Ryan Hampton | OxyContin & Heroin Addiction to Mobilize Recovery Founder

From walking the halls of the White House to facing homelessness due to a severe OxyContin and heroin addiction, Ryan Hampton’s story is unforgettable.

Ryan Hampton was a rising political organizer and White House staffer when a hiking injury introduced him to highly addictive prescription opioids like Dilaudid and OxyContin. What started as a doctor-prescribed treatment quickly spiraled into a decade-long struggle with opioid use disorder, leading him to the streets and eventually to heroin when his pill supply was suddenly cut off. In this episode, Ryan opens up about the deep-rooted childhood trauma, including his father's incarceration, and the burden of hiding his LGBT identity that fueled his need for escape.

Find mental health and addiction treatment near you: https://recovery.com/

Ryan sheds light on the dark realities of unethical treatment centers and the crucial turning point in his recovery journey. He shares how accessing buprenorphine and finally finding a culturally competent therapist who allowed him to safely come out as gay changed the trajectory of his life. Today, Ryan is a celebrated author and the powerhouse behind Mobilize Recovery, fighting for life-saving legislation, naloxone access, and holding pharmaceutical companies accountable. He proves that our darkest moments can forge our greatest purpose.

Don't forget to subscribe, leave a comment about what inspired you, and share this episode with someone who needs hope today!

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction & Political Ambitions
03:35 – Using Organizing as a Coping Mechanism
10:15 – A Devastating Injury & The First OxyContin Prescription
18:10 – Pill Mill Crackdowns & The Shift to Heroin
24:40 – Unethical Rehabs & Extortion Tactics
29:33 – The Turning Point: Buprenorphine & Coming Out
35:04 – Rebuilding Life in a Sober Living Home
43:54 – Turning Tragedy into Advocacy
49:56 – Founding Mobilize Recovery & Policy Change
55:40 – Finding True Purpose & Staying Grounded

❓ Questions the Video Answers:
How can a prescription for pain medication lead to heroin use?
What were the early warning signs of opioid physical dependence?
How did 1990s juice bars contribute to early substance use?
What is the danger of cutting off a patient's pain pill supply abruptly?
How do unethical rehab centers exploit vulnerable families?
Why is culturally competent care vital for LGBTQ+ individuals in recovery?
How does buprenorphine help stabilize someone with an opioid use disorder?
What role do sober living homes play after residential treatment?
How can peer communities prevent relapse in early recovery?
How can recovering individuals turn their grief into systemic political change?
What is Mobilize Recovery and how does it empower individuals?

#AddictionRecovery #SobrietyStories #opioidepidemic

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

That's how heroin entered my story. I walked right out the door of that office and I was in full-blown withdrawal. Somebody offered me something. Somebody offered pretty much everybody something.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

I was gonna say that's gotta be a really dangerous spot for people. Hi, and welcome to today's episode of Recovery Cast. Today we are joined by Ryan Hampton. Ryan is a former White House staffer and political organizer whose rising political trajectory was nearly derailed by a decade-long addiction to opioids. Now a celebrated author and powerhouse behind Mobilized Recovery, Ryan has repurposed his knowledge of the halls of power to champion life-saving legislation and build a national movement for those in recovery. He joins us to share how he traded the pursuit of political prestige for a mission of purpose, proving that our greatest setbacks can become our most powerful platforms. Ryan, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

It's good to be here. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Yes, very glad to have you. Really excited to meet you in person. I've heard a lot of great things about you from my coworker Tom. He has spoken very highly about the work that you're doing now, which we'll get into later, but let's take it way back. So I'm super curious what got you into campaigning and organizing and politics.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Not many people asked me that question. So I'm glad you asked. You know, it wasn't something that happened overnight. I kind of fell into it, I guess you could say. There is a trauma story behind it. Okay. Just for context, my mom was a public school teacher for 35 years. My father was a truck driver. He was a teamster up until the day he died. But when I was younger, around 12 years old, my dad actually went to prison. And my father was in prison for the better part of my early teenage years. Um, this was in 1992, 1992, 1993. I was 12, 13 years old. When my dad went to prison, we had a lot of issues that were going on in our house.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

Hard time holding on to the house. Um, my mom was working multiple jobs, you know, to keep food on the table. I was going through a lot personally. Yeah. I also was, you know, questioning my identity at the time. You know, I was in the closet. It was not very popular to be out in LGBT in the mid-90s as it is now or as widely as accepted as it is now. That's a lot for a preteen. It was. And I, and you know, and I I actually wrote about, I shared something yesterday quite vulnerable about my story that I've walked through a lot, but also I was a survivor or almost a survivor at that point of some real serious adverse uh childhood experiences, including sexual abuse. So there was just a lot going on internally. And I was having a hard time dealing with that, honestly. I was having a hard time being in the house, you know. So I was gravitating towards external things, which probably sounds familiar, right? External things that I could do that could keep me out of the house, right? That could keep me busy, that could help me to find some sense of purpose or passion or place in this world other than what was going on in my life. And so I was really active in sports. I was active in even though I hated sports at the time, you know, I was not a big sports fan. Still not a big sports fan. I mean, I like basketball, I like baseball.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Sometimes you get so like funneled into it in school, like you have to.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

