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Welcome Matty and Damon from Power of Recovery.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six. Okay, boys, are you ready to go or what?
Let's roll six seven? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Six.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome my guys, Maddie and Damon the after.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Show podcast from Power of Recovery, of course, And the
reason they were saying six seven.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Is because can I tease the video?

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Well if the phone number for Power of Recovery has
a six and a seven in it? Right, So they
did a little video there, you know, saying the number.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
But with six seven, that was a good idea. Whose
idea was that?

Speaker 4 (00:28):
I'll take credit? But I don't even know them.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's all Damon, right, what do they say? He's the
rain I mean, I mean it's tough man.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I count a lot of stuff. I'm good accounting.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
You are good.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
You're like a rain Man numbers guy. Yeah right, yeah. Anyway,
welcome in, guys. People are very excited to have you here.
We have some questions from our listeners for you, guys
and recovery related.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
But I want to get to know what's up with you?
What's going on? Anything good? Anything new?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, dude, talk about it, big guy. Let them know.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
We just open up and adolescent mental health in Danvas.
It's called Power of Hope.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Oh, you're sticking with the power thing. Yeah, Now, whose
idea was that? Matt, Damon's that's the big guy.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I can't take any credit for that. I'll take that one.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
You have Power Recovery, which is obviously addiction.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Addiction treatment treatment, right, this is totally this is mental health, yes,
which is so like, whose idea was that?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Was it your idea? No?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
One of our partners came to us and she's amazing
had this idea, and me and Damon had to know
how we put it all together. We have an unbelievable
team over there. Yeah, you know, it's just going great.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
So it's open now, open now, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
It's ten Elm Street.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Is there a website? How do we get people if
they need help?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
It is Power of Hope m a dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, And so it's a person.

Speaker 5 (01:55):
In it's an outpatient but it's in person and virtual
and it's like, like to be clear, it's strictly mental
health and it's also strictly for adolescents. So we we
focused a lot of energy on on our other stuff,
you know, dealing with adults, and understood there was there
was a you know, real need for kids that are

(02:16):
struggling with with different mental health, you know, between anxiety, stress,
eating disorders, any of that stuff, you know. And and
when I Patna came to us and and suggests this,
and and she has a quite a bit of a
background in the in the field with working with adolescents already,
you know, we were like, wow, what can we do.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
To support this? How can we get this thing off
the ground?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I love it, especially in today's world, you know, yet
with the youngsters, social media, the internet. Yeah, my son
he has some issues. You know, It's we're working on,
you know, on those issues with him. Same it's it's
really not easy.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So that's amazing, That's that's true.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Listen. I said to my wife too.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
You know, I got four children myself, and and you know,
one of them's fourteen, And I was like, hey, we
have we can't even begin to imagine what it's like
for him compared.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
To what it was like for us growing up. The
whole world is so different.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Everything so much closer with the social media and the internet,
Like you were talking about.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
My kids only eight, he's already dealing with it.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
He has kids Messenger, and he's already you know, dealing
with things like bullying and it's a whole thing. But
you know, I was in adolescent facilities as well, both
mental and drugs, you know, because of dual diagnosed.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Let me tell you a story real quick.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I want to go. We love these dude, this
is such a blessing.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
I want to get your your input on this, on
whether or not you think this kind of treatment still exists.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
This is a one true story.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
I was in a I guess I could just say
where it is. It's still there, legend McLain hospital. Oh yeah,
been there, Yeah, you've been there. Yeah. So they had
an adolescent program. It was my very first program. I
had just turned fourteen. I might have been thirteen, Okay,
So I was having obviously I was diagnosed with all
kinds of things by Paul and depression, I had drug issues.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
So my parents put me in there. I had a
suicide attempt.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
So I'm in this facility with these kids and it was.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
A great program.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Right, We had groups all day, all this stuff, but
there was one group in particular that I'll never ever forget.
So I forget the name of the group, but basically,
on this one day, there was a kid there he
was sixteen years old, and he had been in and
out of there a couple of times. Now he was back,
and he used to travel with the Grateful Dead. It

