SMART Recovery® Podcast

Years ago, Brett Macdonald and his friends had the time of their lives backpacking across Australia. After many conversations, they realized that heavy alcohol use had become a staple in their lives. This led them to creating a “sober competition” to see who could abstain from drinking the longest. From this, a global fundraising and awareness initiative was born. Brett is now the Managing Director of EzyRaise, a global fundraising platform, whose campaigns include Dry July Australia, Take on Addiction, and the latest, Sober October USA.

In this podcast, Brett talks about:

• The history of Sober October campaigns in other countries
• How SMART Recovery became the partner and beneficiary for the US campaign
• Why and how to get involved with Sober October
• The benefits of abstaining from alcohol
• Coming to your own conclusions about alcohol
• Useful features for participants, including an alcohol calculator and calendar
• There is still time to join Sober October and support those in recovery

Katie Lain is the co-founder of Thrive Alcohol Recovery, an organization that uses the Sinclair Method to help treat alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Katie struggled a decade trying to get her drinking under control, but no programs or treatments worked. In searching the internet for answers, she found a TedX featuring Claudia Christian, How I Overcame Alcoholism, and thought what she was saying was too good to be true.

Developed by Dr. David Sinclair, the Sinclair Method works by taking naltrexone, an FDA approved medication, 1-2 hours before drinking, to block the pleasure receptors in your brain. With long-term, consistent use, it is medically proven effective at changing a person’s relationship with alcohol.

SMART Recovery is a great compliment to the Sinclair Method because it teaches people tools, like the Hierarchy of Values (HOV) and Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), to help them understand why they abused alcohol and how to now live life without it.

Check out this great interview by Luke Frazier, for our show Insiders+ Access, made possible in part by the generous support of SMART Insiders+ participants.

September is National Recovery Month, but many advocates point out we can certainly recognize recovery year-round, including Keegan Wicks. He is the National Advocacy and Outreach Manager for Faces & Voices of Recovery. He works to ensure that the recovery spectrum of services is available and funded for anyone who needs them.

• Why it’s okay to say “Happy” Recovery Month
• How Recovery Month started and has changed throughout the years
• His personal journey with mental health and substance use disorders
• How his family network helped him navigate the often-complicated recovery system
• Why the systems and access to recovery should never be a result of good luck and privilege
• The inner voice that led him to get involved and affect change
• Being the voice at the table with lived experience in recovery
• Faces & Voices of Recovery’s focus and core messages of accessibility and inclusiveness
• Helping organizations be “recovery ready”
• How Congress is helping with prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts
• Why it’s an exciting time to highlight and show what recovery can look like
• How to get involved in Recovery Month initiatives, and why to stay involved

David Koss, JD, is a member of the SMART Recovery Board of Directors and the Director of Government Relations. In his role as director, David monitors what the federal government is doing in terms of addiction and recovery legislation, and advocates for SMART and people with substance use disorders.

David works directly with members of Congress to pass legislation that helps those with substance use disorders receive the care and treatment they need and deserve. For example, the recently passed House Bill HR7666 focuses on mental health funding that directly affects individuals either seeking or already in recovery.  

David’s time is also spent on facilitating SMART meetings and coordinating the East Coast Regional Conference. The conference will be held on Saturday, October 22nd in Laurel, Maryland. This year’s theme, Shifting Paradigms, New Opportunities, will focus on new kinds of intervention, treatment, and aftercare – meeting people where they are in their recovery.

Because this is an election year, David urges people to vote and get as involved as possible. He believes it is important to support those in Congress who are fighting to end the addiction epidemic and save lives.  

SMART participant wellnessandhope( her screen name) says her “destruction of choice” started in her freshman year and continued throughout college. While her friends were graduating, she was in rehab. This was not how she thought her life was supposed to go. Eventually, though, it put her on a path to recovery and led to helping teens and young adults going through the same experiences. Today, wellnessandhope is a licensed mental health and addiction recovery counselor, working as a Project Coordinator at Youth Recovery CT and as a SMART Recovery Facilitator.

