RECOVERY…THE HERO’S JOURNEY

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that the alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his way through the lives of others. Hearts are broken. Sweet relationships are dead. Affections have been uprooted. Selfish and inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turmoil.

We do a better job of treating people with addictions than the family members. The person with the addiction often receives residential or outpatient treatment, individual therapy, referral to community support. But what about the people who love the person with the addiction? What about the children?

Claudia Black, world renowned author of It Will Never Happen to Me and My Dad Loves Me, My Dad has a Disease says, No one deserves to operate from a place of fear and shame. We deserve far greater options.

This podcast follows one woman's brave journey of living with her husband's alcoholism for years. Rosemary was married with 3 children when her husband began to exhibit signs of alcoholism. She describes encounters with the police, hiding in the basement with her young son, and years of verbal abuse. My kids don't remember him sober. She recounts these lost years with a sense of unreality, familiar to trauma survivors and wonders why she tolerated unacceptable behavior for so long. She describes the chaos and anxiety, the denial, and the traumatic wounding that happens within the alcoholic home, as well as the devastation that follows each relapse.

Rosemary is brave and vulnerable as she shares what motivated her to take her three children and leave the alcoholic home. This is a story of a mother's love for her children and a desire to protect them. She shares how breaking the silence, supportive friends and Alanon helped her develop a strong, independent sense of self. She recounts a new sense of freedom and hope for the future, for herself and her children.

Addiction Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Malcolm joins us today to discuss the growing problem of cocaine and methamphetamine addiction. Dr. Malcolm is a well respected clinician and prolific researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina, and has devoted 35 years to conducting clinical medication trials in the hope of helping people struggling with Substance Use Disorders.

Dr. Malcolm discusses the current trends in stimulant addiction and addresses the rising number of overdose deaths involving cocaine and methamphetamine and the alarming increase in people taking opioids and stimulants together.

He describes the physical and psychiatric effects of cocaine and methamphetamine on the body and brain and addresses the following questions:

Why are cocaine and methamphetamine cravings so difficult to control?

Are there any medications to help these cravings?

What drugs have been studied to treat cocaine and methamphetamine addiction?

What psychosocial treatments work the best with cocaine and methamphetamine addiction?

Join Dr. Malcolm as he supports people struggling with Stimulant Use Disorder and offers his best advice regarding recovery.

Charlotte Jackson, MA, is a therapist and supervisor in the Multi-Disciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Phase III clinical trials researching MDMA assisted therapy for individuals with severe PTSD.

Charlotte describes how PTSD impacts the brain and emotional life of afflicted individuals.

Charlotte offers a brief overview of the early psychedelic research and how MAPS has built on this. She speaks to the known mechanisms of MDMA and also the known potency and purity of the MAPS medication vs. street drugs.

She shares the exciting results of the MAPS study published in the journal Nature Medicine in May 2021, showing that MDMA-assisted therapy represents a potential breakthrough treatment for severe PTSD. Charlotte Jackson shares the characteristics of the study participants, average duration of PTSD, how the study defined remission and common experiences of the participants following experiential sessions.

How does an experience with the study drug compare to an experience of social use?

This study included people with serious comorbidity like substance use disorders, suicidality, depression, dissociation and childhood trauma. What were the findings with this very difficult-to-treat population?

We discuss people's resistance surrounding the use of psychedelics to treat psychiatric conditions.

Charlotte shares her experience with psilocybin-assisted therapy with terminally ill patients and her hopes to expand access to individuals with substance use disorders.

Charlotte Jackson tells listeners how to contact MAPS if they are interested in participating in a study and outlines future areas of study for MDMA-assisted therapy.

Join Dr. Hilarie Cash, one of the nation's leading experts in the field of Internet Gaming Disorder. Dr. Cash is co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of reSTART Life, the first residential treatment program for adolescents and adults suffering from addiction to the internet and video games.

Dr. Cash describes the risk factors, consequences and mental health problems commonly associated with addiction to the internet and video games. She describes the withdrawal syndrome associated with online gaming and comments on the connection between online gaming and substance use.

