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They Finally Said Yes to Rehab… Now What?

You've waited months, maybe even years, to hear your addicted loved one say, "I'm ready to get help."

And then, just like that, they change their mind.

Why does this happen? And what can you do differently when that window of willingness finally opens?

In this episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs breaks down the Preparation Stage of Change—one of the most hopeful, yet fragile, stages of addiction recovery.

Drawing from his personal journey through five treatment programs and years of helping individuals and families navigate addiction, Jason introduces his READY framework: five practical skills to help families recognize genuine signs of readiness, support their loved one's recovery plans, anticipate obstacles, and encourage action without resorting to pressure or control.

You'll discover why taking over someone's recovery plan can actually backfire, how to respond when fear and second thoughts show up, and why lending someone your belief in them can be more powerful than another lecture about their consequences.

Jason also shares the remarkable story of the friend who helped him enter treatment for the last time—and what that experience taught him about being prepared when someone is finally willing to accept help.

The biggest takeaway? You cannot make someone choose recovery. But you can prepare yourself to respond with confidence, compassion, and healthy boundaries when they're ready.

If you're exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of broken promises and false starts, this conversation will help you replace some of that anxiety with a practical plan.

Additional Resources:

Visit brickhouserecovery.com to learn more about Brick House Recovery.

Explore the Serenity Circle, a supportive community for families navigating a loved one's addiction.

Read Jason's book, Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover, available on Amazon and Audible.

Because learning to help your loved one shouldn't mean losing yourself in the process.

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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What if the harder you try to convince your loved one to get sober, the more you're actually pushing them away from recovery?

It's frustrating. They've admitted they have a problem. They've promised to change. Maybe they've even been to rehab. But somehow, they keep ending up in the same place.

Here's what most families don't realize: Your loved one may not be in denial. They may be stuck in the contemplation stage of change, where part of them desperately wants a better life, while another part still sees alcohol or drugs as the solution.

In this episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs draws from his own experience going through five rehabs and nearly two decades helping individuals and families navigate addiction. He introduces the SCALE framework, five practical ways to help your loved one discover their own reasons to change, without lecturing, shaming, or wrestling for control.

You'll learn why arguing often backfires, how to recognize small signs of readiness, and how to encourage meaningful steps toward recovery while protecting your own emotional well-being.

Because you can't force someone to get sober. But you can learn how to become a powerful, healthy influence in their recovery.

Learn more: https://www.brickhouserecovery.com

Book: Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover by Jason Coombs.

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 to help someone you love get sober. So why isn't anything working?

You've paid their bills. You've covered for their mistakes. You've had the same conversations a hundred times. You've threatened consequences, made promises, and spent countless sleepless nights wondering what else you could possibly do.

But here's the painful truth:

Sometimes the things we do out of love are the very things keeping addiction comfortable.

In this powerful episode of Get Unhooked, Jason Coombs shares a deeply personal story about the day his parents learned a lesson that would change their family's life forever.

While attending family therapy during Jason's treatment, his parents were asked to imagine their son standing in a boat, dropping boulders into a lake. Each boulder represented another destructive choice. And every ripple eventually became a massive wave crashing over the two people who loved him most.

Then the therapist told them something profound:

"You can't stop Jason from throwing the boulders. But you can get off the beach."

That message became a turning point.

Drawing from his personal recovery journey, decades of experience helping families affected by addiction, and the evidence-based CRAFT approach, Jason shares seven practical moves families can make when their loved one is stuck in the pre-contemplation stage—the stage where they don't believe they have a problem and have no intention of changing.

You'll learn why rescuing someone from consequences can delay their motivation to recover, how to establish boundaries without guilt, and how to stop letting another person's addiction dictate your emotional and financial well-being.

Most importantly, you'll discover that you don't have to abandon someone you love to stop participating in their addiction.

Because getting unhooked isn't about giving up on your loved one.

It's about learning how to contribute to their recovery instead of their addiction.

And reclaiming your own life in the process.

If you're exhausted from trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved, this episode is for you.

Get Unhooked is hosted by Jason Coombs, founder of Brick House Recovery and author of Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover.

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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How does a successful professional with a promising career end up homeless, facing felony charges, and addicted to heroin?

And more importantly, how does someone come back from that?