But I mean, it was like swim team and things like that, you know, I just wasn't the biggest fan. But I was doing sports and extracurricular activities and clubs. And I also would volunteer. There were a lot of local campaigns that were going on in 1994, the 94 uh midterm election, the 96 midterm election. So I would go to political offices and campaign offices, and I would make phone calls and lick stamps, and I would go knock on doors and meet my neighbors and really found this sense of purpose and was learning also at the same time about this just like incredible way to make an impact, to get involved in your community and be civic. And I was kind of a weird kid in high school, you know, but it it gave me a sense of identity. Yeah. And so it became my thing, you know. I got really interested in it and started learning, you know, how to organize at a very young age. My mom, you know, I grew up in union meetings, you know, uh in my early ages. So like I had that sense of like public service and, you know, giving back, you know, the the agency of that came from my mother. And so it was just kind of like natural for me. That's you know, and it continued on. It continued on through high school and into college. And I really kind of found, I think, my footing in that. And at one point in my life, I felt that that was really what I should be doing. You know, I was good at, you know, organizing people and, you know, building kind of local movements. And uh, you know, I was I organized workers uh at one point early on in my career to join unions uh at Walmart, you know, when we were trying to unionize Walmart, which wasn't very successful. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the work very, very much. But it was, you know, I talk, I go back to there was a trauma story behind it. You know, now with all I know, it was also a coping mechanism for me, you know, in a very big way. And thank God I had that at the time.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

I was like, you chose a really good coping mechanism, like community. Right. We're finding community. A lot of times those things tend to isolate us.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Yeah. And I think it was also a different level of stress, you know. I mean, like I was a stressed-out 15-year-old for like weird reasons, you know. Like, I mean, I had so much going on that I didn't have to think about all the other stuff that was going on in my life.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah, you just overloaded your brain with like the how do I move forward with like this thing that's like this is kind of like the you that you present, and all the other stuff is kind of this.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

That was a big part of it. And also my with my dad, you know, being away at prison and my sister, you know, my older sister was an overachiever. She ended up going to West Point on a full scholarship. My daughter, man. You know, the the military US military academy and was out of the house in those formative teenage years. I kind of felt this like sense of urgency that I needed to do something big, you know, not just for myself, but for my family.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Yeah. That's a lot of pressure.

unknown 6:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

No wonder you're a stressed-out 15-year-old.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Yeah. And almost all came cut collapse that did come collapsing down, you know, a couple of years later.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

It's hard to hold up.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Your use started actually with an injury that led to a prescription for painkillers. Prior to this, what was your experience with like substances, drinking, just I mean, I can remember it clear as day.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

You know, I uh smoked some weed when I was 17 years old before I drank, like before anything. I was at a park. It was 1997. It was in North Miami Beach, Florida. I was with my best friend at the time, and he pulled out a joint and, you know, I was like, what the hell? You know, why not?

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

And um, it started there. But it progressed fairly quickly, but not to the point of what I would categorize as like chaotic or full-blown addiction. Honestly, like looking back, half of my class was doing the exact same thing. It's just I was the one who ended up, you know, unhoused on the street corner in Los Angeles, you know, in in the 2000s. But it, you know, it was weekend warrior, it was after school, it was drinking 40s, you know, uh, you know, on the basketball, you know, court at 11 p.m. And I think there was also when I, I guess you could say it was like side drinking, you know, and side smoking, I grasped at it too, though. You know, so there was a direct correlation. I still did well in school. I still participated in like the extracurricular campaigns and politics and volunteering, but like I got out of sports, you know, I stopped doing those things. I was a little bit less social. I can look back and and really pinpoint a few of those moments. And it was also, you know, the late 90s, you know, and I grew up in Miami, Florida. I grew up, you know, just a couple miles away from South Beach. And, you know, there was a club scene that was going on, and there were juice bars at the time. I don't think juice bars exist anywhere, but there were. So a juice bar was basically a bar, you know, a club. I mean, it was like an adult club, but it didn't serve alcohol. All it served was like orange juice and grapefruit juice and apple juice and like everything. Well, yeah, but the the the intent of it though was you couldn't get into these clubs. You couldn't get into clubs on South Beach if you were under 21. So they opened up these juice bars, which basically had all the lights, all the everything in it. And like there were places where we could go and we could party with, you know, hard drugs and not get shut down as a club. So the drug at the time, it was designer drugs. They were just, you know, becoming popular. It was MDMA and ecstasy and things like that. And, you know, I dabbled in that for a bit. I think like my junior and senior year. But again, it was like I wasn't isolated in doing it, if that makes sense. Like it was, it was something that was quite common and social that was going on. And then when I graduated high school and ended up going to college, I I quit it all, honestly, other than like smoking some weed. Like, I mean, I just I was able to just stop, you know, and like it was like the phase was over, you know, because I was moving to Washington, DC and and uh got accepted to Marymount University up in Arlington and uh had this great opportunity to, you know, work at the White House, which was you know super important to me. Like I was like full on, you know, time to be an adult.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, I have to, I don't have a choice right now.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

That's not what happens.

SPEAKER_04 10:16

No, that's definitely not how the story went. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

So then how does it progress? Because you you stopped everything. You went there, we're good. For the most part, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

Yeah. I mean, I I I casually drank. Yeah. Right. Like I didn't, it wasn't like a blackout drunk or anything like that. I was in DC, worked at the White House until 2001, stayed in D.C. after the Clinton administration to work at the National Party Committee. And um went on a hiking trip in 2003 with my with my then roommate and um fell. I I I injured myself really bad. I um split my platella, cracked my ankle. I mean, it was awful and very, very painful. I would be remiss not to mention though, too, it was my father had just passed away, you know, within this time frame. And we he passed away and we didn't end up on the bestest of terms when he passed away, but we were like trying to repair some stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

