Restoration Beyond the Couch

Addiction and Recovery

• Dr. Lee Long • Season 2 • Episode 8

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In this episode of Restoration Beyond the Couch, Dr. Lee Long sits down with Sarah McDonald to hear her powerful story of addiction and the journey toward recovery. Sarah opens up about the challenges she faced, the turning points that led her to seek help, and the hope she’s found in healing.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Restoration Beyond the Couch. I'm Dr Lee Long and today I'm joined by Sarah McDonald for an honest conversation about addiction and recovery. Sarah shares her story how her addiction began, what it cost and the help that made changes for her possible her possible. We'll talk about the turning points, the support that sustains sobriety and the help available to anyone ready to begin again. Your path to mental wellness starts here. All right well, welcome Sarah McDonald to Restoration Beyond the Couch. I'm so glad that you agreed to do this.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. We've been friends for a very long time and I'm so very long time, so excited 2011.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, so how like go take us back 2011.

Speaker 2:

So I got sober in 2010 and then went back to get my LCDC, which is a licensed chemical dependency counseling yeah um certificate and um. Shortly after that I got a job in marketing and pr and sales and doing that for treatment centers and that's kind of what stuck um. That was my past life. I used to be in sales and marketing for general electric. Um quickly became a thing where I was drinking too much with customers.

Speaker 1:

Like just at the happy hours. It started that way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So let's see I was a hero child. I did all the things I was supposed to do, checked off all the boxes, wanted to be a big corporate businesswoman. When I grew up and worked from the moment I could. When I turned 17, I believe I had my first sales job and then all through college I did sales and marketing for the USGA, the Valero, texas Open, and then shortly after that I graduated from college and then I got a job doing it was an internship slash leadership program called the Commercial Leadership Program through General Electric.

Speaker 2:

So I moved to Houston and for two years learned every aspect of the business from the ground up for General Electric. So with that came a lot of whining and dining and being with customers and I think I glamorized it and they glamorized it so much that it became just everyday life and I was so young and a woman and it quickly caught up with me. I learned later that I had the genetic disposition to alcoholism and my family members don't talk about this, but they're pretty much functioning alcoholics. If I were to look back, my whole family has glamorized alcohol from a very young age. So I couldn't wait to drink.

Speaker 1:

So when you say glamorize, would you be willing to give an example of what you mean?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I mean huge Hispanic family. There was always large family gatherings, lots of beer and alcohol involved. It was a happy, joyous thing when family members got together and there was always alcohol involved. So naturally as a young child we couldn't wait to drink, to feel that.

Speaker 1:

To be a part of that. Yeah, to be a part of that.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. It was fun. People were laughing. It was just a part of my family dynamic from a very young age, like we would give our aunts and uncles um beer from the cooler at a young age.

Speaker 1:

You were like the runner, you were the bar back.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I didn't ever think about that, but yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Um so for me it's just go ahead. Well, what's interesting about that is is that it it's like the, the glamorization part of it. It's like there's really more of like a relational part of. It's like I want to be a part of. You saw something fun. You thought that, and it's interesting because was it? Was the alcohol the fun, or was the alcohol what got um labeled as the fun? Does that make sense? What I'm saying?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I think it was. The alcohol got labeled as the fun and I wanted to be a part of the fun from a very early age and immediately I remember the first time I ever got drunk. I was very young I mean very young and it immediately allowed me to not feel some of the things that I didn't want to feel, and so immediately I thought, oh, this is an escape, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's that's interesting. So you, so you were at this corporate job and in in being the hero kid is is the whole, the whole theme behind that is is like I'm going to make everybody happy, yeah, and what's interesting about that role in a family is very often it's not considered what will make me happy, absolutely Most often and it's not all about happiness, but it's most often overlooked of what do I need? Where am I in this?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, often overlooked of what do I need? Where am I in this? Yeah, yes, very much people pleasing, achieving. I did all the sports in high school. I was in all the clubs in high school. I got very good grades. Like I said, it just carried on into my early twenties just checking off all the boxes to where, when I graduated from college and went into my first job, it was kind of like now what you know, I'm 21, 22 years old. What's the next step? Um, and being able to like, I didn't have a lot of those boxes to check off because I had already achieved a lot of those things. And so then I've found myself with myself and I didn't know what to do. You know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's like you're showing up in the world for everyone else and then, like you said, you all of a sudden where am I in this? And you're like I'm right here and I don't know what the heck to do with this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. So I would mask that with drinking or friends or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1:

Just some form of avoidance.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely 100%, until I just learned. I think I went through a really bad breakup early on and then that precipitated to just alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. And I started doing it morning, noon and night and things just got really bad to where I actually passed out in my corporate job and they found me and I took a leave of absence and never went back. And then I moved back home to Corpus Christi where I hadn't been there since I was 18 years old and it was like taking 10 steps backwards. I didn't have a job there. I couldn't find a job that paid well there. I went back to my old people, places and things which a lot of people from my hometown drank, like me, leisurely. They fished and drank, hunted and drank. A lot of my friends are now in recovery, actually that.