In this special episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, I'm sharing a conversation I had with my good friend Shane Ramer, host of That Sober Guy Podcast.

We're going deep into my personal journey through addiction, the consequences that nearly destroyed my life, and what it actually took to find lasting recovery.

I wasn't someone who grew up thinking I'd become addicted to drugs.

I had a successful career in television sales, a marriage, and a future that looked pretty promising.

But after a car accident introduced me to prescription painkillers, I found myself caught up in an OxyContin drug ring involving a doctor who was illegally prescribing medication.

When that operation came crashing down, my addiction didn't stop.

It got worse.

Eventually, I lost my career, my marriage, my home, and my freedom. I spent a winter homeless, struggling with heroin and crack cocaine addiction.

And even after going to jail and multiple treatment programs, I still wasn't ready to change.

It took five treatment attempts before something finally clicked.

In this episode, Shane and I talk about addiction, recovery, faith, gratitude, and why getting sober requires so much more than simply putting down the drugs or alcohol.

We also explore the importance of recognizing the victories we experience along the way, even when life doesn't turn out exactly as we planned.

Whether you're struggling with addiction yourself, you've been through treatment multiple times, or you're watching someone you love continue down a destructive path, I hope my story reminds you of something important:

Your past doesn't have to determine your future.

Recovery is possible. And there's a whole lot more to life than simply being sober.

Let's get unhooked.

Connect with Jason Coombs:
Brick House Recovery | brickhouserecovery.com

Author of Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover

Special thanks to Shane Ramer and That Sober Guy Podcast for the conversation.

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 you love someone struggling with addiction so much that their addiction starts consuming your life too?

In this episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason sits down with bestselling author, recovery coach, and host of the One Day at a Time Recovery Podcast, Arlina Allen.

Arlina recently celebrated 31 years of recovery—but her story is about far more than simply getting sober.

She and Jason dig into what recovery actually looks like beneath the surface: people-pleasing, self-judgment, codependency, the need to control, finding a Higher Power, rebuilding self-worth, and learning how to live from love instead of fear.

And for families, there’s an especially important message:

You can deeply love someone struggling with addiction without making yourself responsible for their recovery.

Sometimes the greatest influence we have begins when we stop trying to control the outcome and start doing our own work.

Jason and Arlina talk about the 12 Steps, emotional sobriety, letting people experience their own journey, and why healing can eventually turn some of the most painful chapters of our lives into purpose.

If you’ve been exhausted from worrying, rescuing, monitoring, fixing, or wondering what else you can possibly do to help someone you love, this conversation is for you.

There is another way to love them.

And it starts with getting unhooked.

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 reason you’re exhausted from trying to help your addicted loved one isn’t because you haven’t tried hard enough…

…but because you’ve been using the wrong tool for the stage they’re actually in?

In this episode of Get Unhooked, Jason introduces the COMPASS Framework—a practical way to identify where your loved one is in the stages of change so you can stop guessing, reacting, rescuing, threatening, and trying to force progress that isn’t yours to control.

You’ll learn how to listen for change talk, evaluate their actions instead of their promises, recognize the difference between relapse and starting over, and identify who is actually carrying the desire for recovery.

Most importantly, you’ll learn how to choose one appropriate move based on where your loved one actually is—not where you desperately want them to be.

If you’ve been asking yourself:

“Should I push harder?”
“Should I back off?”
“Should I give them another chance?”
“Should I set another boundary?”
“Do they really want to change?”

This episode will give you a framework for answering those questions with more clarity and a lot less chaos.

You cannot control whether someone else chooses recovery.

But you can learn how to stop letting their addiction control you.

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

You love them. You want them to get better. And you’d do almost anything to help.

But what if some of the things you’re doing to help your addicted loved one are actually making recovery harder?

In this episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs breaks down 10 things NOT to do when you’re trying to help someone you love recover from addiction.

This isn’t about blaming families. Most of these behaviors come from fear, exhaustion, heartbreak, and a desperate desire to keep someone you love alive. But over time, rescuing, controlling, lecturing, monitoring, shaming, and protecting someone from the consequences of their addiction can begin to damage the very relationship you need in order to have a healthy influence.

Jason shares lessons from both sides of addiction—as a person in long-term recovery and as a family member, treatment provider, and author of Unhooked.

