S2 E5- Numbing Grief: Addiction, Relapse, and Learning to Feel Again

In this episode, I sit down with Justin, whose life has been shaped by loss, addiction, and the messy aftermath of trauma. As both a person in long-term recovery and a drug and alcohol counselor, our guest brings a unique perspective- having lived on both sides of substance use and support.

Justin walks us through the early roots of grief in his life, from being abandoned by a mother struggling with addiction to navigating childhood being raised by grandparents. We dive into how unprocessed emotions, especially around family fractures and abandonment, can fuel a desperate turn towards drugs, criminality, and risky behaviors. He pulls back the curtain on how numbness becomes a survival strategy, and how the consequences of crime and incarceration can act as both punishment and (unexpectedly) turning points.

But this is not just a story of human loss and the numbing that follows- it’s also a story of the power of relationships. Justin describes the gut-wrenching pain of losing his beloved dog who helped teach him to trust and love again, and how her death challenged his sobriety in ways even his deepest family traumas did not.

This episode pulls no punches about the realities of relapse, codependency, and the nonlinear journey of trying to stay clean in a world where, sometimes, nothing makes sense. If you’ve ever wondered how addiction, crime, recovery, and grief are tangled together or how something as pure as the love of a dog can help someone finally feel- this conversation promises hard truths, honest laughs, and, ultimately, hope. 

Listen to hear why, for Justin, the path out of numbness began with finally allowing himself to grieve.

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