(04:31):
was a Deadhead and so him and his best friend
would go around the country show to show and they
would hop get rides from other people, other deadheads. And
so what had happened semi recently was probably I would
guess maybe like within the last year. When he was there,
they left the show somewhere they tried to find a ride.
There was a van leaving, but they only had one seat.
So he said to his friend, you know. His friend said, no,

(04:54):
you take it. You know, you take it. So his
friend took the seat. I'll see, I'll get the next
rid I see in the next city. Well, during that ride,
the people in the van injected him with heroin, right,
he had never done heroin, but they were getting high
and they got him high and he overdosed and they
pulled over on the side of the road and he
threw his body on the side of the road and
left him to die. Okay, So that was very traumatic

(05:14):
for this kid. Okay, So now he's in McLean. So
in this group that we had, we had to reenact
the scene, oh, using us.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
In the van.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was the driver. I was the driver up the bus. Okay,
So they set up the chairs like a bus and
we had to pretend like we were so it was him,
and then another kid pretended to be his friend, and
we had to like reenact the scene like the kid
going out, not the actual injecting, but the kid going out,
and then he was a chance for him to say
goodbye to his friend. He's fucking screaming, Oh, I'm sorry,

(05:48):
I love you. Imagine I'm fucking thirteen years old, like traumatized.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I don't know much, but I'm not really sure they
do that.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
I don't they do that anymore? Right, isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I hope not.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
I'm gonna go want a limb here and say that
they don't do that at power of hope.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, I'm gonna agree with you on that and say
we stare away from the trauma.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, yeah, try not to add to the trauma.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
That's certainly not what it traumatized me. I'm still talking
about it years later. Yeah, and just a finale to
that years later, probably, I would say at least ten
years later. I got arrested and I went to Cambridge
jail and I got put in the holding cell there
and there was a kid in the corner on the
ground with his head down for like two hours run.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
That doesn't say nothing to me. I thought he was
I don't know what he was doing, just his head down.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
And finally he picks his head up and I look
at him and I'm like, you look familiar, and.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
He's like, you look familiar. It was that kid.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
No, yeah, I strung out to the girls had just
got arrested, So I don't know whatever happened to him.
But that's my adolescent story. Isn't that wild?

Speaker 1 (06:46):
That's very wild, But at at the power of hope.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Right, what's a typical day look like for the kids?
It's groups therapy, right, yep.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Its place is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
The pictures look crazy, it is.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
It's good.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
And the people that are running the program hands down
best in the state.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
Yeah, him and I are not qualified to work on
anybody's child, add as anybody. We put the right players
in the right positions.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
That's what you want to do.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
There they're running the day like that, you know, if
it depends on on the needs of the child, how
each day goes and and and the programs always tailored
to fit the specific person. There's certain different groups that
go on that are regular things, but then there's also
you know, the individual therapy. We have you know, some
some different areas in the place for them to you know,

(07:38):
if they need kind of like a quiet room and
some one on one time with somebody, we have like
a whole sort of like zen room for the kids
for that. There's a like a kind of like a
games play area. There's an area where they can eat
and uh and a bunch of open door offices with
the clinicians and the staff that are available. And then
we have different times a day that they can come
in if you uh, some of the kids. And I

(07:58):
had no idea about this, but the way it works
in the state of Massachusetts, it's considered a full day
of school if you go in in the morning till
eleven thirty. So a lot of a lot of parents
that have their kids that are dealing with some of
these issues also want to help them maintain and not
fall behind in school, so they'll get them in school
in the morning and then they'll come over to us
from like twelve to five.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
So they get in credit for a full day of
school and they get that.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
Yeah, and some of the more severe cases, it's like
they need some time separated from the school, so they'll
come in first thing in the morning with us and
go nine to three or whatever. So it varies throughout
the day and then because of the different necessary treatments
for each individual, Like some of the stuff varies as
far as exactly what they each kid's doing during the day.
But you know, without without a doubt, through the day,
there's some groups that they have together and then some

