Recovery Discovery by Show Up and Stay

On this week's episode of our Sober Positive Workplace Series, DeAnn speaks with Karolina Rzadkowolska, author of "Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You".  Karolina is a powerhouse in the alcohol-free movement.  She has helped countless gray-area drinkers reconsider their relationship with alcohol.  The episode discusses alcohol culture and its impact on the workplace, generational considerations for how we think about alcohol and alcohol-related marketing, and the shifting expectations of the next generation who are the future leaders of our workforce.  

Realities and disconnects of alcohol culture: 

• Alcohol became a tool for Karolina to get out of her shell and meet new people, and she had no boundaries around it in college.
• Drinking alcohol makes you feel like an adult. It gives you independence, a sense of rebelliousness,  glamour, or sophistication.
• Drinking during the week is a socially acceptable means of doing it without having to explain it to anyone.
• 60% of people overdrink in the United States, meaning that a woman has more than one drink, is now considered heavy risky drinking, according to the medical establishment, and it gets even lower in Canada, where the drinking limits have gone lower and lower.
• Most people over 52% wish they didn't drink at all, and most people recognize that they don't like it and wish they were drinking less.

Karolina shares her workplace experience: 

•  She was one of the first people in her known sphere in her workplace to go alcohol-free, and she chose to adopt that story. People started coming out of the woodwork and saying that alcohol-free living is better for most people.
• One thing about a workplace scenario is that there's this assumption that what everyone wants to do and is fun for them is drinking.
• Holistic health is becoming more important to young people, and there is more of a lens on the importance of taking care of yourself.
• Why more and more CEOs are drinking less? 

Karolina shares thoughts on how we can work to bridge non-drinkers: 

• The odd division that exists in the world of non-drinkers and the spectrum of beliefs around substances.
• Being willing to evolve and change some of the language and the methods that are used to reevaluate is super helpful, but it doesn't go to say that the other methods don't work.

https://euphoricaf.com
https://www.instagram.com/euphoric.af/?hl=en

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

Host, DeAnn Knighton, and Janet Hadley, founder of Choose Sunrise (UK organization), review considerations for employers in building alcohol safety into their organizations 

Stigma and workplace. 7:37

• Reaching out to the gray area drinkers in the workplace
• Stigma is a result of our evolution to put people into groups, which is useful, but creates blind spots for gray areas.
• "Drink Responsibly" is a powerful slogan that enforces stigma 

Who has a bigger problem with alcohol? 13:22

• Alcohol is the number one risk factor for premature death of individuals ages 25 to 49, according to the US and the UK.
  • The UK and the US are both above the global average of 4.9% for prevalence of alcohol use disorder
  • In the UK Alcohol use disorder is not specifically called out in the discrimination act, but it is not a protected characteristic in the same way that depression is.
  • The Americans with disabilities act ensures that people with disabilities, including people with addiction to alcohol, have the same rights and opportunities.    Link: https://adata.org/factsheet/ada-addiction-recovery-and-employment
•  Alcohol Safe Workplace Accreditation (UK) 24:40 
  • The accreditation standards cover policy, culture, education, and support for individuals.
  • 40% of all workplace accidents are alcohol-related, and 50% of sexual harassment claims in the workplace involve alcohol. 
  • The head of Lloyd's of London is a big insurance underwriter in London and has recently banned all daytime workplace drinking, which is a huge indication of how things are changing and culturally saying that this isn't inclusive.
• Setting up a sober curious society. 30:11
  • Janet started a sober curious society while working at the Co-op in her corporate job. 
  • The importance of engaging people from the community to be a part of the organization and being out loud about who they are.

Janet Hadley - Link
https://choosesunrise.co.uk

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

Welcome to the first official episode of the Sober Positive Workplace Series brought to you by Show Up and Stay and hosted by President and Co-Founder, DeAnn Knighton. This week is a quick background on the host and some general information about the Sober Positive Workplace project. 

