ABOUT THE EPISODE:
I’ve been reminded of something over the past few months: Stories of hope are all around us, even if we don’t hear them.

Just last week, I got to speak to my coworker from a former life, Steve Andrews, whose son had a frightening brush with death during the throes of his substance abuse. Both Steve and his son are now living fulfilling lives, and Steve himself has become the caretaker of our men’s community, The Woods.

Since then, I was also contacted by today’s guest, Matt Elliott, a client of mine from my life in the corporate world. Until he got in touch, I hadn’t seen or spoken to Matt in five years. I had no idea that he had his own recovery story to share.

In this episode, we talk about the traumas Matt put his family through as a young man, the role substances played in his perception of his own value as a human being, how his recovery played out, and what his younger self needed to hear at the time. 

This National Recovery Month, it’s worth pausing to reflect on just how many families we interact with daily who’ve endured substance use in their families – and how many come out the other side stronger, wiser and more compassionate.
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This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Today, I have the privilege of introducing the new host of The Woods, our community specifically for dads, stepdads, and male co-parents.

After Steve Andrews and his wife got sober through Alcoholics Anonymous as a young couple, their sons never saw them drink or use substances. They warned their kids of the alcoholism and mental health issues on both sides of the family, but when one of them began misusing DXM, Kratom, alcohol, and marijuana in middle school, the couple found themselves in an increasingly volatile situation.

Meanwhile, Steve was also trying to maintain a stressful and demanding work life at the office – with me! Yes, Steve and I worked at the same ad agency while our families dealt with the chaos of substance misuse.

We found in each other what Hopestream Community provides to all its members: the company of someone who truly understands what you’re going through.

Steve is now a practicing therapist, and today we welcome him as host of The Woods with a discussion that includes:

• The frightening story of Steve’s son losing control – and how he moved into recovery
• Proof that there is no “one size fits all” way for our kids to find recovery
• How Steve’s new position with The Woods brings full circle yet another personal story of hope
• How a child with substance issues affects work-life perspective and experience
• How we can take accountability for our actions without falling into the “it’s-all-my-fault” trap

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Steve’s website

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This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When you have a complex child, all your conversations and relationships might feel more strained. If you're like me, you sometimes find yourself at a complete loss for words and struggle with how to diffuse or launch your communication in a helpful and productive way.

If this sounds like you, you're in luck as I'm sharing ten very simple and highly effective phrases you can use when you're stuck for words or your words aren't currently working.

And to make it even easier, there's a PDF in the show notes you can download free, so you've got these ten phrases handy when you need them.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Episode 182 Cheat Sheet: click to download

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This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Sometimes you can gain a different understanding of things by looking at them through a new lens. Today's bite-size episode does that for you as the parent of a young person who struggle with substances - in the form of a short story.

You'll hear about a restaurant owner and her strange, secret menu. And for those who eat from it, it can provide benefits and gifts not available anywhere else.

It's one you may want to single-task for to absorb the full meaning. Created with love and compassion by me, just for you. 
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This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Every once in a while, I have the opportunity to speak with parents whose experiences are a perfect case study of why Hopestream Community exists. This episode with Eleanor and Dave is one of those conversations – especially for those of you with kids who are young adults living outside the home.

Eleanor and Dave raised their two children in Silicon Valley, where they had a nice house, a beautiful community, and access to California's best schools. But as many parents recognize, economic stability is not necessarily a shield against substance misuse.  

In the span of one short year, Eleanor and Dave watched their daughter spiral from a university student to homeless, living in her car and using fentanyl regularly.

After a brief period of denial about the seriousness of her situation, the couple was  forced to accept the reality in front of them. The hard work that followed should be held up as an example of what to do right, and that’s why I’m speaking with them today.

You'll hear how Eleanor and Dave implemented many of the tools and strategies we talk about frequently in Hopestream Community – creating supportive boundaries, rooting actions in love and empathy, implementing strategies from The Invitation to Change Approach, performing loving, family-based interventions, and so much more.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Book: Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change
• The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends

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This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
In this coaching episode we reconnect with Stream member Alice who I spoke to 18 months ago, when her son was in the worst of his substance misuse. And what incredible growth and development her family has seen since then!  

After wilderness and a therapeutic boarding school, Alice’s son is now an 18-year-old holding down a heavy load including work, volunteering and school in sober living. But the everyday things that Alice used to do for him at home – laundry, groceries, appointments, picking up prescriptions – are starting to create a level of stress that is no longer buffered by substances.