In this podcast, Pam talks about:

• Continually abusing substances throughout college and going to rehab instead of graduation
• Learning to make her life less complicated by not using substances
• Finishing her education and focusing on helping teens and young adults
• Driving across the state to the only library that carried the book Rational Recovery
• How the recovery needs of young people are different than those of adults
• The rewards of watching young people connect with recovery
• Realization that recovery makes things less complicated
• The impacts of using social media
• Celebrating the many ways people succeed in recovery
• Having multiple SMART meetings available for teens, young adults, and family and friends at Youth Recovery CT

Mercy Bell’s relationship with alcohol started in college as a way to thwart the uneasiness she felt inside. It led her to a “recovery or else” situation. She used multiple paths and experiences along her journey to recovery. Today, Mercy is the co-owner of Sober Voices and Sourcing Voices, with Alyssa Hart. Their mission is “to amplify and celebrate all voices and all experiences on the journey of recovery and mental health”, especially college students, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC.

In this podcast, Mercy talks about:

• Having a “high bottom” that most people couldn’t see and using many paths to recovery
• Serendipitously meeting Alyssa Hart who was creating an online sober event, FLOW
• Being a “buffet grazer” of recovery
• Being impressed with the technology and ecosystem Alyssa was using for a grassroots style recovery movement during the pandemic
• The inspiration to start Sober Voices for online recovery events and Sourcing Voices, the technology platform where recovery content lives
• Why having a diversity of voices and stories is key to having people relate and connect
• The mission of Sober Voices and why they chose to use the words Amplify and Celebrate
• Finding SMART while planning for FLOW 2021
• The future goals for Sober Voices and Sourcing Voices

Alex Colyer realized she really didn’t know about addiction and recovery after losing her best friend Reed McGregor to an overdose in January 2021. To honor Reed’s memory and legacy, Alex started the Albertus Project, a nonprofit organization that is transforming the way the world views addiction.

• Holding old, stigmatized views of addiction—without knowing the truth
• What Reed McGregor meant to so many people around the world
• How the world doesn’t show compassion to people with addictions
• That addiction isn’t who people are, but something they have
• Starting to do research but not finding the answers to her questions
• Turning tragedy into action by founding the Albertus Project
• The goals and values of the organization
• Pulling the Me’s into the conversation
• Giving people a voice with the Humans of Addiction stories
• Learning about SMART and the Family & Friends program
• That money shouldn’t stand in the way of a person’s recovery and the initiatives the Albertus Project have in place to help
• How her views on harm reduction changed with a simple analogy

Steve Kind of Mankato, Minnesota, is a SMART Facilitator and new SMART employee. His alcohol struggles began in high school and continued into adulthood. After his second DUI, he was about to lose everything, including his wife. Then an open-minded, forward-thinking counselor suggested he look into SMART as a new path to recovery. Now he is living his Life Beyond Addiction.  

• His struggle with alcohol addiction and the 12-Step recovery process
• How his views on driving under the influence have changed over the years
• Being a defensive Christian and then an Atheist
• Being introduced to SMART and watching a Jonathan von Breton YouTube video
• What came from traveling 70 miles to attend a SMART meeting
• Sitting in a meeting room by himself and waiting for participants
• The word-of-mouth “snowball effect”
• Writing a book about his life: The Inspirational Dissatisfaction
• How a job in California almost cost him everything
• Getting off the couch and changing your life!

Courts everywhere have mandated that secular, evidence-based addiction treatments, like SMART Recovery, must be offered to individuals as alternatives to 12-Step and other faith-based programs, if they so choose. Much of this is largely thanks to the tireless work of individuals like Sarah Levin.

Sarah is founder and principal of Secular Strategies, a firm specializing in defending the separation of church and state, advocating for religious freedom for all, and empowering nonreligious constituencies. A graduate of American University in Washington D.C., Sarah works on behalf of SMART Recovery on state government relations matters, under the direction of David Koss, SMART Recovery’s Director of Government Relations and current Board Member.

Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), recently published an article in Health Affairs Magazine that many in the recovery community consider “a game changer” in how it challenged received wisdom and old assumptions in the treatment of addicted individuals. In this interview, Dr. Tom Horvath, co-founder of SMART Recovery, assesses the article’s impact and how it may change the face of the recovery landscape forever.