(08:42):
individual treatment that they're all doing.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
So to be clear, I like the snacks.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Oh yeah, oh hey, no, it's good for us too.
I'm not gonna lie to you.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
Up in that little neighborhood, few good places to eat
we found. So it's it's you know, him and I.
They don't let us.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
You know.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
It's well, I was gonna say, to be clear, Okay,
if you are a heroin addict or a crackhead or whatever,
an alcoholic, anything like.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
That, Maddie and damon, they'll speak to you on that.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
We got all day long, right blindfolded, no problem, We
got you.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
But adolescents and things like mental health, like these are
the people people in place. Yeah so that's amazing, man,
you guys are doing it all.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
We're trying. We're trying.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, so, how's power of recovery doing amazing?

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Dude, it is I'm telling you, owing up.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
It's blown up. I can't believe it is where it is.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
You ever think it would be this this big?

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude, I don't stop.

Speaker 5 (09:37):
He's you can't like this isn't you know, a bad thing,
but he Did's just how the brains are built. Listen,
nothing we have, we have some stuff to go off of, right, Like,
we had experience in in uh sober housing before we
open up the treatment center, and you know, nothing for nothing.
We confidently sit here and tell you that we're best
in the business when it comes to that stuff. So
we had an idea that if we applied the same
principles that we did to the sober housing, which is

(09:58):
basically the simplest thing that we can say is is
it's it's the client first. It's the patient first. It's
the resident first, right Like, as long as we keep
that up front, we we've always felt like and then
the other big thing that him and I always know
is that we know what we don't know, and we
make sure we have the other people come in to
do those things that we don't know. And so with that, yeah,

(10:19):
we we kind of had an expectation that it would
it would get some way. We're super impressive where it
is now and I think it's still probably exceed some
of our expectations. But you know, we've always felt that
if we continue to put that kind of compassion first
above the bottom line, the bottom line always works out.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
No big deal, that's it.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
It's it's really just doing the right thing. And it's
a general way to live your life.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
You want to try to live as honest as possible,
treat people the right way, and you're right, things always
work out. When you put things like money first, things
get a little bit tricky. And we've seen that a
lot in recovery. You know, you know, you guys working
so you know more than me, buddy, it's gross, you
know what I mean. But yeah, you guys are busy,
as busier than ever.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well, got to keep this brain occupied somehow.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, well, we want to keep growing.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
We're just getting started. But yeah, we're just getting started.

Speaker 5 (11:06):
Yeah, I mean honestly, like you said, it's for us.
Like people can look at however they want, but the
more that we do, the more that we know we're
helping people, which is really like it's it like it
for us. It's not even really work, dude. I know,
it's like where can we get stressed out and stuff?
But like we're literally doing exactly what we're supposed to
do in our personal lives in our professional lives, right,
so we can't miss. For us, we just can't miss, dude. Yeah,

(11:29):
Like not in some cocky way, but just in some
like for us, like we were every day on our
personal lives, we're answering the phone, and every day on
our professional lives we're answering the phone, and we're doing
the same thing, right, you know what I mean, it's
it's helping people.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I mean, why stop?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, when we're building good places? Why stop?

Speaker 3 (11:43):
You guys are in the thick of it, and you know,
for me, I'm in the think of it too. Not
in the recovery as far as you guys go, but
just for you know, addiction and recovery in general. You know,
like one of my best friends relapsed recently, he's just
coming back here, has a month clean, okay know, and
you know he was back out there smoking crack. Everything
I was doing trying everything to get him back clean again,

