Addiction Medicine Made Easy | Fighting back against addiction
Addiction is killing us. Over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdose in the last year, and over 100,000 Americans died from alcohol use in the last year. We need to include addiction medicine as a part of everyone's practice! We take topics in addiction medicine and break them down into digestible nuggets and clinical pearls that you can use at the bedside. We are trying to create an army of health care providers all over the world who want to fight back against addiction - and we hope you will join us.*This podcast was previously the Addiction in Emergency Medicine and Acute Care podcast*
Episodes
179 episodes
Whipped Cream With A Side Of Spinal Cord Damage
Nitrous oxide can look like a harmless party trick until you understand how fast it can flip into a medical emergency. We dig into whippets and laughing gas from an addiction medicine perspective, including why the high hits within seconds, why...
Goodbye Benzos, My Old Friend: Benzodiazepine Tapering Done Right
A benzodiazepine taper can feel like trying to land a plane in bad weather: the stakes are high, the instruments are imperfect, and speed is rarely your friend. We sit down with Dr. Rizzo to translate the ASAM benzodiazepine tapering guideline ...
What Happens in Residential Treatment: Inside The Place Rock Bottom Leads To
Residential treatment gets talked about like a single thing, but most people have no idea what they are walking into until they arrive. I sit down with Rachel Docekal, CEO of the Hanley Foundation in Florida, to open up the “black box” of resid...
Why Pushing A Loved One Harder to Get Sober Doesn't Help
Someone you love keeps drinking, using, or relapsing and you can feel your body tighten the moment you walk into the room. That tension makes sense, but it can also become part of the system that keeps addiction stuck. We sit down with therapis...
An OB Addiction Specialist Explains Why Marijuana Is Not Benign In Pregnancy
THC isn’t the same drug it was 20 years ago, and pregnancy counseling hasn’t caught up. We sit down with Dr. Nazanin Amadieh, a board-certified OBGYN who also trained in addiction medicine, to map what today’s high-potency cannabis means for co...
BIND: Benzodiazepine Induced Neurological Dysfunction
Benzodiazepines can feel like flipping a switch: panic quiets, sleep finally comes, your body unclenches. But what happens when that “off switch” starts rewiring the system you rely on to stay calm in the first place? Dr Andrew Rizzo joins me t...
Straight to the Shot: A New Way to Quit Fentanyl and Start Buprenorphine
Fentanyl changed the playbook for starting buprenorphine, and we’re tired of watching people suffer through days of withdrawal just to “earn” their first dose. So we break down a cleaner, faster on-ramp: direct-to-inject. Think of weekly Brixad...
Addicted to Toxic Relationships: Trauma, Sex Work, and The Fight for Recovery
A lot of people think addiction begins with a bad decision. We start earlier—at the moments when consent was stolen, trust collapsed, and silence felt safer than speaking. Carly sits down with us to map the real terrain: childhood sexual assaul...
What I Told a Room Full of High School Seniors About College Party Culture
I sat down with a room full of high school seniors to talk to them about party culture in college. College freedom can be thrilling—and unforgiving. As an ER physician turned addiction specialist, I pull back the curtain on campus p...
You Can Use Hypnosis to Drink Less Alcohol???
Hypnosis and moderation rarely share the same sentence—until you understand how your brain decides to drink. We sit down with Australian clinical hypnotherapist Georgia Foster to unpack a practical, science‑aligned approach to reducing alcohol ...
Understanding Addiction — For the People Who Love Someone Struggling
What if addiction isn’t a failure of willpower, but a failure of the brain systems that make willpower possible? In this episode Dr. Brenda Fann (who has been on the pod before) interviews me about addiction as we provide a clear, compassionate...
Saving Lives: How To Recognize And Reverse An Opioid Overdose
In the case of an overdose, a person stops breathing long before most of us realize what is happening. That is why our mantra is simple and urgent: call 911 and give naloxone. We walk step by step through recognizing an opioid overdose, using n...
Wait… Weed Does That??? The Cannabis Side Effects Nobody Warned You About
The story we’ve been told about cannabis—safe, simple, and mostly benign—doesn’t match what we’re seeing at the bedside. Two ER-turned-addiction doctors pull back the curtain on how high-potency products can quietly undercut psychiatric meds, c...
Up All Night: How Drugs, Alcohol, and Recovery Disrupt Sleep—and How to Fix It
Sleep doesn’t break because you forgot how to close your eyes. It breaks when anxiety trains your brain to stay on guard, and when quick fixes like alcohol, cannabis, or OTC sleep aids sedate you without restoring you. We team up with Australia...
Could This Device Change the Future of Addiction Treatment???
What if opioid withdrawal could visibly ease in 20 minutes and cravings could drop to near zero within days? We sit down with Net Recovery CEO Joe Winston to unpack a wearable neuromodulation device, FDA-cleared for managing opioid withdrawal, ...
How Ketamine Treats Depression, Anxiety, And PTSD
Join us for this episode which is a fast, honest tour through what ketamine can actually do for mental health—without the hype. We sit down with addiction psychiatrist Dr. Mark Hrymoc to unpack where the evidence is strongest, who qualifies, an...
Parents in Recovery: Navigating Sobriety While Raising a Family
Parenting can sharpen joy and stress at the same time—and for moms and dads in recovery, that edge can test every habit that keeps sobriety strong. We sit down with Sarah Benton, licensed counselor, addiction specialist, and author of Parents i...
Parallel Recovery: What If Helping Your Loved One With Addiction Begins With Healing You?
What if helping someone you love through addiction starts with healing yourself? That single shift reframes everything—your boundaries, your tone, your scripts, and the way your home holds stress. Dr. Casey Grover sits down with family coach an...
How Cold Immersion, Breath Work, Yoga, And Meditation Can Build Lasting Sobriety
Cravings don’t wait for perfect conditions, so we need plans that work in real life. I sit down with coach Jason Lyle to unpack a grounded, nontraditional approach to addiction treatment that starts with the body and rewires the brain: cold wat...
Quaalude, Black Beauties, and More: A History of Misused Prescriptions
Vintage drug ads promised calm mornings, slimmer silhouettes, and instant relief from restless nights. We dig beneath the glossy slogans to unpack how Black Beauties, Quaaludes, Miltown, Barbiturates, and Purple Hearts shaped the path to today’...
How to Build Emotional Resilience
Stress doesn’t wait for a convenient moment, so why should resilience training wait for a crisis? We sit down with Coach Kay, a PhD serving first responders, ER teams, and other high‑stress professionals, to unpack a practical roadmap for emoti...
Wonderful Person, Horrible Disease: What It's Like Being Married To Someone With Addiction
A physician-mom sits across from us and tells the truth: she loved a good, kind man whose alcoholism, fueled by unhealed PTSD, dismantled their family one crisis at a time. From quiet home drinking to ER runs, withdrawal hallucinations, and an ...
How to Help Someone With Addiction Who Isn't Ready to Change
What if the fastest way to help a loved one stop using isn’t pushing harder but stepping out of the “villain” role? We sit down with master addiction counselor and YouTuber Amber Hollingsworth to unpack a practical, compassionate framework that...
A Principal’s Playbook For School Drug Prevention
The bell rings, the doors open, and the real work begins: keeping kids safe while the drug market slips into their phones and pockets. We sit down with Principal Leland Hansen to unpack the day-to-day reality of school-based prevention, from va...