Alicia Cook joins us on The SHAIR Podcast today. She writes on the other side of addiction. In other words, how addiction directly affects the family, and loved ones, of the addict. Her articles are read, and shared, by tens of thousands. She writes for the Huffington Post, and Gannett, on topic of addiction, and also regularly shares other people’s stories on how they were touched by addiction. Her website is TheAliciaCook.com where she discusses the other side of addiction.
The Other Side of Addiction shares stories of people who have experienced this disease. After losing her cousin to a heroin overdose, Alicia began using her words to help other families going through similar situations feel less alone. These are very personal accounts, written to shed light on this deadly epidemic and prove that anyone can be affected. Articles have appeared in the Huffington Post, Asbury Park Press, The Advertiser, Addiction Unscripted, on the national news, and hundreds of other addiction awareness sites.
Edward Keohane joins us on the SHAIR Podcast. Ed is very active in the private group, has been a long-time listener to the podcast, huge supporter, and he's got a hell of a story, so he reached out to me quite a few months back, and I'm finally getting him on the show. This is one of my favorites, you do not want to miss this episode.
Omar: So Ed, let's dive right in, buddy. You ready?
Ed: I'm ready to go when you are.
Omar: All right, let's do this, man. So first, let's talk about what your daily routine looks like today and then throw in how you maintain your recovery.
Ed: Well, my days are backwards for most people. I work nights. I work for the United States post office, so I work nights, and so everything's kind of flip flopped. How it usually begins is I get up after going to work all night after a few hours, I go to the gym, I go from the gym and then I go to a meeting four to five times a week, I come home, I just hang out, I do yard work, stuff like that, stuff to keep me busy. I recently bought a house, so my girlfriend and I, we are not cohabitants and we have her son, who's four and a half, so I go pick him up from school, we hang out until his mom gets home, I usually try to catch a few more hours of sleep, and then I go to work.
Omar: Tell us how you maintain your recovery, then. Do you make lots of meetings? Do you have go in the mornings? How does that look?
Ed: No. I usually catch my meetings at noon. There's a noon meeting that I go to in Springfield, Missouri, about 20 minutes away. I do that roughly four times a week. I have a sponsor whom I speak with several times a week. We work steps. I currently don't sponsor anyone else because I have a new, improved recovery date, which we'll get to.
Omar: Right.
Ed: It's a lot of prayer at work, at night. I'm in my head a lot. I'm in my headphones a lot, which is when I listen to your show, so you're in my head a lot, which is kind of crazy to think about it. There's a lot of prayer, man, almost continuously throughout the night and during the day, "Your will not mine be done". I really try to bring my recovery into every area of my life. I know some folks who drop that stuff at the door in terms of the meeting door. Man, I've got to carry mine with me throughout the day in every area of my life. Otherwise, I just get lost, and then my recovery gets lost, and then I'm truly lost.
Omar: Yes. It makes a big difference. With that being said, do you have a daily spiritual practice to maintain your conscious contact with a higher power?
Ed: In terms of actually sitting down and meditating, I didn't start doing that until I don't know what episode of The Rule 62, but you guys were talking about meditation. I think you had Michael Hill and then Stephanie on there, and you guys were talking about the Calm app for your phone.
Omar: Right.
Ed: At that very time when I was listening to that, that was in January I think, I was going through some turmoil in my recovery, and I thought that was definitely a facet of my recovery that I was missing, so I purchased that app, and man, I'm telling you what. Like a good addict, I was doing that app two or three times a day, listening all day, man. You know what, though? It really helps. Formally, aside from my meetings and aside from all the components of my recovery, meditation, I'm still an infant, but it's become part of my daily practice.
Omar: Let me ask you this. As you already mentioned, you have a new clean date, so what is your new clean date? How much time do you have?
Ed: My new and improved sobriety date is January 14th of this year. I actually had three relapses over the last 18 months, which I'll get to, but before that, I had four years, and so HP, baby. It takes what it takes, and that last one, if that's what got me here, then that's what was needed, so no regrets.
Don St. John joins us on The SHAIR Podcast, the author of Healing the Wounds of Childhood. In his book, Don shares his personal story and discoveries about what our bodies, our minds and understanding of what it means to be a whole human being and what your relationships need in order to heal from the wounds, the traumas and the toxic stress of life.
He also takes us through his battle with addiction and his own journey of recovery. Dr. Don St John has spent over 45 years engaging the process of becoming whole, both personally and professionally, as well as in his own relationship.
Most of today’s social problems have the same roots—a lack of understanding of what it means to be a whole human being. What if violence, illness, addictions, suicides, toxic stress, depression, anxiety and relationship dysfunctions could be traced to the same source? The implications for education, childrearing and our comprehension of mental and physical health would be staggering.
What does it mean to be a “whole human being?” What is “wholeness?” There are four different dimensions we consider. All are separate and all are deeply interrelated. Each influences and is influenced by every other.
They are: Somatic Education, Psychological Growth, Relationship Enrichment and Spirituality.
Insufficient understanding or lack of support in any of these four dimensions constitutes a wound to the integrity of our organism. As we grow our appreciation and understanding of our dimensionality, recognize where we have been unsupported, suppressed or otherwise wounded, we have a map necessary to effectively continue our journey towards wholeness. There is no end to the opportunities and possibilities to grow into a fuller human being. We can heal into wholeness and well beyond “normal.”
If you’re looking for something more than just talking about your problems, and you know intuitively that your body is somehow related to what you would like to address, you may be an excellent candidate for what he does. He began his clinical training in 1967 and has been working since as a psychotherapist, relationship therapist and somatic therapist.
Over the past few years he has been helping people realize how many more resources they have available within themselves, to learn to connect to those resources and strengths, plus learn to connect well with those they love. The only way to have any real idea of what he does is to invest in one session, after which you will know if it is right for you.