(12:06):
you know, And now he's back again. He's at my
house every single night, and you know, just talking to
someone who's just coming off the street, like you just
put the crack pipe down.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
You know.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
It's like such a remember when like where his mind
is at. It's insane, right, you.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
Know, thinking just like in a snap of a finger,
just switches back to that crazy, crazy thing, that insane thinking.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
I should say, then you get to wear.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Us three uh. And it has nothing to do with
the drugs and alcoholic's behaviors.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well, then there's that.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's the tough part.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
Like I know, I can't drink, I can't do drugs.
I'll be homeless, I'll be dead. Yeah, but I can
run down and put a bet here. Yeah I can. Look,
I get the behaviors are so much hotter than Okay,
I pick up, I die. I know that. But I
can get away with this or or this or skate
on this so.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Hot and it's all things that make us feel better.
It's innocent gratification. That's what it is.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Change of feeling with.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's all it is.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
It never goes away, never like mine's it. And I'm
really into the workout things into peptides and biohacking and sauna.
I'm like obsessed with that. I mean, you heard it
today before we were recorded. You know, I have to
be at the gym at one o'clock. I mean, my friend,
I gotta be there no matter what.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
You know. I mean, I have plenty of time.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
But you were still rushing rself. That's that's the add
little guys. Guys, it's ten to fifteen.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
We've got to get rolling here.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
But yeah, me and Billy were in a deep conversation
justin just give.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
It the no.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
To be honest with you, I was a little annoyed
because I wanted Billy to come on. But I understand
why he didn't. It's his own whatever business. Yea, But
I think he would have been great.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
You know, I agree, dude. I think we'll pull him
on the next one, the next one.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, he's coming.

Speaker 6 (13:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Billy's sons are in recovery. He talked about that. Yeah,
you know Chris, you know Chris Costa. Do you know Chris? Oh, Yeah,
he's in with Tom Brady.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
Yeah, dude, I'm I'm just I'm a little a little
perturbed that he hasn't brought Tommy by the see the.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Way, well, he hasn't brought him for us. But Tom
Brady will be on the show next week.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Oh well yeah, not a person apparently, we won't be.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Uh listen any anytime we we work with Alex.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah. So Alex is a what do you call it?
What is he?

Speaker 5 (14:13):
He's a consultant consultant, So he's he's been, he's in
recovery personally, and I know he can share that. He
shares it all the time. And then he has, uh
he worked in the field with some companies, helped a
lot of.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Escalation and growth inside of companies. And now he's gone
out on his own and we are a very fortunate.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
Byproduct of that because Billy introduced us to him, and
now he's he's got cost of growth and he's been
a phenomenal addition.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
He's good at what he does.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
He's not good.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
He's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, it's weird that Billy all three of his kids
look like male models. I'm telling you, the fucking genetics
on these cost of kids is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Even Dylan is youngest. Same thing.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
It's freaking wild. So I do a couple of questions
here for you guys from our listeners. I did reach
out on the talkbacks here. One girl reached out. She
actually DMed me and then left me at talkback. So
I'll play the talk back and then I'll read some
of what her DM said.

Speaker 7 (15:10):
Hi, Justin, I messaged you on Instagram last night about
me going back to rehab today. If you want to
share that on the air, you can just please exclude
my name and you feel free to do so.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah. So I have the DM he had for you
for you guys.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
It says, Hey, guys, so I relapsed last year after
four months sober, and I'm going back to rehab. Your
kind words helped me help get me through the first time.
I'm hoping maybe you have advice for me going into
it this time. The first time was my choice and
my decision, but this time it feels like it's.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Being done for me by my family.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
I'm not healthy right now, extremely thin, so I do
want to get better, but it wasn't my decision this time,
and that's extra scary.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
I'm scared remember those days.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Welcome. I don't envy that feeling at all.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, So basically, I mean I feel what she's saying here.
Like the first time when she got sober, it was like,
I need this, I want to do it for me.
But it sounds like now she's doing it for her
family maybe.