So he left at a time where there was just a lot of unfinished business with him, which I think is like, you know, happens with everybody. But it at that age, it was really hard for me. I I was basically carried off a hill uh in Virginia uh to an urgent care facility. And at the urgent care facility, doctor was like, this is really bad. I'm gonna wrap up, you know, we can't like perform surgery here because it's an urgent care, but but we're gonna wrap you up, we're gonna splint you, we're gonna give you crutches, um, you're gonna need to go see a specialist, you're gonna need to get an MRI and you know, here's something for the pain you can take. And they gave me uh hydromorphone pills, which were, you know, dilated, really, really high grade opioids. Um, and I didn't think anything of it, you know. I honestly had, I think maybe a couple of times had like a Vicodin or a PERCOSET when I had an injury when I was a teen. It never was like any type of dependence. I never thought about it. And I took the medication and uh it solved a lot. It solved the pain. It um, you know, solved a lot more than the pain, the emotional pain too that I was going through at the time. And I never went and got the MRI. I did keep coming back though, and getting, you know, a refill for the prescription from the urgent care facility, and the doctor didn't really mind giving it to me. Now, the crux of the story, really the nexus of that story, is my mom wanted me to come back home to Florida where we were living. She was dealing, you know, we had just lost my dad. She had just gotten divorced from him, like literally a couple weeks before he died. You know, my sister was still in middle school. Um, I decided that it would probably be better to be home. I'd find a job down there. Um so I moved back home to Florida and I took a job working in public policy. And um, I still had this knee problem, right? And so I ended up going to my one of the first things I did when I got home was I went to visit my primary care physician who had been my primary care physician since I was like in early teens. And I was like, hey, Doc, I've, you know, I'm supposed to see a specialist. I still have a little bit of pain. I've been on this medication for, you know, six, seven months, whatever it was at the time. Um, I need to refill or I need to figure out how to fix this. And he was like, wait, he's like, I don't, I don't practice that kind of medicine. Um, you need to see like a specialist. You need to see a pain specialist is what you need. And they're they're gonna, you know, put you on a protocol and help you figure out what you need to do. And there's plenty of them to choose from. And so that's what I did. I went to a pain specialist. And, you know, you know, anything about, you know, you read read my book, read any of the other books on the topic, you know, seen the the TV shows on Hulu and whatnot. 2003, South Florida pain specialist, like not the best scene to be in. And I went and saw the pain specialist, and that was, you know, uh the first time I got a prescription for Oxycontin. She asked me what I was on, what had happened. Um, I explained to her. She was like, look, this is a lot of medication you're taking right now. There's this new pill that's out. Instead of having to take like, you know, four to six pills a day, uh, you only need to take one to two a day. They're long acting 12 hours. There's this huge half-life to them. There's less than, you know, 1% to 2% addiction. You know, just because you feel some sort of physical dependence doesn't mean that you're addicted. Uh, if at any any time you decide you want to come off the medication, we can easily titrate you here, or you could do it at home. Um, there's like literally no risk, was the way she presented it to me. And it sounds crazy in 2026, like when I repeat this, and it sounds crazy to me that like I honestly did not know what that pill was. I knew it was a pain pill. I have a doctor telling you all this, too. Yeah, I didn't know what oxycottin meant. You know what I mean? I didn't know what it really did, you know? And so I took it and um I stayed on it for you know a couple of months. I I started to recognize the signs of like some sort of dependence.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

What were those signs? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_04 15:37

So it maybe it was like eight months to a year. I I had been on it and just let you know how casual it was. I mean, I took the bottle with me to work, you know, so I had it with me. It would, yeah, it was a prescription, exactly. It had my name on it, you know. Sometimes it'd be sitting on my desk. Like, I mean, it was like right there with the Advil. I wasn't the only one either. Like there were people that I worked with who had the same prescription. I mean, there was more of these like pain clinics than there were McDonald's at a certain point in in in the mid-2000s. And I can remember like a year into it, I I had missed a doctor's appointment. I was like, no big deal, right? Like I'd be out for a couple of days and you know, I made another, yeah, I'll just make another appointment and go see my doctor. And um it was like a day in. And I remember going to work and feeling like really weird, you know, feeling like I was depressed. And then, you know, by like lunchtime, I was starting to get like sweaty and feel like my stomach was turning and I was, you know, uh, you know, felt my skin was like crawling and I was like, God, am I getting sick? Am I getting the flu? And um, I remember going into the bathroom and putting some water on my face and and throwing up and um then looking at the mirror and being like, I wonder, like it just kind of like hit me. I was like, I wonder if there's like, you know, connection here, you know, because I've kind of heard about this. Is this like what's going on with my body right now? And uh went back to my desk and just started like Googling, had all these questions for Google about it, and uh realized like very quickly, okay, there these two things are connected. I'm out of meds, I'm feeling like this, therefore I need more meds to feel better. Um and I didn't my first thought wasn't I have a problem. I didn't think I had a problem.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

It was how do I fix me feeling icky right now? Not like there's a problem with anything else.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Yeah, how do I how do I fix this? You know, what do I do? That I would say was like the beginning of the beginning of the end. It certainly wasn't the beginning of the end.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

It is and not only is it like easier to get those kinds of prescriptions, but it was like you could go to multiple places and they're also not checking. So you can have multiple prescriptions from other people. I remember getting like you could get your wisdom teeth out and get hydrocodone, oxycodone, and it's just like wild. I've given birth and I got Tylamol.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

So Yeah, and that that was a big part of the story too. I mean, I I, you know, probably from 2005 to 2008 or so, I was seeing multiple doctors for multiple different conditions, not even having to have like an X-ray, you know, and getting prescribed all sorts of things. It was, you know, the the journey into like full-blown chaotic use wasn't protracted. I mean, it was within a year, I was unemployable, lost health insurance, lost my job, lost my apartment. Um, by 2006, had my first attempt at rehab where they basically threw me like a wet washcloth and were like, here, deal with it, you know. And in 2008, around 2008 or 2009, um, the state of Florida decided they were gonna, you know, fix this problem. And the way they decided they were gonna fix it was just to cut off the supply. Oh, you know, they they did not know that. Yeah. Well, they put into place something called the physician drug monitoring program, the PDMP, the first iteration of it, which the way it was built was we're gonna track everybody who's taking pills, we're gonna track the doctors, anybody who's taking more or seeing more than one doctor, we're gonna kick them off the rolls, just keep legitimate patients and that'll fix it. And um, I remember walking into a doctor's office one day. Yeah. And they pulled out this like wrap sheet, it felt like. And they were like, if you come back here, you're gonna be violated for like trespassing and arrested. And it felt like it wasn't just happening to me, it was happening to like tens of thousands of people. Yeah, but they I it I don't know, I don't know what they were thinking because it wasn't like you have a problem, let's help you find a solution to it. It was you have a problem, it's not our problem. Get the hell out of our office, or let's have you arrested. One well, yeah, that's how, you know, that's how heroin pretty much entered my story.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Just uh not being able to get it from the doctor's office at all. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

