My Differential Diagnosis professor from graduate school at Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies joins us for an exploration of addictive behaviors from sexual related to meth, and how mental disorders can change or fade in the long term as we age out of the energy it takes to maintain them. Caffeine addiction, and your host's personal struggle with maintaining abstinence from caffeine is discussed for the first time. How does caffeine use in our children contribute to mental health diagnoses and possible lifelong medication implications.

Background art by Robyn Anderson Watercolors

Music by Carly Thomas

Photography by Jennifer Mao Jones

Judy Squires worked as an addictions counselor at Minnesota Corrections - Fairbault prison and Shakopee women's prison. She brought a passionate energy to her career for nearly 2 decades in her mission to set offenders free of the prison of their minds behind bars. Her experience as a mother who struggled with alcohol use which spiraled into losing her children makes for a great story of redemption and restoration to dignity. She chose to take that experience and transform her life into inspiration, creating a fulfilling career bringing dynamic healing and hope to those who need it most. Her wisdom and powerful treatment curriculum of personal growth through inner child love are infectious in the two hours we spend reflecting in this episode.

Episode 2 - James Longhenry - Marketing exec with Beauterre Recovery Institute and Meridian Behavioral Health

James paints a picture of every small town in America. The unfulfilled American Dream. A sinking feeling that the underlying disappointment with our lives is a toxic shame is rooted in the force-fed delusion of the American Dream. Are we self-medicating the side-effects of our shame that we’ve drifted away from instructions that are impossible to follow? Just take a look at the dream we’re sleep walking through. 

Milwaukee County will spend $11 million in all on projects to reduce drug overdosing. That includes the purchase of 25 vending machines that provide free nasal Narcan, fentanyl test strips and more. It's all part of the effort to beat back a rising number of overdose deaths in the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were more than 80,000 opioid-related deaths in the U.S. in 2021. In Wisconsin, there were more than 1,400 that year. At the police station in Greenfield, over 180 boxes of Narcan and more than 1,000 fentanyl test strips have been dispensed so far. 

Milwaukee public health officials had an idea for reducing deaths by drug overdoses. They bought vending machines and then stocked them with life-saving supplies — such as Narcan. 

Our entire communities revolve around intoxicant use. When is the last time you’ve interacted with another human being without being under the influence of caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, or other anxiety Band-Aids? We, in recovery from all intoxicants, live in refuge from the borader community who continue to grasp for an escape from reality.  

#recoveryispossible #beauterre #meridianbehavioralhealth #addiction #wisconsin #