12 years, I’d give that coin to a newcomer, and he’d hand me his 24-year coin. That moment planted hope in me when I had none.
This episode is that conversation. HR shares the night he had a gun in his mouth, the Easter morning he didn’t know was Easter when he finally surrendered, and the spiritual nudges that have shaped his life and ministry. We talk about why the physical side of addiction is only 10% of the problem, what families need to hear when their loved one says “I mean it this time,” and why recovery happens in relationships, not institutions.
If you’ve ever felt like God couldn’t possibly love you back, or you’re loving someone who keeps breaking promises, this one is for you.
Show Notes
Guest: HR Brown, founder of Renaissance Ranch and the man who helped me get sober
In this episode:
•(01:00) How HR and I first crossed paths in treatment
•(03:47) “I believed in God. I just didn’t think He believed in me.”
•(05:39) The night HR had a gun in his mouth and the angels he believes saved him
•(07:12) “Help me, help me, help me.” HR’s Easter morning surrender
•(10:58) The people who carried hope: Steve and Monk, the 300-pound biker
•(12:58) Why your loved one isn’t lying when they break the promise
•(16:12) Living life in 15-minute increments during active addiction
•(18:16) Why physical addiction is only 10% of the problem
•(19:19) The vision behind Renaissance Ranch
•(23:24) My spiritual anorexia and how the Ranch fed me
•(28:44) The 12-year coin moment that gave me hope when I had none
•(29:56) HR reveals he felt a nudge to give me that coin
•(31:36) Acting on spiritual promptings without rehearsing them first
•(34:15) The deal: “In 12 years, we meet back up”
•(38:34) The Easter basket and the note that called me a leader
•(42:54) HR’s wife at the golf tournament
•(48:26) “She was mine before she was yours.”
Worth marking:
•Hope is contagious. You catch it from people who already have it.
•Judge early recovery by what people do, not what they say.
•When your loved one says “I want help,” have a bed lined up. If they’re serious, they’ll go.
•You don’t get them sober and you don’t get them drunk. Stop carrying what isn’t yours.
•Spiritual nudges work when you act on them before you talk yourself out of them.
HR is in my book. I wrote about him in Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover.
Resources:
•HR’s nonprofit, The SOLida Foundation, mentorship and scholarships for people leaving treatment: thesolidafoundation.org
•Unhooked on Amazon and Audible
•brickhouserecovery.com
•liveunhooked.com
Share this with one person who needs to hear it. That’s how the nudge keeps going.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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You’ve tried everything. Nothing’s working. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re wondering if you’re making it worse. This episode is for you. Jason Coombs breaks down the Desperation to Decision Ladder: a five-rung framework that maps exactly where your loved one is in their journey toward change, and what your role actually looks like at each rung. Practical, honest, and built from lived experience.

Show Notes:
In this episode of the Brick House Recovery Podcast, Jason Coombs, person in long-term recovery and founder of Brick House Recovery, breaks down one of the most practical frameworks he’s developed for families who love someone struggling with addiction. If you’ve tried everything and feel like nothing’s working, this one’s for you.
Episode Highlights
[01:00] Three questions that stop families in their tracks
[02:30] Why being in long-term recovery doesn’t automatically make you an expert at helping others
[04:17] The pattern Jason sees over and over with families, and why love alone isn’t enough
[05:08] Why the sickest person in the room ends up setting the rules for everyone else
[06:37] Introducing the Desperation to Decision Ladder: a five-rung framework for understanding change
[07:10] Rung 1: The Pain Gets Loud, and why softening it is the worst thing you can do
[11:22] Rung 2: The Denial Weakens: you can’t break it with a speech, but you can stop competing with reality
[13:32] Rung 3: Truth Breaks Through: the gift of desperation and why addiction is the only disease that lies about itself
[15:57] Rung 4: Willingness Appears: why this is a window, not a door, and how to show up when it opens
[20:21] Rung 5: Commitment Is Chosen: why it has to be theirs, and what happens when you want it more than they do
[23:02] The two journeys happening at once: external signals vs. the inner work that actually matters
[25:01] Two real outcomes, divorce and staying together, and why both can be a win
[27:19] Applying the five rungs to yourself, because you have your own ladder to climb
[32:39] Naming the disease: why Jason called his addiction “Sancho” and how that changes everything
[35:32] Dancing instead of wrestling: how to have hard conversations without locking horns
[39:49] The Goldilocks Zone: love and law, justice and mercy, enabling and abandonment

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when a woman’s heart finally gets the space to heal? Jason sits down with Melanie Meszaros, co-founder of Heart of a Woman retreats, to talk about the three core desires every woman carries, what fathers can do to protect their daughters, and why restored hearts don’t just change women — they change entire families.