I walked right out uh the door of that office and I was in full-blown withdrawal. Somebody offered me something, somebody offered pretty much everybody something.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

I was gonna say that's gotta be a really dangerous spot for people.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

Yeah. And it just goes, and I've done a lot of writing about this too. It just goes to show and it's the simple, you know, balance of economics too, right? Supply and demand. You know, you can't just cut off the supply and expect the demand to go away. It's actually the other way around. You have to reduce demand to reduce supply.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

Right. Someone else is just gonna make the supply. Right.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Would you consider like you were quite functioning? Like you there was a point where maybe not so much, but like, do you feel like there was a point where you felt like in inside, like I I got this, I'm I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

No, no, I mean, I think past 2005 to like 2014, I wasn't functioning, I was surviving. You know, and I think there was a very big difference between the two. Um I was doing everything I could to, you know, um stay alive, you know, to to maintain some semblance of a relationship with my mother. Um pretty much every other relationship in my life had been destroyed or I had destroyed it. A lot of deep dark stuff and and you know, just basic survival skills that came into play and you know, lived on the streets on and off a lot. Yeah, it's it's it's hard to think about like, you know, because I just celebrated 11 years. Like I look back at um some of those moments and it feels so far away.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:50

You know? Yeah. Um, but at the same time, it it still feels so close.

unknown 21:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

You know what keeps you I feel like that's what keeps people on their toes. It does feel like a lifetime. Ago, but also close to the first time. Yeah. A different person that I have a lot of grace for now. Yeah. But close enough to where it's like, I'm aware of it. I'm aware of things.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Like And it's taken a lot of work, right? To have to be able to be in a place to recognize that first, you know, to honor the experience and the journey and have this gr like just extraordinary amount of gratitude for where I'm at today, but realize that every decision, good, bad, or indifferent, you know, has helped to build the person I am today. Yeah. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Absolutely. You said you went to treatment in 2006. Okay. Was that on your own accord-ish?

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Somewhat. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was, it was, it was the first time. And this is something, you know, I talk about a lot with your colleagues, right? And and how I got kind of caught up in that rat race, which is what it became for several years. Um, I didn't know what treatment is. My mom didn't know what treatment is. My friends didn't know what treatment, you know, was. Um, and there was a show, still a show. I'm not a big fan of it. So, uh, but I will mention it, intervention, you know, on AE that was like super popular and taking off at the time. And at the end of intervention, there was always like this really rosy story of like at least one person that like says yes to help. And then they like accept them at the treatment center. And then at the end of the show, they'll be like, if you need help, call this 800 number. And um, my mom had seen one of the episodes and called the number afterwards, and they wanted to talk to me. And so I had talked to them, and the this center is no longer around in Palm Beach, Florida. I had talked to them and they're like, basically treated it like I had won some type of an award. You know, they were like, congratulate, like, congratulations. Like, we're gonna be able to take you in. Like, we've got a bed for you. Like, this is the greatest thing ever. Like, you know, here's what, you know, treatment looks like. And um, it's like, you know, we go to the beach once a week or twice a week, and like this whole spiel they had. And at the same time, though, because my mom and I weren't really talking and weren't certainly weren't living under the same roof. They were telling my mom, hey, Ryan's like willing to like get help right now. And like, if you don't help him right now, he's gonna die. And here's what helping him looks like, right? It's gonna be, you know, $20,000, cash only. And my mom, you know, she was on like a public school teacher salary. So she had to, you know, open multiple credit cards, she had to take out loans. And they were like, well, don't worry. Um, just get him here. And why don't you just give us like the first three grand for like a week and we'll figure everything else out later? Like just get him here now. Like, if you don't get him here, like right now, you're gonna find him in the gutter somewhere, dead of an overdose. And so I got there, you know, and I didn't know any of this stuff was going on in the background. And I can remember my first Friday at this center, um, them bringing me into a room with my, you know, counselor at the time and like their at their business admin and being like, hey, we're just gonna check in with your mom, you know, and let her know how great you're doing and like you're a week sober and like all this stuff. And they put my mom on speakerphone and she's just like like bawling, bawling, bawling, you know, and they're like, he's doing so good and like he's he's got this, and like we're just like so excited to have him, and this is the start of his new life and whatnot. And they're like, okay, Ryan, now you can like go back to your group. And they stayed there on the phone with my mom. They're like, but if you don't give us $15,000 like today, like he has to leave like tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. They tortured her then. And my mom, like in this like frantic, I mean, found like I think she would have, had she not had, you know, access through like opening a credit card or a line of credit or dipping into her 401k or selling items from the house, um, she would have probably committed like robbery to like get that money.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Yeah, especially them saying it that way. Basically, your son's life and sobriety is now in your hands. We're doing everything we can, but it depends on you and your money.

SPEAKER_04 26:34

That's right. And um, you know, and and and that's how they went. And this was this was the first center, you know, buprenorphine had just come out, and they were there was a big like X against that. Like they didn't, you know, believe in it. They didn't believe in any type of medication, you know, that would um do anything other than like Tylenol, you know. It was very, and I'm a 12-stepper, right? But it was like very 12-step, but at the same time, my mom was paying all this money. And really what this center was doing was that they were housing me, you know, I was getting all the ramen I could eat, you know. Um, I was going to the beach, I was playing with sandboxes, and I was going to a lot of outside AA and NA meetings. And they were charging highway robbery for it. You know, lo and behold, I got out of that center. I was out, I think, three weeks later and and you know, was back at back at it within a couple days, sadly.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Did they help you give you any tools that would have helped you afterwards?