Speaker 2:

I grew up with which I think is fascinating. I was the first one in my family to actually get sober and go through a program and really learn about alcoholism and have been a voice you know for the rest of my family, I believe.

Speaker 1:

That's really, that's really a special thing because that, having that many friends in recovery and I know that what we seek we tend to find right, and so if, if alcohol or addiction does play a role in your life, we are going to seek and find those who are, um, what's the word I'm looking for that join in that with us. Yeah, you seek and you shall find, Like you didn't you tend to find those in how? That's really a cool thing. I think it's special thing to have people in your life that you have history with that are now on a similar path with you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I. So I think after I went through that experience at my job, shortly after that was probably like two years I was in and out of toying with the fact that I might be an alcoholic, did not want that shame, did not want that big A the alcoholic on my forehead labeled I had a lot of. I mean, we all do. We have a little bit of an ego and there's just something to having that word alcoholism that I just did not want to be a part of, and so it took me a really long time to actually accept help, um, and being a high achiever, I didn't want to admit the fact that that I had this problem.

Speaker 1:

Sure, and especially with the hero moniker, it's like I have to make this world better for you, forget about me. And it's like now I'm doing something for me and I have to stop and think like, is this okay? Is this okay? Like I'm me having that a on my forehead, as you said? I'm not saying that you did or do, but having that sense there it's like okay, wait, I'm not, I'm not heroing for you anymore, and so now I'm kind of left with. I don't know what my role is.

Speaker 2:

That's why I had such a I think, just hard bottom is because I didn't want to accept the fact that I had failed, you know, and I had failed my family and I had failed my friends and they had looked up to me all these years because I did achieve all the things, years, because I did achieve all the things. And this was such a big blow to myself and my family that it really just hurt me to just admit that I had a problem. And so when I finally did, it was like I was at rock bottom. I was drinking a half a handle of vodka and just drowning out my shame and my guilt, because I would wake up every day not wanting to drink, thinking that I could stop on my own, and then the shame and guilt of all the things that I was doing just played in my mind and it was like I was a hamster on a hamster wheel, doing the same thing over and over again until finally I I had a seizure. I tried to stop on my own.

Speaker 2:

After four days of stopping on my own, I felt better and I went to the store and I had a seizure and didn't know that that could happen to you Again, had to learn the hard way, Went to the hospital and shortly after that I accepted help and I went to treatment. I had an intervention done by a gentleman in our field, Rick Hubbard no-transcript and so I went to treatment down in the hill country for 30 days and it changed my life. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. Days and it changed my life. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Speaker 2:

I'd never felt so loved and excited about something and it was just like I had to go. I had to do the treatment thing. I had to be a student again. I had to learn how to stay sober. I had to learn what was ailing me on the inside. I had to peel back a couple layers and really find that little girl and find who she is and what she wanted out of life.

Speaker 2:

And then, after I had that experience, it was just so profound that I wanted to just scream it from the rooftops. And so that's why I went back to school to be a licensed chemical dependency counselor because I wanted to teach other women and other people that they could do this too, because I remember how hard it was for me to say yes, I wanted to be that voice, like Rick was to me to say I don't know what you think this is, but this is what it's like, and so that's what I do now. I went back to school. I started working in treatment centers getting people into treatment in 2011. And that's what I do now. I went back to school. I started working in treatment centers getting people into treatment in 2011.

Speaker 1:

And that's when you and I met and you were just starting your practice and I was working for a treatment center, doing what I still do today and getting people into treatment and educating them on what it's like and educating families, and so Thank you for sharing all that, because I think that the thing here that I see that is sort of this universal red thread through things, is that, for whatever reason, whatever vice or or thing that we use to avoid, there's this time where we show up in the world and it's do we show up as who we are or do we show up with the expectations we believe other people have for us?