Speaker 5 (16:15):
Or maybe she's sort of had her hand forced a
little bit and they're making her go. She might be
a little dependent on her living circumstances and potential.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
You know, I don't know her whole background, but a lot.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
But that's okay. Get you through whatever gets you through there,
That's what That's what I am. I want to tell
her is whatever gets you in there. You're in the
right place.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
You want to see us at our best an hour
before somebody checks into detox, right. I will tell you.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Anything to get you in that doing. I mean anything.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
You should have heard some of the stories, man, an
you know, I'll buy you a car when you get out.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Just get in there for the next week.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
I just get in the door.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
Well seriously, though, because you never know when it's going
to click for somebody, right, and it can't click unless
they're sober. It can't click unless they walk in the
door there, and sometimes that's what it takes like. And
we've had we've dealt with the other side of that
coin a lot too, where families will reach out to us,
hey what do I do with my loved one? What
do I do with my loved one? And from our
own personal experiences with our own families and stuff we've

(17:10):
seen over the last you know, ten to twenty years,
we just advise them like, you got to do that.
You got to get them in, right, that's it you
got to get And for her, she should be afraid, right,
why wouldn't you be afraid? Like it makes it makes sense, right.
I feel that people that go in, you know, over confident.
I'm more scared for them, right, like oh I got this,
or like no, I'm I'm still scared.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's almost like you get the thought, are they beaten enough?
You know? It's too overly confident?

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, because I feel like I know, for myself, I
was completely beat down, like the hands up whatever, you know.
But how many times do people come into your facilities,
right a power recovery or a sober house and they're
not there for themselves right away?

Speaker 1 (17:51):
You know what I mean? They're being placed there or forced.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
All we're doing is praying for that moment of clarity yep,
and then having them enjoy one week like one week
with no change, and then you want more. You want more.
You work, how to, you go to more meetings, you
try and take care of your personal stuff, and then
before you know it, you know, days turn into months,
which turns in the years.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:13):
You just I don't know if you remember the time
of just being around at one point and like laughing
right like and not having had a real laugh and
however long and then you like it hits you like, wow,
this is like I'm having a belly laugh here and
I'm enjoying it and it feels good, yeah man. And
then you know us, if it feels good, we want
more and more.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah. You know what.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
A big one for me was the realization that I
was around people that did not want anything from me,
and then also people that I actually liked. Ye See,
I spent so much time with people where I was like,
I say, it was using with.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
You, Maddie.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
I fucking hate this dude, but I have to because
of you know, what I need or what he can
get same, you know. And then The other thing is
is being around people that legit only wanted my friendship.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
They didn't want any money, they didn't want nothing from me,
didn't care fucking anything about me. They just wanted to
spend time with me. That was so impactful to me.
I was like, I want to be around these people
more and more, you know. So to that listener, I
hope hopefully she'll hear this before she goes in. If not,
she can listen when she gets up there.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
And on top of that, just staying stay in treatment,
stay do the after care, like if you can go
in the if you're in the detox portion, stay in
the residential as long as you can, uh set up
after care wherever. If you're coming back, if you're in
this area, call us, we'll help you out. We don't
care what you have for insurance. Just you know, give
Power a call.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
The most important thing is.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
Don't pick up for the day and don't make any decisions.
Let somebody who's been there before make the decisions. That's
what we do best in Power.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, we make.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
The decision for you, so it's done. We're never gonna
stay you towards the direction where you're going to pick
up or use, or hurt yourself or somebody else. But
still after almost sixteen years, sometimes I can't make my
own decision. I need to go and ask for advice,
for help, Yeah, help help me. I can't. I'm I'm
gonna mess this up.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I'm going to mess that up.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah, now just walking through the door, like, let us
make your decisions for you.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Sometimes that a lot of times, these basic things we
learn when we get cleaned can carry they carry throughout
your whole recovery process. Let's say, back to the basics.
You have that, back to the base. How many time
you been back to the basics? Mad, I'm right now,
back to the basis. See what I mean currently.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
In my life?

Speaker 1 (20:33):
I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah, Yeah, I wake up, pray, talk to another addict. Yeah,
I'll be at my step meeting tonight right now writing steps.
Maybe we'll see Damon this week.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Now you've been skipping Damon?