SPEAKER_04 27:35

I mean, I got my first, I would say I got my first kind of inoculation into Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous while I was there. But I I had I had known about the rooms and 12-step fellowships before. Um, but I had a real kind of baseline knowledge of it because I had gone to so many meetings. Yeah. That was helpful. And this is just my story, right? I'm only speaking for myself. I needed a lot more than that given what I was unpacking, or I didn't even know what I needed to unpack. But I mean, you heard some of my stuff earlier. There was a lot to unpack. You know, I don't, I know we don't have hours because that this I could go on on this forever. But I will say after multiple attempts at treatment, I think it was six times, seven times for me, the one thing that stood out, like if I had to go back and say this was the moment where things started to change for me, was when I was able to actually get in front of a professional and tell them I was gay. When I felt comfortable doing that in my own skin, even though I wasn't ready to share it with the outside world, I was ready to like admit it to myself. And I was ready to admit to myself some of the traumas that had happened in my life and have a place to put it all out on the table and start to figure it out and be able to at least like share that with my mom and my sisters and my best friend, even though I didn't feel safe going much further than that. Um I felt a moment of change in that. And one of the things that helped me be able to like get to the brain healing power to be able to do that was being on puprenorphine.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

This podcast is brought to you by recovery.com. Recovery.com is a place where anyone can find mental health or addiction treatment options specific to them. You can filter by location, price, insurance coverage, therapy type, mental health condition, levels of care, and so much more. Recovery.com is the best place to find mental health or addiction treatment for anyone anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 29:58

I was on buprenorphine that last time for probably like seven or eight weeks, maybe nine weeks. Yeah. And it helped me get into a place of like comfort where I wasn't in like this high state of anxiety constantly, where I was able to start to work through some of these issues. That was a game changer for me. And that was something where uh I didn't have that opportunity in previous treatment centers. In fact, you know, and this is one of the reasons in in my advocacy work, I'm so uh at the forefront and adamant about culturally competent care and safe care. And yes, you know, we need, you know, addict folks need addiction treatment, but yes, specialized addiction treatment, you know, safe spaces for LGBT folks is so important because you throw Ryan into a center where everyone is like straight or straight presenting at least, you know, like I was, and not giving them that space to actually talk about those things. Um, it it only compounds and makes it worse. You don't feel it can be your true vulnerable self. Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Like I can't let that thing out that we're all doing right now because there's this this piece still locked up because there's not that space.

SPEAKER_04 31:15

I mean, I use it, I use the analogy of like you wouldn't send, you know, a victim of like like severe domestic violence to a treatment center and then never talk about the domestic violence, would you? Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

Yeah. You know, I mean you have to take that time to get like to learn that about people too in treatment. It's a good place that has like people dedicated to and trust. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

It takes a lot of trust, right? It takes a lot of trust. And so, you know, it's one it it was one of the many reasons that I kind of jumped into you know, becoming an accidental advocate or activist or you know, organizer, movement builder in this space.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

I'm glad you got that space. I'm glad you had that moment with that person. Say there's people that have gone their whole life without saying it.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

By the way, are you a therapist? No. You you remind me of a therapist. Really? Thank you. This whole setup, your voice, it's like very calming. So flattering.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

I'm the number one yapper. That's why they gave me this mic. Um, but uh, yeah, as you're sitting there saying that, it's just there are, I know that I really benefited from having a black therapist. There was things that I could say that is like, it doesn't sound stupid to you. You get it, and you get like even the minutiae of it, how important it can be. And you validate me. So having that space for you, and it's the same thing. Like I said, like some people go their whole lives not being able to say that, not being able to say a big part of themselves, just being able to verbalize that and feel safe and comfortable saying that. So I think that that's huge.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

Oh my gosh. They would put me. I I always ended up with male therapists for some reason. Listen, if you really want me to lock up and not talk about anything, just take me in a room with a male therapist and ask me to talk about my problems.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

Same. You know? Same, same. Because the first time I see your eyes go wider and eyebrow, I'm just like, go away. Just go away. You don't get it. Yeah. You don't get it. Yeah. So you went to treatment six-ish time? Okay. So that last time, thinking back on it, was there anything about that where you're like, this is, I get why this was the time that I was able to stay sober?

SPEAKER_04 33:16

Yes. The day I left treatment, February 2nd, 2015, I was mortified. I felt I wasn't ready to leave. But I I had to leave. I had been there for almost three and a half months, you know, and I was there on like a uh Medicaid and scholarship, and I mean there's all sorts of stuff that came into play to keep me there as long as I could. But I was pretty given my past history, was worried, you know, that I would maybe last a day. You know, I didn't know where I was going. It wasn't necessarily knowing in treatment that it was gonna work. It was my counselor at the time, a woman named Shelly, who you know, I'll forever be grateful to, as I was packing up my stuff, came into my room and was like, Where are you going? I'm like, I don't know. You know, um, she's like, Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure you have a place to go from here. And she got me into a sober living home that was fairly well qualified that was gonna take me for free, you know, and work with me to till I got a job. And treatment was important. Treatment because I was able to be on buprenorphine, you know, was a whole different experience for me. Treatment because I was able to have a counselor I could relate to and be able to open up to was a game changer to me. Um, but really like the the the ultimate game changer was being able to have a roof over my head and peers to be around when I got out of treatment. You know, and and I claim my recovery date as February 2nd, 2015, because I kind of feel like that was my freedom date. Like I had this decision to like go one direction or the other. Yeah. You know, and and and I I made uh, you know, one choice that led to another choice that led to another choice and save my life, you know.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