• When we use the power of normalization to change the narrative. 1:46
  • Of the 46 million Americans who struggle with at least one substance use disorder, 60% of those over the age of 12 have a job, according to the National Survey on Drug Use.    Source:  https://fortune.com/longform/drug-addiction-recovery-workplace-support/
  • Historically when we talk about drug epidemics like the one we find ourselves in now, we create a discourse that builds stigma and distance.
  • What is a Sober Positive Workplace.
    • "Before we talk about what it is, I want to talk about what it is not. It is not a call for the return of prohibition. It's not virtue signaling or a plan to encourage additional exclusionary practices or judgments about an individual's choice."
• Benefits to the organization and employees. 5:24
  • Benefits to the organization: 
    • increased productivity
    • reduced liability
    • improved retention
    • better recruitment
    • building a culture of inclusion
    •  normalizing the alcohol-free lifestyle.
  • Community-based recovery advocacy.
  • The distance that is created between those who drink and those who don't is part of the reason that there are so many issues around it.
  • How to navigate conversations around drinking.
• The more open I became, the more acceptance I found. 9:41
  • DeAnn shares some background and insight from her own story 
  • The more open DeAnn got about it, the more acceptance she found, and she became more comfortable with herself as a sober person.
  • She learned something really big over time about her unhealthy connection with work. 
• The shift to a sober positive workplace. 13:40
  • DeAnn's bio.
  • DeAnn is president and co-founder of Show up and Stay, a nonprofit focused on finding ways to bridge recovery gaps between healing from substance use disorder and starting the process of healing

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

A quick update from the show about our podcast plans.  Thank you for your patience during this recent break. We will be coming back in September with episodes focused on our Sober Positive Workplace Initiative.

Follow the Sober Positive Workplace Showcase page below to show your support for our work and the importance of building inclusive workplaces for those who don't drink. 

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

A quick update from the show about our podcast plans.  Thank you for your patience during this recent break. We will be coming back in September with episodes focused on our Sober Positive Workplace Initiative.

Follow the Sober Positive Workplace Showcase page below to show your support for our work and the importance of building inclusive workplaces for those who don't drink. 

If you have questions or comments or would like to be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast, send an email to:
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.
https://www.hare.works

Today, DeAnn interviews Dr. Carl Erik Fisher, author of the "The Urge: Our History of Addiction".  This has been DeAnn's favorite recovery read of the past couple of years, so it was an honor to have Carl on the Show.  The episode is a high level discussion of  the key themes in the book, as well as about the meaningful ways that Carl integrated his own story into this well researched and smart history of addiction. If you have not read the book, we believe this episode will make you want to! But if not, you will hear about some interesting cycles about responses to epidemics. And even more importantly, come to understand the  hard truth that rings true on the macro and micro level: that medicine alone is not enough for healing. 

Bio:
Carl Erik Fisher is an addiction physician, bioethicist, writer, and person in recovery. He is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and also maintains a private psychiatry practice with a particular focus on the evolving science of mindfulness and meditation. He is the author of the nonfiction book The Urge: Our History of Addiction, published by Penguin Press in January 2022 and named one of the best books of the year by both The New Yorker and The Boston Globe. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American MIND, and elsewhere. He also is the host of the Flourishing After Addiction podcast, a deep-dive interview series exploring addiction and recovery.

Book Description:
Carl Erik Fisher draws on his experience as an addiction physician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery to trace the history of addiction: a phenomenon that’s troubled us for centuries, yet we hardly appear closer to understanding. As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine. A rich, sweeping account that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and public policy, The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician’s urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of society’s most intractable challenges.

@DrCarlErik on most platforms:
http://www.twitter.com/@drcarlerik
https://www.instagram.com/drcarlerik/
https://www.facebook.com/DrCarlErik/
Website: https://www.carlerikfisher.com

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

Susie Streelman and Peggi Cooney of Zero Proof Experiences and This Side of Alcohol are back to join the Show Up and Stay conversation about the  "Sober Positive Workplace". 