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Probably yeah, probably not tonight.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, I always so we have.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
You know, we've blo onto a twelve step program and
people are always like, you know, it's so hard to
do the steps and do a fourth step and a
fifth step and a sixth step. It's so hard and
a men's and all that stuff. Try going through all
twelve steps, come pleading them, and then they're like, well
you have to start over again. That's where I'm at now.
I'm on step two. Yeah, the second time around, and
I'm like, oh my god, but you got to do
it because situations changing life. You can be applied to

(21:11):
so many things besides just drugs.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Want to blow your mind. Go back and read your
old step two.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Oh my god, Oh I should do that.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
You're not the same person. Fucking insane.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, wan hair a good fourth step story. So my sponsor,
My my sponsor had always shared when he when he
you know, talk to me and openly, like at meetings
or whatever, he would say when I did my fourth
and fifth step. At the end of the fourth step,
it says, is there anything else? Is there anything that
you're not writing down out of fear? And he said,
you know, there's one thing that I was not going

(21:43):
to write down no matter what, and I left it off.
He's like, And so then when I met when my
sponsor went to whatever at the very end, he said
to me, is there anything you left off? And he's like,
I paused, thought about it, and I was like, and
he goes, tell me, if you want to be free
to tell me, And so he goes proceeded to share
that one thing.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
I was never going to tell anybody.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
And then his sponsor said, all right, now, let me
tell you a little bit about myself. And the same
thing that had happened to him had happened to a sponsor.
It was like a spiritual moment, right, yeah, fast forward,
I do my full step, same thing. There was stuff
that had happened in my life that I wasn't going
to share and I left it off and then the
same exact same thing happened, and he asked me, and
I thought about it, and I'm like, I'm just going

(22:23):
to share it. And I shared it and it was
the same exact thing that happened to my sponsor and
to his sponsor.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Wow, isn't that crazy.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's just the journey man.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Yeah, that's how the HYAPA was working our lives.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
It really is a one another question.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
Here, Hey, justin for tomorrow's after show. I was hoping
you could ask Power of Recovery for any tips for
family members when we just found out about an addiction
and they went into recovery. But how can we best
support them during this time? Thanks love you.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Guys, Damon Maddie, Well, who's taking the cake on this one?

Speaker 2 (23:01):
The big guy over there.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Game.

Speaker 5 (23:03):
So there's some general stuff obviously, and I think, uh,
there's also personal stuff depending on the person in what
the family has been through already. But generally speaking, I
think it's super important to set your boundaries with a
loved one who's in recovery, and you should base all
of your support and what you're doing off of the

(23:24):
first boundary I would suggest is that as long as
they're in recovery and doing their doing their thing, as
far as like, you know, whatever recovery looks.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Like for them.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
For me, it means going to meet in stepwork, sponsor
all that, all the all the stuff for me, because that's.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
The type of recovery that I do.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
But I would suggest that you know, uh, trying to
get an understanding of the disease itself, UH is super helpful.
It's if you if you don't know it, then if
you've never experienced you don't you don't fully know it.
But getting some information about that and just trying to
be as compassionate as possible. We have conversations with families
all the time surrounding that stuff and and learning or

(24:00):
about what they go through is super important, and just
you know, having an understanding of being able to support them.
There's different other things that you deal with.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
With all that stuff.

Speaker 5 (24:09):
Some people need a little support financially and in other ways,
and it can be difficult. Depends on what everyone's situation is.
That's why it's all different for people. But you know,
for the most part, I would say, set you boundaries
as long as they're in recovery, learn more about the
disease to see how you can continue to support them specifically.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
You know why it can be so hard for not
just family members, but anybody that's not an addict or
an alcoholic and doesn't struggle.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
With the disease. It's it's wrapping their head around why
can't you just stop?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Oh, I don't understand, Like if I don't want to
do something, if something's hurt of me, I just don't
do it.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
I don't understand why that's a big thing to understand.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
That's getting less and less because the world is more
aware of a disease that's getting less and less. Like
when we first came around there was a lot of
people that will go just stop, just stop. Now, every
household is touched with addiction, right, you can't get away
from it. Everybody, some way, shape or form is touched
by addiction. So there's a little more understanding to that

(25:12):
why we just can't stop. It's a disease that talks
to us in our own mind, and we we can't
get rid of it. We arrest it for one day
and it's stopped. It's like the freaking newspaper, and it's incurable, incurable.
All we can do is arrest it.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, And if you're one of these people that says
that doesn't believe that, like it's not a disease, you know,
I don't believe any of that.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
It's that's ignorant. You're ignorant, simple as that, you're ignorant.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
That's it's literally as many sneak as you have.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Oh yeah, well not only that, right, but would you
would you tell a person that has cancer to just
stop having cancer?