How do I approach my teen or loved one if I think he has a problem?

What if he won't agree to get help?

Dr. Cash addresses these questions and describes the treatment approach at reSTART Life, where the motto is Connect with life, not your device.

Dr. Cash explains how exposing children to excessive screens at younger and younger ages interferes with normal growth and development, often leading to problems with healthy attachment and intimacy. She offers advice to parents on how to prevent an internet addiction in their children.

Matt is a 40 year old attorney and partner in a well respected law firm. He developed addictions to alcohol, cocaine and opioids. His life at work and home became unmanageable and out of control. After multiple outpatient treatments failed, Matt entered an out of state residential treatment program that offered a specialized track for impaired professionals.

Matt discusses the Hazelden/American Bar Association research that shows that attorneys are at a much higher risk for mental health and addiction problems than the general population. He shares his thoughts on how the legal culture has historically set attorneys up to develop addiction. What is it about practicing law and the legal culture that puts an attorney at risk for Substance Use Disorders and Workaholism?

He outlines what the American Bar Association and some law firms are doing to increase awareness of the problem and focus on prevention and treatment of mental health and addiction problems. Matt outlines the reasons many attorneys keep their addiction secret and avoid entering treatment.

He shares how he structures his practice to optimize work-life balance and sustain his recovery from addiction and offers advice to both people graduating from law school and attorneys who are struggling with an addiction problem currently.

Matt shares his life changing experience in rehab and the importance of 12 step programs in his recovery. He explains the reason behind setting up an AA meeting specific to attorneys and his role in his State Bar Association's Lawyer's Assistance Program.

Eilene Zimmerman is an experienced journalist and regular contributor to The New York Times. She is author of the powerful and heart-breaking memoir, Smacked...A Story of White Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy. Eilene begins today's podcast with a shocking reading, in which she describes discovering her ex-husband's body in his home. She did not notice the track marks in his arms, nor the drug paraphernalia that surrounded his body on the floor until the coroner brought it to her attention.

In a desperate attempt to fathom what happened to him and how she and everyone else in his world missed it, Eilene set out to create a map of Peter's life the year before he died.

Peter was a high-powered, affluent attorney and senior partner in a prestigious law firm in Silicon Valley.

Eileen shares research that illuminates the high risk of addiction and mental health problems among attorneys. We discuss the legal culture that promotes workaholism, isolation, depression and addiction. Eilene tells us what the American Bar Association and some individual law firms are doing to increase awareness and help prevent tragic endings like Peter's.

Eileen is honest and personal as she describes her own personal journey and what has helped her heal.

She comments on the impact that workaholism and drug addiction has on children and tells us why she decided to tell her children the truth about their father's death.

Dr. Aaron Black is a Fellow and Board Member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association and an instructor on faculty at the Center for Group Studies in NYC. Dr. Black bases his group work on Attachment Theory. He describes how insecure attachment patterns that develop in childhood typically manifest as dysfunction in our adult relationships. He believes that, using the group as a secure base, people can change their attachment style through ongoing group therapy and emerge as securely attached individuals, able to trust, regulate their emotions and connect more intimately with others.

Dr. Black supports the idea that addiction is often the result of insecure attachment and discusses how traditional addiction treatment frequently falls short. We discuss how 12 Step groups frequently refer to anger as a character defect and discourage its expression in early recovery.

Dr. Black explains the importance of learning how to express angry feelings in recovery and how suppression or denial of anger can harm ourselves and our relationships. We offer multiple examples of how group therapy can operate as a learning lab for people in recovery to practice identifying difficult feelings inside themselves and toward others and practice putting these feelings into words. He suggests that group therapy helps create more resilient individuals by inoculating them against criticism, fear of rejection, frustration, and disappointment.

Dr. Black also offers examples of how group therapy based on Attachment Theory can help a person recover parts of themselves that were suppressed or lost, recover longings they didn't know they had and emerge more compassionate toward themselves and others.

Research shows that among people seeking treatment for Substance Use Disorders, lifetime PTSD rates range from 30 to over 60%. This is a complicated group that tends to have worse outcomes when compared to either disorder alone.