Speaker 1:

And even when we show up with what comes across, like in your childhood, as positive expectations, like hey, you know, I'm making fantastic grades, I'm having all of this success, but it's like success for who and success for what, and it's like I'm showing up for you when in reality, I think, like you said, when you went to treatment, the thing that you really grabbed onto was I have to know who my, like you said, your little girl was meaning you.

Speaker 1:

You know, not your daughters, but because I don't think they were yet right.

Speaker 2:

No, but it's interesting because now, as a parent trying to parent my little girl self through that lens and seeing them, it's just so fascinating. In fact, I have to be in therapy right now again because as my girls are going through things, things are coming up again for me and I want to do things a little bit differently. I want to show them a different way than what I was shown, which is perfection, check off the boxes. So I don't hound my kids about making good grades, like I remember being hounded. I don't make everything such a big deal. I make it more their idea. I hope to make it more their idea.

Speaker 1:

I am competitive still.

Speaker 1:

But competitive is not bad. No, it's not wrong. And and I don't believe in bus tossing parents and I believed in that before I had children, but I don't you're it sounds to me like your, your parents, are saying like okay, like you have to have good grades. It's like okay, why, like? Why do we ask for the things we ask for Right, like I don't think that fear or or the what people would say are the negative emotions Like those don't need to be avoided. The question in my mind is is why are they there? What can we learn from them?

Speaker 2:

And that's one thing that we were never. We were never given the explanation when we were younger as to why we do some of the things that we do, and, yes, that's exactly what it is. So now I try to be a little bit more intentional in going a little bit further in the conversation, or this, you know. Or going back and apologizing to my kids after I make a mistake and saying you know, I was in fear for X, y and Z. This is why, and this is why I'm telling you to do certain things, and so just going a little bit further in that conversation I think for me is very helpful and I think for my kids hopefully it works. That doesn't mean they're not going to face some of the things that Heck no, and I often think about okay, how will I know if it works?

Speaker 1:

And, in my mind, where I've come to at this stage of my life and career is I will know it works. If you're willing to be open with me. We're going to make mistakes, we're going to show up in ways we didn't intend to show up. But if we can slow down and ask ourselves where am I in that? What, what was I trying to accomplish? What was my motive? What was you know? Those types of things, it's like, okay, now I understand that, now I can move into it and we can have a conversation. It's like what you said, where am I in that?

Speaker 1:

If you fuss at your kids in a way you didn't mean to, it's like, well, I was nervous or I was fearful, I was in fear for all of these reasons. Oh, there I am, because in so much of our lives we overlook ourselves and we look to the environment to tell us, oh, no, I'm doing a good job as a dad because you, as my daughter, are perfect, and it's like no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm doing a good job as a dad If I know when you make mistakes, we can talk about that, we can walk through that together and that there's an openness in our relationship, that when mistakes get made, all right, let's deal with that together.

Speaker 2:

And the thing that taught me how to do that is 12-step recovery, which is what I learned in treatment. You know, you hear about 12-step recovery. You hear about, you know, people having to go through a program to get sober and it's a lot more a way of living than a chore, and I think a lot of people you know they don't want to be an alcoholic or they don't want to go to those AA meetings or they don't want to go to rehab. That's why I use the word treatment. I think it's softer and kinder and those things are things that have helped me become the woman I am today, and it's an ongoing thing.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you have to continue to go to meetings. Do you have to go to them forever? No, in early recovery, yes, but today I go because I want to, because they make me a better friend, a better wife, a better mother, a better employer. It's not because I have to do it anymore and it's a place where I can go to remember who I was, where I have come and who I want to be moving forward.

Speaker 2:

And it's a constant reminder of the gift that I got when I got sober, and so I just think that that's very important to share, because recovery and continuing to do 12-step recovery 15 years later I've been sober 15 years now is something that's just an ongoing thing, that helps me with everything I do in life, not just staying sober. It's not about the alcohol anymore. It's about my daughter making me angry because she did it. I don't even know what, yeah whatever Right.

Speaker 2:

And that if somebody isn't in 12 step recovery or doesn't have the tools to share some of their fears, some of their what's going on in the world, that is what makes them go back to drinking. And if they have an outlet to be able to call another person in recovery, go to a meeting, read some literature, pray and meditate like all the tools that we learn. You continuously stay on the beam and move forward in life, instead of falling off and having that hard bottom that I had to have in early, like when I wasn't sober yet. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's interesting because I don't think that that's unique to addiction.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

I think that all too often we avoid things that are painful and I I I conceptualize addiction as an avoidance and we avoid things that are painful, we isolate, we don't have a group of people that we know we can trust, who we can be vulnerable with.