I think that sober living there is great. Cause in you can get sober and you can learn tools and stuff in residential treatment. But when you get out, it's like now you're in the real world. It's not a bubble, it's not this protected space anymore where everybody knows what you're going through and can like help you navigate it. And to just like throw someone out there and be like, have fun. Yeah. Um, sober living, amazing. You're around peers that are also going through things, walking similar paths as yourself, and you can navigate it while also still having those responsibilities and like building that like self-respect and self-love back up.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

Life was so simple too.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

You know, like I think back to it again, like 11 years feels so far away, but like it really wasn't that far away. And I can remember, you know, getting out of treatment. I can remember being at the home for the first night and being like, what am I gonna do with my life? You know, like I have this opportunity to have a clean slate here, you know. Where do I want to go? What is it, you know, what's important to me? And honestly, like the things I thought were important to me at that point are not as important to me today. The one thing that's remained constant is my recovery. I honestly like that all I cared about when I got out was I was wanting to find a job. I don't want to talk about addiction, you know, outside of like my own personal recovery. I don't want to tell people about where I'm at. Yeah, let's just a lot of shame.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Yeah. It's a lot of shame.

SPEAKER_04 36:30

Yeah, let's like lock it away and like let's just get on with life and like, you know, and figure out what we're gonna do here. And I was driving Uber, you know, for the first, you know, year and a half of of my recovery. And um, you know, thought I'd maybe like go back to work on like a campaign or or um, you know, start some sort of business or something. Um no in a million years, never would have thought I'd be doing what I am today.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

You went to sober living and you've been sober for just a little over 11 years now. Congratulations on your February 2nd anniversary.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Um, and it looks different as the years and seasons go by. What were some of the things that helped you maintain your sobriety in that first year?

SPEAKER_04 37:14

Oh my gosh. So I think it was two, two things. The first was uh having a community of friends, people I was living with, people who I wasn't living with, but other people who were sober, uh, who were able to really lift me up and out when I couldn't get myself up and out. Others that I was able to look to who had done this really made a huge difference to me. I I think without that, I couldn't have done it. Like all the medication in the world, all the, you know, uh nothing could have replaced that, you know, human-to-human, you know, peer-to-peer um experience that that that really saved me that first year. The other thing though that was really rampant in 2015 and 2016 especially were a lot of those same people that I had built really great bonds with. I love them. People I loved, you know, were die died. You know, people died in my house, people died, you know, close to me in my community, you know, that I knew very well, people I had gone to treatment with. And I saw really for the first time um at a very quick pace, um a lot of death and a lot of destruction. I can remember being uh had had been using for almost almost a decade, a little bit over a decade. And in that first year and two years, more deaths than I can count on my fingers. And I can remember when I was using and maybe it's because I I you know the drug supply wasn't as potent, obviously, fentanyl hadn't hit the scenes yet. Uh we were still in like the prescription drug phase one, you know, wave one of the opioid crisis. Um I can remember like two, maybe three people in 10 years that I that I knew. And I came across a lot of people when I was out there, you know, two, maybe three that died of an overdose, and it was close to 10 in 18 months. Wow. That really hit home to me personally because it was like, wow, this it's either this or it's this for me. Because like I am I am that type of drug user. Like it's either gonna be I'm gonna get better or I'm gonna die. You know, there's really there wasn't really much wiggle room for me in between.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

What does that look like for you now? What are the things and tools that you use like on a daily basis that help you maintain your sobriety, help keep you grounded?

SPEAKER_04 39:50

I I'm a big believer in gratitude.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

Yes, same. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 39:54

So I try to find gratitude in everything I do. I think living a life that I can, I don't want to use the word be proud of, but that I can build some self-esteem on has been important for me. Yeah, something fulfilling, you know, finding a passion and purpose was big for me. And, you know, oddly enough, like I had been searching for it in all the wrong places for so long. It had always been right there in front of me. Yeah. You know, I just had to to experience it to be able to realize that. Yeah, it took a detour to get there. Um, community has been huge. Um, and that's that's the one constant that has remained. You know, I've a 12 steps, huge part of it for me. Um, but the 12 steps, like, you know, you you plug into different communities and whatnot. And there's there's different people, but the message is always the same. Yeah. You know, um, the feeling is always the same when you walk into a room. But there is a good group of people, you know, that I got sober with who are still sober today, who don't care that I have written three books, who don't humble you real quick. Yeah, that I was on the time 100 list. I don't even think they re-read it. You know what I mean? They don't, they don't care that like I'm, you know, running for the legislature or they don't follow mobilized recovery, but they are my bestest of friends. You know what I mean? And like I can have those conversations with them and they they keep me in check. I keep them in check. You know, they're like family.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

Um, that that's been a big part of it for me too. Yeah. Yeah. And and humility is has been really important as well. And I think, you know, particularly like doing the work, you know, that I do and working in the space too, um, in the advocacy space around recovery, you have to remain humble. You have to be remain teachable, you have to um know what you don't know. You know what I mean? And always be willing to still help someone. Yeah. Like that, that's another constant is, you know, uh amongst all the other craziness in my life today, like I would drop everything if the call came through today from someone who just wants to talk, you know, about something they're going through. That keeps me grounded. Um, I think sometimes folks who work in the recovery space get a little disconnected sometimes from their own personal recovery. So remembering like being very cognizant of that is super important as well.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

It's such a huge step from a few minutes ago. We don't want to talk about it. We just want to move forward. It's shame. And in shame, it's a lot of ego and humility helps remove that.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

Um, so how did you get from recovering on your own to then advocacy and just building these communities that you find important?