Dr. Lisa Najavits, world renowned expert in PTSD and Trauma Treatment discusses her award-winning, innovative treatment manual Seeking Safety, which treats PTSD and Substance Use Disorders concurrently.

Dr. Najavits discusses the common myth that treatment needs to focus on the past, on the painful retelling of the trauma story and the intense re-experiencing of feelings associated with the trauma. She says this myth deters many people from seeking trauma treatment.

Her manual is present-focused and teaches coping skills that help people manage PTSD symptoms, cope with cravings and take back their personal power that was lost through the trauma and the addiction.

Seeking Safety offers 25 different topics, promoting both relationship skills and individual skills. These topics include Detaching From Emotional Pain, Compassion, Setting Boundaries in Relationships, Asking for Help, Coping with Triggers, Finding Meaning and Safe Self Nurturing.

Dr. Najavits goes into depth as she explains some of the grounding exercises (physical, mental and soothing grounding) that help people detach from emotional pain. She offers some simple, practical and portable skills that give people the ability to shift their emotional state at any moment.

Dr. Najavits offers hope to those suffering from comorbid PTSD and Substance Use Disorders, encouraging them to stay in the present moment and focus on what you can do now, today, in the present moment. You can create a new story for yourself and find a sense of meaning and purpose moving forward... This, she says, is an antidote to trauma and addiction.

Geraldine Burns is an absolute giant and tireless advocate in the promotion of benzodiazepine awareness and the fight against benzodiazepine harm. During this podcast interview, Geraldine shares her agonizing personal story... why she was originally prescribed benzodiazepines, what happened, how she came to realize that benzodiazepines were worsening her condition/causing symptoms of their own and her attempts to seek professional help.

She discusses her connection to Professor Heather Ashton and how she was instrumental in the writing of The Ashton Manual Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw.

Geraldine describes her motivation behind starting the first Internet support group in 1999 for people wishing to withdraw from tranquilizers and those who were already off and having problems.

She discusses launching the BenzoBookReview.com website in 2006 and what it offers the public.

Geraldine shares her motivation behind starting her podcast Benzodiazepine Awareness with Geraldine Burns.

She discusses the harmful effect that benzodiazepines can have on a woman's menstrual cycle. Also, the potentially devastating impact of benzodiazepines on the parent-child relationship and the family's financial situation.

We touch on her current involvement with legislation in the state of Massachusetts. We discuss her role in the upcoming documentary As Prescribed, due out in 2022, a documentary film project about benzodiazepine dependency and discontinuation syndrome.

Thomas Moore is the author of the groundbreaking bestseller, Care of the Soul: A Guide to Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life and 25 other books on deepening spirituality and how to cultivate soul in the ordinary aspects of one's life.

He spent 13 years as a Catholic monk, then went on to earn a PhD in religious studies and became a university professor. Thomas Moore has been practicing depth psychotherapy for over 35 years and offers workshops on spirituality and soul psychology around the world. He has been on Oprah's SuperSoul Sunday.

During this enlightening conversation, he defines the soul and what it means to lead a soulful life.

He believes that someone who yearns for alcohol may be yearning for a sense of vitality/a sense of feeling connected/a sense of wholeness. He suggests that alcohol may be a kind of poetic metaphor and that yearning for something greater may actually be that person's strength and should be explored in great depth.

He recounts one of his patient's dreams about alcohol during our discussion about AA's call for a spiritual awakening.

He believes that we are born with spirituality...we don't need to learn it, but we do need to nurture that spiritual connection and keep it alive. He discusses the power of Nature and the Arts in caring for our soul.

Thomas Moore delights in imperfections and failures, and, like Carl Jung, believes that The Dark Night of the Soul may be a catalyst for growth and the beginning of a spiritual awakening.

He offers suggestions for how to reconnect with your soul, experience a spiritual awakening and bring depth to your life.

Thomas explains why wonder is more important than religious doctrine.

We discuss ways to find meaning and purpose in life and how to live more fully alive and awake.