Busting Addiction and Its Myths

10 Episodes
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By: SafeHouse Rehab Thailand

The purpose of our podcast is to help families learn the truth about addiction and alcoholism so that they can take the right action to help the addict they love and to help themselves at this critical time in their lives. Exposing the truth about addiction and alcoholism also requires that we bust the myths surrounding both addiction/alcoholism and the recovery process.

Mini Series 9 - You, Too Could Be addicted and Not Know It
#5
Last Friday at 8:00 AM

A friend said to me the other day that she feels like everything we do is becoming pathological. We eat a lot, so we’re a candidate for Overeaters Anonymous. We have sex with more than one person, we should join Sex Addicts Anonymous. We got drunk, so we should join AA.

If I choose to call an addiction “repetitive behaviour that causes you and those affected by your behaviour major harm, and you can’t stop even when you want to”, then maybe you have an addiction.

This was hardly a scientific definition, of course.<...


Mini Series 9 - Pass me the Fentanyl, Please
#4
03/15/2024

There is still little understanding of the power of the substance fentanyl.

Let’s start with some inconvenient facts. Drug overdoses claim more lives than breast cancer, gun violence or car accidents. Combined. They are the #1 cause of accidental death in the United States. According to the CDC, there were over 109,000 fatal overdoses in the 12-month period ending March 2022 (the latest data available).

Overdose deaths were fuelled by the rapid increase in the availability and low cost of synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl.

It’s now sprinkled into almost any illegal drug to give it a...


Mini Series 9 - Addiction Sucks Oxygen
#3
03/08/2024

Very recently, my ex-fiancé called me in a panic and sobbed that her son, my stepson really, was a raging addict and she didn’t know what to do. He and his wife have a two-year-old son who deserves better, while my stepson – let’s call him Jimmy – is snorting and smoking and injecting who knows what. He’s applied for a medical discharge due to joint disabilities, and it is apparent that he got addicted to pain killers coming out of his knee surgery.

So, my ex wants me to “talk to him and get him to go and get...


Mini Series 9 - The Wake Up Call
#2
03/01/2024

It can happen at any time. The bell might ring, the alarm might sound, the light might flash any time of day or night. We might be half asleep or we might have our shoulder to the wheel, pushing with all our might.

Awakenings happen all the time, to people all over this earth. For the purposes of this discussion, awakenings are of two types. The Dad says: “Oh my God, my son is an alcoholic.” Or the addict says: “I think I am powerless over drugs and alcohol and that my life has become unmanageable.”

In e...


Mini Series 9 - Hate the Disease, But Love Yourself
#1
02/23/2024

You would be amazed at the negative self-talk I hear when the family of a drug abuser or alcoholic starts answering pointed questions.

“Do you feel as if “this” is your fault?” Most say that they feel at least partly to blame “if only…” which suggests that they believed that they had any control over the trajectory of the disease, that if they had done “something” they might have saved their precious son.

Little did they know then that addiction is so slick, their son might have been a drug abuser for years before he could hide it no l...


Mini Series 8 - Signs of a sick relationship
#6
02/16/2024

Whether we like it or not, we are all susceptible to co-dependency - the need to control another person in our life.

In this podcast, we offer the following insights on the various aspects of co-dependency, especially important when addressing what happens in families who are experiencing addiction at home.

Signs of a sick relationship

I highly recommend the book by Melodie Beatty called Co-dependent No More which she has updated to reflect her experiences in the field over the last twenty-plus years.

Some of my views...


Mini Series 8 - You can't will this away
#5
02/09/2024

Whether we like it or not, we are all susceptible to co-dependency - the need to control another person in our life.

In this podcast, we offer the following insights on the various aspects of co-dependency, especially important when addressing what happens in families who are experiencing addiction at home.

You can't will this away

Our Western culture has us believing that we are the masters of our own fate and that we are the captains of our individual souls. The underlying idea here is that the "will to win" can...


Mini Series 8 - No one is immune
#4
02/02/2024

Whether we like it or not, we are all susceptible to co-dependency - the need to control another person in our life.

In this podcast, we offer the following insights on the various aspects of co-dependency, especially important when addressing what happens in families who are experiencing addiction at home.

No one is immune

No one in the family is immune from the effects of addiction or alcoholism when the disorder appears and lives inside one of the family members. That is why the professionals in the space call addiction or...


Mini Series 8 - I'm only OK if you're OK
#3
01/26/2024

Whether we like it or not, we are all susceptible to co-dependency - the need to control another person in our life.

In this podcast, we offer the following insights on the various aspects of co-dependency, especially important when addressing what happens in families who are experiencing addiction at home.

I'm only OK if you're OK

Let's stretch this concept just a little further. Let's say: "The mum is Ok only when her addict son is OK".

The addict's desires begin to rule the family. That's because it has...


Mini Series 8 - The illusion of control
#2
01/19/2024

Whether we like it or not, we are all susceptible to co-dependency - the need to control another person in our life.

In this podcast, we offer the following insights on the various aspects of co-dependency, especially important when addressing what happens in families who are experiencing addiction at home.

The illusion of control

There's something to be said for the idea that we have the ultimate say in the direction and quality of our own lives. Being the "master of our fate" is embedded in our culture as a truth...