SPEAKER_04 42:41

So I was um still living in the sober living home and um it was the year was 2016. Um, I was still driving Uber and I had a a roommate of mine who uh had come home one night and was struggling. Uh, and he he had relapsed, he was using again. And the house needed him to leave with they needed him, the owner wanted him out. Um so tried to help him come up with a plan. There was no 12-step meeting for him to go to because it was late at night, and decided, you know, the best plan was to walk to the hospital, you know, go into the ER, tell him what was going on, get admitted, get treated, you know, have them hold him for a day or two, get him medically cleared, and then he would be able to come back to the house. And he went to the hospital that night, told them what was going on, and they didn't see him. They sent him home with a, you know, like a hotline brochure uh to call the next day if he was willing to get help. And this wasn't like some hospital in like rural Wisconsin. You know what I mean? Like this was like a very big hospital in a very urban core with like a billion dollar health endowment attached to it.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

Um, and and And he died, he overdosed, he died that night. And it it wasn't as much his death. It was, it was a lot to do with his death, but it was how his death was presented to me the following day that really lit a fire inside of me that this was BS. Um, the owner of the house said, you know, this is just kind of what happens, you know, people are gonna die. Some people have to die, so other people can recover, all these like crazy cliches. And it didn't sit right with me. Like if there was like a moment of change, it was that. I was like, well, this doesn't make any sense. He was going, you know, he he went to a hospital, he was turned away, you know, he wasn't given any care. Um, he was asking for help, and he died as a result of not getting help.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

You know, yes, he used, but he uh the system failed him. And for some reason, you know, I connected A and B, you know, from way back when my organizing days of, you know, organizing workers and and you know, fighting for workers' rights and, you know, being involved in, you know, political movements and thinking there was something, you know, severely wrong here. And um that's when the organizing started. Now it wasn't like mobilize recovery overnight. I didn't like wake up the next day and say, let's go do this and let's write books and let's get out there and get loud and organize and fight pharmaceutical companies and all that. Like it didn't start that way. It literally started with this is a problem, this is wrong. Nick shouldn't have died like this. Um, who do we need to talk to to fix it? Yeah. And it was an earnest attempt at talking to like local members of con or local area members of Congress and state legislators. And in that process, realizing some of them wanted to talk about it, most of them didn't want to talk about it. Those that did want to talk about it didn't really understand it. You know, um, it was becoming like a hot button political issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. And so I just it very, very simply, it just started as like a couple people from our community sharing our stories with legislators and city council members. And it grew from there. I took a trip in 2016 across the country, kind of find myself, I guess you could say, with my best friend, rented a 35-foot RV, you know, drove across uh uh uh 20 some odd states. Sounds amazing, you know, met with people who were impacted, stayed in homes of family members who had lost a loved one, went into jails, talked to elected officials, met with folks on the street, you know, filmed it uh and put it on YouTube, right? And got back from that trip and felt, didn't feel new at that moment that I wasn't the only one that felt like this. And that people were not just eager to share their stories, they were eager to get involved and to do something. And so Mobiliz Recovery started as a blog. You know, it started as something called the Voices Project. It wasn't a nonprofit. Um, I was like, hey, we just met all these people. We should give them a place to tell their stories and a place for them to like be able to connect with their policymakers. So Garrett, who's my best friend, co-founder of Mobilize Recovery, still sober, you know, like he just had a kid. I'm the godfather of his kid. You know, um, he and I, because we were in the sober living together, um, got like a Google, I don't even know what the hell the name of it was. It wasn't an it wasn't an iPad, it wasn't a laptop. It was like this, it wasn't even a tablet. It was just this thing that connected to the internet at the time. You know, got it for like 25 bucks at a pawn shop, you know, and we didn't have internet. Um, and so the next door neighbor to the or the apartment next door to the sober living house had internet and it wasn't protected. That's all we needed. And with hijacked internet and that $25, whatever the thing was, um, started a Facebook page and started a website and started collecting stories and uh stuff. It was in the early days of like Facebook. It was before, like, I didn't even know the term influencer, but it was before like everybody was a recovery influencer. Like we were just like sharing stories and the stuff started going viral. And we were getting like thousands of stories and submissions like per month. And I was like, my God, like you have a thousand people here who want to do something. Like now it's kind of incumbent on you to give them something to do, but I didn't know what to give them to do. So that's how the nonprofit started. It was like, let's bring folks together and figure out what to do together. And long story short, it, you know, and and since then, you know, and that was 2016, 2017. I mean, mobilized recovery has grown. It's got, you know, it's in every state in the nation, um, distributed a million doses of naloxone in 24 states, hundreds of pieces of legislation that we've worked on and advocated for. We've, you know, a big guiding principle of us is like, we don't want to be the leaders, we want to train up folks to be leaders in the recovery space. And a lot of people in recovery, uh, particularly early recovery and family members, feel and I think, you know, society has treated them as if they shouldn't lead.

SPEAKER_03 49:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:33

They don't have their own agency, but they do. It's the most powerful agency in the world that they can have, you know. Um, so that that's really what we're in the business of. We're in the business of building more leaders. We're in the business of, you know, uh progressive forward-thinking policy that supports people in recovery. Yes. Um, and making sure that that, you know, actions meet the words of our policymakers.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

Yeah. Speaking about it is so important because as you said previously, like you go in there, half people don't really want to listen, half the people uh you feel like they don't care. Those are the people making decisions, like those are the ones making the laws about things that directly affect the people out here suffering or trying to overcome something.

