FMP 075 • My Husband’s Recovery Journey and Our Commitment to Sobriety as a Family

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“Today is the first step in many.”

Our Recovery Journey as a Family

In today’s episode, I reveal our commitment to recovery as a family of two. COVID provided a gift – Issues became magnified as they were impossible to conceal due to proximity. My husband has struggled over the years, a coping strategy discovered to be effective against the impacts of childhood trauma.

As part of the discussion, I open up about what brought us to make this life changing decision. I also go through our next steps in making recovery a central part of our marriage. In this, I review how alcohol has impacted my own family and why I chose to go abstinent from alcohol even though I am not struggling with addiction myself.

Episode Outline

FMP 075 – Recovery Journey

1. What We Do:
   • Behavioural Medicine and Health Psychology
   • Providing easily accessible content designed to help you design your own transformative experience.
2. Today:
   • Johnny’s recovery journey is highlighted today in this very up close and personal episode on addiction and commitment.

Update Since Last Content Upload

1. Work
2. COVID19
3. Running

Johnny and his Recovery Journey

1. The Big Reveal
   • Opioid Addiction
     • Using for several years in secret (previous podcast episode).
   • Alcohol Addiction
     • Using but not so clever at hiding it.
   • Addiction Entanglement
     • Our use together only made the addiction worse.
     • My words meant nothing if I was going to continue to drink with him.
2. The Big Scare
   • Health Event – Wake Up Call
   • Impact on Johnny
   • Impact on me
3. What’s Next – Our Recovery Journey
   • Johnny is now in in AA.
   • We have committed to being a substance free house.
   • We have focused on lifelong recovery as a couple.
   • We are removing all remnants of alcohol use in the house.
4. My Own Take
   • Addiction was a theme in my family growing-up.
     • Grandmother was mentally ill (Bipolar I) and suffered deeply within her alcohol addiction.
     • My mother and her sister both loved their mother – However, they both suffered deep emotional trauma at the hand of addiction.
   • I am not an addict – I do not believe you need to be an addict to commit to sobriety – (#normalizesobriety).
   • I did not realize how much of what people understood about me was about alcohol.
5. Alcohol Free Meet-up
   • We hold a weekly meet-up for anyone wanting to make changes to their alcohol use – abstinence not required.

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