Speaker 1:

That's one of the things, I think, that's unique and very powerful about the anonymous groups, the AA or NA or SA or any of the A's oh wait, gotta throw that one in but all the A's is that there is this willingness and expectation of being at least transparent, maybe not fully vulnerable, and that's okay, but we're going to walk together down a pathway that we're all somewhat familiar with and in that familiarity we're going to hopefully not and I don't think any group is perfect, because, you know, humanity is not perfect but we're going to walk through that in a transparent way that we could offer some insight, some advice, maybe just some empathy with you know, I mean I I've heard so many people say that they, I went to a meeting and I was so moved by the speaker because, oh my gosh, I've been there and it was unique and I didn't think anybody else had been there in that way and I felt so understood and I'm like did you say anything to anybody?

Speaker 1:

And they're like no, I sat quietly. I was like did you say anything to anybody? And they're like no, I sat quietly. I was like but you felt, understood, they're like yes.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's fantastic. Well, and I think that's just the way that the world is going today. We want to be transparent, we want to be vulnerable and we want to be empathetic and it's becoming cool to do those things again. Um, and this is, this is what the programs and the recovery programs have shown us all along, but I think that it's. I think Brene Brown is who kind of got it to be cool again. You know, everybody was on the Brene Brown movement for a while and it was really just people being transparent and authentic and being heard and feeling good about it. I mean, there's a power in sharing. Whatever you're going through, everybody has something. They're going through Everybody, I don't care who you are. There's no perfect person in this world and whenever you share it with another human being, it doesn't give the thing power Full stop. And then the healing begins. Whatever that looks like whether it's going to counseling, whether it's going to a 12 step meeting, whether it's going to treatment there's a. There's a healing.

Speaker 1:

When we articulate what's going on inside of us.

Speaker 1:

I keep, I keep pounding this drum of do I know me, where am I in this and when, when, when we articulate what's going on inside of us there, all of a sudden, let me back up and say it this way when you go to like a campground and you're going to go do a little hike, or you go to God forbid, like grapevine bills, grapevine mills mall, and you're going to do the big mile hike around it is it a mile or a half mile? I have no idea, I don't know, but it's a really long way around there and you have something you want to pick up and you want to be in and out of there quick, yeah. Or you're on your trail and you don't want to be lost. When you look at the map, what do you have? To know where you are? And if you go to a mall or to a trail, it will say you are here, and that's an orienting type of thing. But what we often miss is that, as the hero child, where, where were you?

Speaker 1:

You were in everybody else. You were pleasing mom, pleasing dad, pleasing family members, pleasing teachers, coaches, whomever, yep, it's like where's Sarah? Yeah, until you hit your rock bottom and you were like here I am and I don't like where I am.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

We don't know where we are on the map. And when we find what's going on inside of us and we can articulate that outside of us, then we begin to recognize to your point that's not our identity, it's just simply a struggle. It's simply something that's going on inside of us. We externalize it and then we look on the map and oh yeah, I am here. And then I know how to navigate and move around.

Speaker 1:

And it's like if I wanted to go to the Nike outlet and I start in one place and the Nike outlet, if I turn left, is only you know 15 stores away. But if I turn right, it's the whole mile around. Well, I'm going to get super frustrated that this Nike store is so far away. And why am I having to go through all these people at Christmas or whatever? And it's like no, no, no know where you are so that you know how to get to where you're going. And when I know where I am and I know what my goals are, I can get there. It's like that's what to me it sounds like that's what sobriety did for you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I mean it cleared up your map.

Speaker 2:

It was the best thing that ever happened to me, and so I just I do what I do because I want other people that are struggling to be able to recognize it sooner than I did. Because it wasn't fun. I was going in and out of AA meetings and wrestling and toying with am I one of them? Am I not? Didn't understand the messaging that they were sharing with me because I didn't know who I was Right and God forbid me be one of them, because that's bad. It's like I was taught good and bad. I wasn't taught like you can be a little bit of this. You can be a little bit of this, it's okay.

Speaker 2:

I was just taught good, bad and I just felt myself as bad.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, that's a performance mindset, right, and I don't think anybody who's. I mean and I know you agree with this yeah, anybody who struggles with addiction is bad.

Speaker 2:

No, anybody who struggles with anything is not bad, but I think everybody who's in the depths of their addictions thinks that they are.