• Peggi shares a story of a full sobriety acceptance at work 
• Susie shares some ideas for hosts of mixed events that incorporate alcohol and the alcohol free without sacrificing sophistication 

"I just drink differently. I deserve a pretty glass and a seat at the table."  - Susie Streelman

Susie Streelman @zeroproofexperiences
Peggi Cooney @thissideofalcohol
http://www.zeroproofexperiences.com

Episode Mentions and Accounts to Follow
@zeroproofexperiences
@thissideofalcohol
@euphoric.af
@sipple.co


Alcohol Free Brand Mentions:
https://www.instagram.com/athleticbrewing/
https://www.instagram.com/sipzilch/
https://www.instagram.com/primapave/
https://www.instagram.com/ritualzeroproof/

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

This week DeAnn is joined by two special guests that have made an impact in the alcohol free and/or sober curious movement.   These normalizers are working to show us that alcohol free does not have to be boring and to help us build a new type of community that is smashing stigma.

Susie Streelman @zeroproofexperiences
Peggi Cooney @thissideofalcohol
http://www.zeroproofexperiences.com

• Overcoming the sometimes newly found social anxiety we discover in sobriety
• The joy of alcohol free socializing to build meaningful connection 
• We discuss Peggi's book, "This Side of Alcohol"
• Susie and Peggi "Quit Lit" Recommendations 
• Susie and Peggi's sober jams
• Upcoming sober in the city events 

Episode Mentions and Accounts to Follow
@zeroproofexperiences
@thissideofalcohol
@theluckiestclub
@artofgrowth
@euphoric.af
@sipple.co
@laura_mckowen
@youarenotstuck
@thisnakedmind
@alcoholexplained
@anndowsettjohnstonofficial
@joshthenonalcoholic

Bibliotherapy Books Mentioned:
We Are The Luckiest,  By: Laura McKowen
You Are Not Stuck, By: Becky Vollmer
Euphoric, By:  Karolina Rzadkowolska
This Naked Mind, By: Annie Grace
Alcohol Explained, By: William Porter
Drink, By: Ann Dowsett Johnston

Music Therapy Recovery Jams Mentioned:
Susie
Prince, 1999
 https://open.spotify.com/track/2H7PHVdQ3mXqEHXcvclTB0

Peggi:
Tones and I, Cloudy Day
https://open.spotify.com/track/0mA7zotmg2ZFMRALljdZsS?

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

In this week's episode DeAnn digs into the conversation around the precipitating factors that causes debate around Psychology as a science.  She also discuss the role of science and spirituality as a continuation from last week's research episode.  She digs into an article that was published in the times in March about individual "right to nonreligious rehab".   

• Normalizers like John Mulaney and Dax Shephard
• NY Times Article: "People Have a Right to Nonreligious Rehab", By:  Maia   Szalavitz 
• Science + Spirituality Discussion 
• Psychology the science?   Specifics around precipitating factors that causes confusion around Psychology as a science

Resources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/11/opinion/faith-addiction-treatment.html
-Stanovich, K. E. (1992). How to think straight about psychology (3rd ed.). HarperCollins Publishers.

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works

DeAnn and Craig interview a very special guest.  Dr. Quyen Ngo is the Executive director of research at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.  They cover a lot of ground in 30 minutes: 

• trends in Substance Abuse Disorder research including digital solutions and  the vagus nerve and the impact of addiction on the nervous system  
• experimental research of use of psychedelic in substance abuse disorder treatment 
• covid and the expansion of virtual care solutions 
• diversity, equity and inclusion in treatment 
• integration of existing 12 Step program with CBT with other emerging approaches to long term recovery 

Yes, DeAnn does have a cold and yes her nose is plugged,  but the show must go on!

Dr. Quyen Ngo leads research activities at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation as the executive director of the Butler Center for Research. She earned her dual PhD in clinical psychology and women's studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she also completed a NIH post-doctoral research fellowship, and subsequently held a faculty position.

 Over the past eight years, Dr. Ngo has conducted NIH grant-funded research on the role of substance use in intimate partner violence and technology- enhanced interventions for substance use disorders; authored 45+ peer-reviewed scholarly publications and several book chapters, and continues to advocate for our most vulnerable populations.

 Resource Links:
https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/

If you have questions or comments or would like to  be a guest on the Recovery Discovery Podcast,  send an email to:   
[email protected]

More information about our project is available at:
https://www.showupandstay.org/
https://www.soberpositiveworkplace.org/

For podcast updates, follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/showupandstayorg/

Music and Audio Production by Katie Hare.   
https://www.hare.works