Alice learned a lot over the past 18 months about natural consequences and setting boundaries, but now that her son is well on his way to full recovery, she can’t help but want to jump in and help maintain everything he’s worked for. How much should she get involved?  Should her boundaries shift? And how much should he participate in drawing those boundaries?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Telos (Therapeutic Boarding School)

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Today we tackle the difficult topic of shame and how it can affect our entire families.  As parents of kids who are misusing drugs or alcohol, it’s common to experience a profound sense of failure or guilt when their lives begin to spin out of control.

And as today’s guest says, “How could you not?”  For many of us, it can seem like our kids are entirely different than the people we raised.  As a substance use disorder progresses, they may engage in ugly behaviors like lying, cheating, or stealing that are contrary to everything we taught them.  It’s not hard to understand why that often leads to a sense of shame in parents.

On this episode, I’m joined by Patrick Hawkins, founder of Triple Divide Lodge, a 90-day program that combines residential treatment and adventure therapy for young men ages 14-19.  Patrick’s wealth of experience helps us work through these family dynamics of shame and how they affect not just our kids but us as well.

You'll hear:

• How “spontaneous rationalizations” trump unidentified and unresolved feelings in our kids
• How those feelings pile up over time into chronic emotional distress, which is often used as a subconscious justification for continuing their substance use
• Why kids are truly unaware that the problem is addiction, and why that should alleviate so much of the guilt we may feel
• Why turning our child into our parental report card leads to emotionally driven behavior – and why that’s rarely good

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Triple Divide Lodge

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When I heard today’s guest on another (seemingly unrelated) podcast, I immediately wanted to bring his wisdom and perspective to the listeners of Hopestream. 

After years of stimulant and other substance abuse, Adam Sud tried to take his own life with an overdose - which thankfully failed. In the decade that followed that pivotal event, he became a behavioral wellness nutrition expert, international speaker, and the founder and CEO of a nonprofit that studies how nutrition impacts mental health and addiction.

I began this interview wanting to bring you a conversation more specifically about food and nutrition, but once we got started, it was clear that Adam had SO MUCH MORE to share – about the core motivations and behaviors connected to substance misuse. 

He’s full of truths that are sometimes hard to hear but are invaluable to help parents understand what their kids are going through, how to be an active part of their recovery, and, importantly, how not to sabotage it.

This episode is long, but that’s because it’s full of gems that I couldn’t bury in the editing room. Over the course of this conversation, we discuss:

• Why we must understand how it “makes perfect sense” to misuse drugs and alcohol 
• The evolutionary programming that leaves humans susceptible to addiction
• Why we should never ask, “Why won’t you stop?” and what to ask instead
• How food both fueled and healed Adam’s addictive patterns
• How the notion of willpower has become a trap
• Why Adam believes the word “recovery” shouldn’t be defined as “an absence of substances”

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• INFINITE Study about the benefits of a plant-based diet in addiction recovery
• Adam Sud's website
• Rip Esselstyn, PlantStrong
• Doug Lisle, Ph.D., Author, The Pleasure Trap
• Doug Lisle, Ph.D. Ted Talk
• Plant Based for Positive Change (Adam’s nonprofit organization)
• Johan Hari Ted Talk (Rat Park Experiment)

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Shorty episode alert 💫⁠
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Today I'm taking a break from talking about addiction, substances, mental health, all.the.things. ⁠
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Instead, I'm sharing six decisions you get to make as a parent that can help better your life when you have a child struggling with substances or finding their way to recovery.⁠
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It's a quicky that will give you a few things to consider if you feel a bit untethered or like life is controlling you vs. the other way around.⁠

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
On several occasions, Hopestream has hosted conversations about the complex intersection of substance use and other issues like anxiety, trauma, and ADD. 

But there’s one convergence we haven’t yet discussed: substance use, addiction, and autism.  After searching for a trustworthy specialist, we're finally covering this topic today with neuropsychologist Dr. Brandon Park, Founder and Executive Director of New Focus Academy.

In this episode, Dr. Park explains why kids with autism can find themselves especially susceptible to addictions – not just to alcohol and drugs, but also technology use and other behaviors.  Over the course of this conversation we discuss:

• What is neurodiversity and how does it impact teens and young adults?
• Indicators for undiagnosed autism
• Why some kids (especially girls) are good at masking neurodivergence and how that makes them even more vulnerable
• What parents need to know if they're considering treatment for a neurodiverse child
• How therapists and mental health professionals can sometimes misunderstand the experience and needs of kids with autism
• The importance of working with professionals who can parse the connections between trauma, autism, substance use, and other issues

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• New Focus Academy Website
• Instagram: @newfocusacademy
• Social Emotional Fluency Model developed by Dr. Park

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Find us on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.