Speaker 1:

Well, and I do believe that there are people still out there that do perceive it that way. Yes, we look at people and we, we judge them based on their behavior. We judge the value of their personhood based on their behavior. Yes, and I don't want to get too deep into that, but I do think that there's a part of that that we need to really question. And, yeah, I think you're right. So one thing that I wanted to get into, if you're willing, is you, you are married.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And you know we've talked before like I know that today that your husband is in recovery.

Speaker 2:

Mm, hmm.

Speaker 1:

But that wasn't always the case, as you all were together.

Speaker 2:

Nope. So my husband and I got together. When he was quote unquote, what we call a normie. I thought he wasn't one of us and he saw me through my addiction and recovery.

Speaker 1:

And, as an aside, a normie for those who don't know, is a person who is perceived to be able to drink in a normal fashion.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's what we call normies. So he saw me through the good, the bad and the ugly of my own personal recovery. We got married shortly after that, had kids and then a few years later he got into his own personal trials with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and I think a lot of that came from his mom and his dad passed away very young, when he was very young, and then he saw me going through all of my stuff. So he stuffed everything for many, many, many years. He stuffed everything. Had to be the one in control, the one in charge, and then left to me being in recovery, me continuing to climb that. I don't know if ladder is the word, but I continued to- To sort through it authentically.

Speaker 2:

And positively. And things started to happen in my life where I was moving up and he was stuck yeah with all of his feelings and his emotions.

Speaker 2:

And so he decided he was going to um use unhealthy coping mechanisms as well. And so I was probably six years into this this field of um recovery, working in this field, and he went through his own struggles and I had to put him through treatment. And it was a curse and a blessing, but the coolest thing was that I got to show up authentically with my boss and with my peers and my colleagues and say my husband's struggling, I need to help him. What do we do, whereas most people and most employers would probably see that as a failure or a moral failure, I get to God already knew that I was going to be working in this industry. He knew what was going to happen way before it happened.

Speaker 2:

And so 24 hours later I you know, I approach him. I say I think you have a problem, I think we need to look into this. This is not healthy for our marriage, this is not healthy for our children. You need to take action or I'm not going to be here forever. And so, within 24 hours, he was in treatment himself and did the deal, just like I did. And now he I mean we are a sober couple. We show up as sober parents everywhere we go. That's a challenge in and of itself, just because a lot of people drink for everything that they do now.

Speaker 2:

But the coolest thing is that we get to parent from that, we get to be husband and wife. From that. We have a lot of just common daily practices that we do together and we parent through the lens of a 12-step lens, to where we're doing things. And I think again, god knew that that was supposed to happen, because when it wasn't when I was sober and he was not it was very, very difficult. So anybody out there who's listening, if your spouse is still actively drinking or using, it's not the end of the world, but you do need to take action for it, because it's-.

Speaker 1:

If it's a problem.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's not easy. I think when my husband was still actively drinking and using, we had spouts as married couples do and things weren't working and things weren't going right and we'd go to therapy and it'd be a really great therapy session, but he was still actively drinking and using and not telling the truth about what was really going on. People out there do that and have that same situation happen. Or people that come to you guys who one person is telling the truth and the other person's not, and they're spending thousands of dollars in therapy and nobody's asking the underlying question about how much they're really drinking, how much are they really using? Are they, you know, is one of them? Does one of one person have a problem with substance abuse? Like you're never going to fix? Know, is one of them? Does one person have a problem with substance abuse? Like you're never going to fix your marriage if one of those people is not telling the truth about their substance abuse?

Speaker 2:

And so that was our story, like there was many years where things were really hard and things weren't good because one person was, you know, just not being authentic and telling his truth, not being authentic and telling his truth until, like myself, he hit rock bottom and our marriage was rocky and things were out of sorts and I basically said I am not going to be here anymore if you don't go do this. And then, once that was done, very quickly things started resolving. He went and got help for his thing, but his thing wasn't really his thing. Like we don't really. We don't go start using and drinking because we want to be alcoholic. It's something deeper.