Show Notes
There’s a metaphor I keep coming back to after this conversation: a river that’s been dammed up. The water doesn’t disappear — it just stops flowing. And the world downstream goes dry.
That’s what Melanie Meszaros helped me see about the feminine heart.
Melanie is the co-founder of Heart of a Woman retreats, a certified professional coach, and someone who stumbled into her calling the way most of us do — through a door she didn’t plan to open. She was “voluntold” into this work, and the world is better for it.
In this episode we go deep on:
•The three core desires that shape a woman’s heart — and why wounding hits hardest where longing runs deepest
•What fathers can do right now to speak worth into their daughters (this one hit close to home for me as a dad)
•A word for the mothers who’ve quietly decided their child’s addiction is their fault
•Simple daily rhythms that create space for real heart restoration
•Why three days at an intensive retreat can accomplish what years of small doses can’t
Melanie also shares what happened at her own family’s Sunday dinner after she did her own heart work — and it’s one of the most beautiful moments we’ve had on this show.
Resources mentioned:
•The Inheritance by Graham Cooke — a 10-minute audio Melanie recommends listening to daily for 30 days
•Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge — the foundation for the three core desires
•Heart of a Woman Retreat — October 8–10, 2026 (first 10 registrants get $100 off — promo code is 2026Brick100 )
•Boise Alumni Fireside Chat — April 25th at 1:00 PM

The Inheritance Video mentioned:

https://youtu.be/FgzXXKjaPZA?si=Ktr5AISPQzmPUg0m

•Scholarships available at theheartofawoman.net
Connect with Melanie:
📧 [email protected]
🌐 theheartofawoman.net
Connect with Jason:
📖 Unhooked — available on Amazon and Audible
🌐 brickhouserecovery.com

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked. 

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
 https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

Send us Fan Mail

What if the most loving thing a family can do is stop helping? In this raw solo episode, Jason Coombs shares the unfiltered story of his addiction, his parents’ breaking point, and the family therapy moment that changed everything: “Get off the beach.” If you’re exhausted from absorbing the waves of someone else’s addiction, this episode was made for you.

There’s a moment in almost every family’s addiction story where love and enabling look identical. You can’t tell them apart. That’s not weakness — that’s the nature of the disease.
In this solo episode, Jason pulls back the curtain on the season of his addiction that nearly destroyed his family, and the unexpected turning point that started their healing — long before his own sobriety began.
This one is personal. And it might be exactly what you need to hear today.

🌊 The tsunami metaphor — why every decision an addict makes eventually crashes onto the family shore
🔥 The night Jason confessed to his parents, and how their loving response quietly reinforced his denial
🪑 The family therapy session that gave his parents three words that changed everything: “Get off the beach”
🔐 The Cracker Barrel boundary — changed locks, restricted access, and the manipulation that finally didn’t work
👶 Nathan’s birth and the painful gift of placing his son for adoption — the why that grew bigger than the addiction
🌭 The hot dog stand conversation 72 days into sobriety that launched the mission behind Unhooked
🎣 How family members get “hooked” — managing probation, covering for their loved one’s boss, softening every consequence
💡 Jason’s five-principle boundary framework — a practical roadmap for exhausted families. 

“For the first time, my parents understood that to love me did not mean to rescue me. It meant setting boundaries. It meant getting healthy. It meant getting off the beach and taking their life back.”

TIMESTAMP GUIDE:
∙[00:59] The survivors of the Titanic — why shared pain creates unlikely community
∙[01:21] The tsunami wave analogy explained
∙[03:28] The confession on the fireplace bricks — and the response that reinforced the disease
∙[06:12] “Get off the beach” — the family therapy moment
∙[08:38] The Cracker Barrel boundary conversation
∙[10:23] When the manipulation stopped working
∙[10:48] Nathan’s birth and the adoption decision
∙[13:53] The hot dog stand and the birth of Unhooked
∙[20:16] How families get hooked without realizing it
∙[21:12] Why pain is the engine of change
∙[29:14] The five-principle boundary framework
∙[33:59] Writing down what you “hear that isn’t said”

RESOURCES MENTIONED:
📘 Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover — available on Amazon and Audible
💻 Live Unhooked Course + Community — brickhouserecovery.com
📞 Brick House Recovery — 208-286-4274

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