SPEAKER_04 50:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

Um, so to get in the rooms and to speak to them and make people hear things and understand, and also train up people, train people up, give them their voice, let them know that their voice is important and you people have this thing. I I feel grateful. I feel so much gratitude for what I've been given in this new life that I feel like I've had. Yep. All I want to do is spread that to other people and you're giving them like a place like, cool, let's lock in and do it.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Right. And like I want to, you know, give credit to where credit's due. Like I believe that, you know, the recovery advocacy movement, which I would like to think mobilize recovery is a big part of, and the people that make up mobilize recovery, which is the most important part of it, you know, is very is is is by and large, you know, responsible for a lot of the progress that we have seen in the last, you know, seven, eight years, certainly around, you know, uh treating healthcare. I mean, treating um substance use disorder more in the primary healthcare setting. Removing the stigma. Removing the stigma, wide availability of naloxone, naloxone going over the counter, something we've been fighting for. We've been fighting for that since 2019. Certainly holding pharmaceutical companies accountable. Um, you know, uh uh uh Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, the settlement that we were able to reach uh on behalf of victims for that. Um, you know, treating medication for opioid use disorder as the gold standard, making sure that, you know, when we started this work, over 70% of treatment centers in the United States didn't use medication for opioid use disorder, right? What were they doing that has what they were doing when I went the first time, right? Cold turkey. Wow. Um so a lot of the progress has been because people who are directly impacted have stepped up and said, no more. And here's what we need to do to change it to save more lives. It hasn't necessarily happened because of, in my opinion, you know, doctors and lawyers got together and make it happen, although they like to take a lot of credit for it too. Um, the power has been in the people, yeah, as in any other movement in the United States. The power is in the people. And that's, you know, that that's what we believe in. And I think it's very effective.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

Absolutely. So what's next for mobilize recovery? What do you guys got going on for 2026?

SPEAKER_04 52:30

Yeah, we're super excited and super excited to be um partnered with recovery.com on this. So 2026 is an anniversary year. Uh, 50 years ago in 1976, a woman by the name of Marty Mann, uh, the the original pioneer in the recovery advocacy space, first woman uh to achieve long-term sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, first queer person, documented queer person uh in Alcoholics Anonymous to achieve long-term sobriety. Uh, she had an organization called NCADD, um, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, which was really the first big advocacy organization in our space. They had a moment in 1976 called Operation Understanding. It was where she brought together uh 50 notable Americans, including uh astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Dick Van Dyke, you know, who we we hear his story a lot. First time he disclosed his story, politicians, sports figures, uh, to a press conference where they publicly disclosed uh that they were people in recovery. Wow. And it was in an effort to chip away at the shame and the blame and the stigma that was so pervasive in 1976. And uh it was really a cultural shifting moment for recovery. Um, a lot of that kind of went away in the 80s with the war on drugs and whatnot. But 2026 is 50 years of that. So mobilized recovery has taken on um with an extraordinary amount of gratitude, uh, the honor of commemorating the last 50 years of the recovery movement uh and looking forward for the next 50 years.

SPEAKER_03 54:06

Oh, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 54:07

And I'm not being able to disclose too much yet, but we will be able to in in short order. I could tell you it is going to be a very big year focused on uh stigma busting, which is something we need to do these days, um, providing communities with local resources for forward-thinking policy, but really a big tent year to not just bring in people in recovery, but the recovery curious, the sober curious, the folks impacted, and the folks who don't see themselves as impacted, but see this as, you know, the real uh healthcare cause, justice cause, you know, social cause, you know, of our century that has to be dealt with right now.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like the beginning of your story really, really like shows like how you got here. Like you were kind of just meant to like build community and help and push things forward. I feel like you had this huge passion for, like we said, maybe a little bit of a detour, but now like this is this is what that work is for. This is what that passion is for. And we love what you're doing with mobilize recovery. It's huge, it's bringing so much awareness. Also, in spaces that maybe don't get to talk about this a lot with like the youth, older people, everybody from state to state. It's just a really wonderful thing you're doing, and we appreciate it here. I'm curious. There's Ryan and politics, and there's Ryan and advocacy, and after recovery and all that stuff. Um who who would you describe Ryan as today?

SPEAKER_04 55:40

Oh gosh. Um, husband and dog dad.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:45

Man, my husband Sean is my life.

SPEAKER_00 55:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:48

Without him, I don't know what I would be able to do. Um I, you know, I've I've I have pondered and contemplated that question um more so in the last year than I have previously. You know, I've just been very like uber focused on like the mission and and and and you know, what needs to be done right now because it's so urgent. But I've really had some time in the last year to reflect on who who do I want to be, you know, and and who am I really? You know, I mean there's there's the advocacy and there's the work, but then there's, you know, the reason that I think, you know, my higher powers put me on this planet too, right? And those experiences. And I would say um it has been as a husband and more so in the last year, um, also as a as a son, because my mom is um not doing too great these days. She's um, you know, she's she's dealing with a lot and um cancer and things. And so it's like I'm, you know, my place in this world is there is to to kind of be that comfort for her. You know, she's she was a patient advocate for me for so long. You know, it it it's interesting for me to now be that advocate for her.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

So yeah, I mean, and that's a question I ask myself every morning when I wake up.

SPEAKER_02 57:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:08

You know, but being grounded in in who you are, you you have to, you have to find that, I think, to be able to be effective in the work too, because there's nothing worse than an inauthentic advocate. And there's a lot of them out there.

SPEAKER_03 57:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:21

You know, you got to be true to yourself, true to your values, and then the rest will follow.

SPEAKER_03 57:26

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being authentic with us and sharing your story. Um, we're really grateful for your openness. And thank you all for joining us on wait, hold on. Where can people follow you?

SPEAKER_04 57:40

Oh my gosh. Yes, I want to know your follows. Wait, yes. Oh, yeah, of course. Um, so mobilize recovery, first and foremost, mobilize recovery.org. Um, get involved there. If you're curious about the work we do, just check it out.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

Check it out. Check it out. Check it out.

SPEAKER_04 57:53

Totally check it out. Um, we're on all socials. Uh for me, information on my books, um, my my other work. Uh you can go to ryanhampton.com and um check me out there too. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_03 58:05

Yeah, we're so happy to have you here. Ryan, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you all for joining us, and we will see you next time on Recovery Cast.