Speaker 1:

There's always something deeper. It's always, I believe, that it is. Again, it's an avoidance, it is a. It is a. It's a. It's a tactic to soothe, and that's why I have such a problem with people who say addiction is bad. No, the people that I know that either are addicted or have a history of being addicted are usually the kindest, most tenderhearted people I've ever met.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely and it's, it's, it's, it's a coping mechanism and you know. Going back to your comment about telling the truth in a therapy session, the difficulty is a lot of people I don't believe know what's true because they're so avoiding that whole map of where am I?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And they have no clue. They don't want to sit with the fact that you know to use some of your husband's. What you've said about him is that I don't want to live with the fact that my parents are gone. I don't want to live with the fact that you know times are tough. I don't want to live with the fact that if I look into this like if I stare this, what I'm doing in in its face, then I have to face a lot of really dark like demons, ugly, things that are anxiety, depression, and I don't want to face that. It's hard, so I'll just live with the fact that no, no, no, it's all you and our tendency is is we put things out in the environment and say the environment needs to change or the environment will tell me if I'm okay, when, in reality, again, where am I in that? Because the environment cannot dictate to me and that's a really, really hard thing to walk through.

Speaker 2:

Yes, 100%. I love the way that you articulated that whole thing, because that's the truth behind getting sober is you're going to have to face super hard truths, but it's not going to be hard forever. I want people to know that it's not going to be hard forever and walking through that hard stuff there is such profound joy at the end of that and it doesn't have to go on for as long as you think it needs to go on.

Speaker 2:

The sooner you go get help, the sooner you go find a therapist, the sooner you walk into the rooms of a 12-step program, the sooner you go and say, okay, I need to go to treatment, the sooner that you're going to find yourself and find that healing. And then things start moving pretty quickly after that. I mean very quickly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've noticed that when people remain honest with themselves, that's when healing really begins.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's not just a linear like you don't just go to treatment, check off the box and be done. I think that the greatest tool and gift that I was given was being heard and and really accepting and learning that being heard is something that I desired and I craved.

Speaker 1:

We all do.

Speaker 2:

So 15 years later, I know when I'm feeling a little squirrely, I probably need to call my therapist and start going to therapy again. And I don't always go, for, you know, years and years at a time. I might go for six months for a situation and then it's like, okay, this is, this is done. And then you know, six months later, I'm rocking and rolling and something else comes up and that little voice, you know, chimes in my ear like maybe I need to call my therapist, or maybe I need to go to a meeting, or maybe I need to go to church, I don't know. Whatever it is, um, there's always tools in my toolbox.

Speaker 1:

There, there are tools available to people and it like like to your point, which I think is very well said it's not always going to therapy. Sometimes it's I need to go be with a group of people that I know that love me and and I can trust and I love them back and so I can go and be me, I can be authentically me. Sometimes it may be that I need to get up and I need to start moving. I find myself avoiding and I'm isolating and I find myself binging Netflix or whatever and it's like I need to get moving, but it's it's. This is, to me, why that the visual of that map is so critical is where are you in this? Why? Because you intrinsically I believe we intrinsically know for the most part what we need. Like you said, that still small voice that comes into you, that comes into your head or your ear and says hey, sarah, it's time for.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And if you listen to that, hey, it's time to get up and move. Hey, it's time to go be with your people. That can be very powerful.

Speaker 2:

So I just want to say for anybody out there who's still struggling, who has a loved one that's struggling, you can you know, like we've talked about, you can call Lee here at Restoration Counseling and get into therapy with one of the therapists here Go to a 12-step meeting. I personally work for La Hacienda. If you need to go to treatment or a higher level of care, you can go to wwwlahaciendacom. I'm always available, through Lee or through La Hacienda, to be able to mentor and talk and educate people on recovery and what that looks like for you doesn't mean it has to be going to treatment, it might be something else and I'm available to just talk you through that. And so just want everyone to know that there's a lot of resources out there and, like Lee said, figure out where you're at on that map, figure out where you want to be and take action.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you, sarah. I think that people just don't have to be alone in this.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

And this is a taking a step of reaching out may feel incredibly overwhelming, and what I, what I know, what I've seen, is that when somebody who's there, who's kind, like yourself, that they reach their hand out and they're met by you, there's real healing there.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

There's possibilities there, and so, man, I just hope everybody knows that there's hope. Yeah, and it may be a circuitous or a loopy path, but there's hope and you don't have to suffer alone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and everybody knows somebody who is struggling with a substance abuse or with a, and reach out to those people, talk to those people. I'm available to talk to anybody and tell my story and share. It's my favorite thing to do is just share my experience, strength and hope, what happened to me, what it could look like for you and it doesn't have to be the same way that I did it but let's figure out what way is gonna work for you and let's take action.

Speaker 1:

Love that yeah.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

People on this episode

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Dr. Lee Long

Host
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Lila Pond

Co-host
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Lila Pond, MA, LPC-S

Co-host