CONTENT WARNING!!!!!! Sensitive topics that can be activating/triggering are discussed on this episode. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or substance use, please reach out to a qualified healthcare professional, addiction professional, or trusted support resource.
Description of Episode:
Shandra shares her personal journey through addiction and recovery, from becoming physically dependent on prescription opioids as a teenager to nearly 13 years of sobriety at the time of this recording. She explores how trauma, emotional pain, shame, and the desire to escape shaped her relationship with substances and other behaviors throughout her life. Drawing from her lived experience, education in psychology and human development, and training in spiritual and somatic healing modalities, Shandra discusses the deeper emotional patterns that can exist beneath addictive behaviors.
She shares how getting sober was only the beginning of her healing journey and how reconnecting with her inner child, exploring her shadow self, developing greater self-compassion, and learning to be present with uncomfortable emotions helped transform her relationship with herself. Shandra also reflects on replacing one form of escape with another, including exercise and even the constant pursuit of healing, and what she learned when she stopped treating herself as something that needed to be fixed.
Ultimately, this episode explores addiction through the lens of survival, healing, self-love, and coming home to oneself, while honoring the younger versions of ourselves who used the tools they had available to survive.
By the end of this episode you will:
Have a deeper understanding of how trauma, emotional pain, shame, and escapism can intersect with addiction. Receive more of Shandra's personal story of addiction, sobriety, and the healing journey that continued long after she stopped using substances. Explore how inner-child work, shadow work, self-compassion, emotional awareness, and other healing practices can support a deeper relationship with oneself. Consider the difference between simply removing an addictive behavior and exploring what that behavior may have been helping us survive or escape. Be invited to approach the parts of yourself you may have judged or rejected with greater curiosity, compassion, and love.
Episode Resources & Educational Foundations
The perspectives shared in this episode are informed by my lived experience in long-term recovery, my BA in Psychology, coursework in human development, and years of additional education and training in somatic, spiritual, trauma-informed, and parts-oriented healing modalities.
Some of the concepts discussed in this episode were informed by my training through The Adult Chair® and my study of trauma and the body, including The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD.
This episode was originally recorded before I began my formal addictions counseling education and professional work in the addiction treatment field. My education and experience have continued to deepen and expand since this recording.
*Further Reading & Current Resources*
The following resources were added after the original publication of this episode for listeners interested in exploring some of the topics discussed further:
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction
An overview of the science of addiction, including how substance use can affect the brain and behavior and the biological and environmental factors involved in substance use disorders.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) — Trauma and Violence
Information about trauma, its potential effects on mental and physical health, and its relationship with behavioral health concerns including substance use.
• SAMHSA — Trauma-Informed Approaches and Programs
Information about trauma-informed approaches to behavioral health, recovery, safety, empowerment, and avoiding retraumatization.
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) — The Teen Brain: 7 Things to Know
An accessible overview of adolescent brain development, including the continued development of the prefrontal cortex into the mid-to-late 20s.
• Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University — A Guide to Toxic Stress
Research-based information about early development, prolonged adversity, stress-response systems, supportive relationships, resilience, and the developing brain and body.
Addiction & Recovery Support
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use or addiction, support is available. SAMHSA offers confidential treatment-referral information and resources for finding substance-use and mental-health treatment throughout the United States.
SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
FindTreatment.gov can also be used to locate treatment programs and providers.
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