You’ll learn why:

• Addiction cannot be treated like a moral failure
• Trying to control someone’s recovery can pull you into the drama triangle
• “Cleaning the fish” doesn’t work if you put it back into the same dirty water
• Rescuing someone from consequences can rob them of an opportunity to change
• Lecturing often creates resistance instead of motivation
• Shame rarely produces healthy, lasting recovery
• Your relationship with your loved one matters more than winning the argument

You didn’t cause their addiction. You can’t control it. And you can’t cure it.

But you can learn how to stop contributing to unhealthy patterns—and start creating the kind of relationship where recovery has room to grow.

If you love someone struggling with addiction and you’re exhausted from trying to figure out what to do next, this episode is for you.

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 key to helping your addicted loved one isn’t doing more—but learning when to stop pushing, fixing, and rescuing?

In this episode, Jason answers real questions from family members navigating addiction, relapse, broken trust, financial consequences, and the constant fear of making the “wrong” move.

He explains why the advice-giver often doesn’t get an honest participant—and how curiosity, empathy, and the right questions can create the kind of relationship where your loved one actually feels safe enough to tell the truth.

You’ll also hear Jason unpack the difference between helping and enabling, including what to do when an adult child is facing real-world consequences while trying to get sober.

Most importantly, this episode is a reminder that your peace does not have to depend on whether your loved one gets sober, takes your advice, or makes the choices you desperately want them to make.

You can love them deeply without allowing their addiction to consume your life.

In this episode:

• Why trying to control addiction often creates more fear, frustration, and disconnection
• How motivational interviewing can change conversations with your loved one
• Why being curious is often more powerful than giving advice
• How to help without rescuing or teaching learned helplessness
• When financial support becomes enabling
• Why clear agreements and boundaries matter
• How to begin rebuilding trust after addiction
• The role of emotional sobriety for the entire family
• How to find peace even when your loved one isn’t okay

Recovery isn’t only available to the person struggling with substances.

It’s available to the family too.

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

Why do some stories move people—and others make their eyes glaze over?

For years, Jason Coombs thought the problem was his story.

Maybe it wasn’t interesting enough. Maybe he wasn’t a natural storyteller. Maybe nobody really cared what he had been through.

Then he learned a lesson that completely changed the way he communicates:

Write for the reader, not for the writer.

In this episode of the Brick House Podcast, Jason breaks down how to turn your lived experience into a story that can actually influence, inspire, and create change.

You’ll discover why great storytelling has less to do with natural talent than you think, how the Epiphany Bridge gives your story structure and power, and why the person you’re trying to reach doesn’t need you to be the hero—they need you to be the guide.

Jason also shares the story behind writing Unhooked, the mentors who helped him find his voice, and how the story he once believed nobody wanted to hear became one of his most powerful tools for helping others.

If you’ve ever thought, “I know I have something valuable to say, but I don’t know how to make it land,” this episode is for you.

Your story may already have everything it needs.

You just need to learn how to use it.

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

Getting sober is important.

But what if getting sober isn’t actually the goal?

In this episode, Jason Coombs shares what he believes was missing during his first several attempts at recovery—and why simply telling someone to stop drinking, stop using, stop lying, or stop destroying their life often isn’t enough to create lasting change.

Because when someone is deep in addiction, sobriety can look less like freedom and more like a life sentence.

Jason shares how he approaches conversations with someone who may finally be reaching for help, including why he seeks to understand before trying to convince, how to help someone discover their own reasons for change, and how to begin making recovery attractive.

He also dives into:

• Why “sober and miserable” can feel worse than being loaded and miserable
• The difference between sobriety and emotional sobriety
• Why early recovery requires convalescence—not racing to fix everything
• How tiny, seemingly unimportant decisions can either pull us toward relapse or build an entirely new life
• Why we recover in relationships, not treatment centers
• How purpose begins to replace obsession
• Why true change is ultimately identity change

Jason also shares lessons from his own recovery, including five treatment experiences, rebuilding his life at 31 years old, working at a hot dog stand after rehab, rediscovering old passions, and eventually discovering a purpose in helping other people recover.

Recovery becomes different when you stop seeing sobriety as the destination and start seeing it as the doorway.

There is a bigger life on the other side.

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