Speaker 1 (25:43):
All right?

Speaker 5 (25:44):
And it's tough, but like that's about the best way
you can try and sell the idea to somebody that
has no idea, Like, no, I can't just say cancer
go away, No, I can't. I like, the only problem,
I think that not the only problem. What I would
what I would say is is a little bit more
relatable for people, is is that a it's self diagnosed.
No matter how many times somebody else tells me I'm
an alcoholic, car an addict, it's not until I recognize

(26:06):
it and state that, and then it's self treated. So
on that side of the coin, it's like the cancer
pation not going to get chemo or whatever it is
that they're doing for a treatment, and that pot is
tough for a family member to watch. So but at
the end of the day, it's a disease. It's it's real.
It's it's depression, it's any other mental health issue that

(26:27):
you know can go on inside of your head, and
it's real.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
It's just really hard for family members too, especially with
relapse and again.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
And again and again and again and again.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
You know, I think about my father, all the hell
that I put him through, you know, all the money
that I stole and all the lies and everything, and
he tried so hard to get me clean, and it
was like again and again and again. It's just like
it's really traumatizing.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
We loved ones, right once they understand a little bit
more that we're not bad people trying to be good
with sick people trying to be well. And it's a
long road for some of us. For me, I told
you took me eleven years to get thirty days.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Actually, I'm thinking about that with you, Maddy. I remember
I've talked about this before. I remember when I first
got clean, and your brother used to have a dinner
every Wednesday night for all the guys in recovery.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Anyone could go, and it was it was just because
he was so.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Thankful for the recovery and you know, meetings for giving
him his brother back.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
That's how this whole thing stopped, literally by a dinner.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, yeah, I went once and then there was probably
i would say twenty people there, and then it progressed on.
I remember seeing pictures outside of the house eighty hundred guys, just.

Speaker 5 (27:36):
Guys, and just so you know, you know, shout out
to Sneeze, to Steve Snuffy Powers. He's not one of us, right,
And he had he he had a home with a
wife and children, young kids like that were at the
house and he would have all of us in his
house and cooked in a pay for it out of

(27:58):
his pocket. And again I'm talking he would they were knights.
He was feeding eighty guys, so right, and and and
having those all those people in the house and literally
like the magic that startted everything that we do.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Dude.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
It started the sober housing, which led to power recovery,
which led to everything else.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
Man, right, just by dinner and we still me and
Damon still have friends from that kitchen.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yep, still clean, still talk.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
About Wednesday nights, still doing it.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, that's so powerful, powerful, get it power. Yeah, whatever
you did, see how that goes? Oh my god?

Speaker 3 (28:30):
All right, boys, I hate to cut you short, but
you get to the gym, well, I got hold on.
This is the sickness, right, It's not just about getting
to the gym. It's that I got to have my
pre workout meal and it's got to be timed so
it's digested by the time I get to the gym.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
This is the insanity.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Man.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Okay, you look good though, so say what you want.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
People.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
I take Damon's crushing on you a little bit.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Me and Damon go way back, way back, way back.
All right, So power, power of hope. We talked about that.
That's an adolescent mental health. What's the website.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
It's Power of Hope m A as in Massachusetts Power
of Hope MA dot com.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah, and so for a lot of our listeners and
a lot of us have small children and teenagers. If
you ever run into a problem you need to seek help,
go there see them. They will help you. Like they said,
they have people there that are experts in this.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah, just check it out for my people that are
like us.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, man and struggling. If you're a loved one are struggling, damon,
what can they do?

Speaker 2 (29:29):
They can?

Speaker 5 (29:30):
They can hit the website power Recovery dot org. Or
more importantly, they can call eight five seven fifty six power.
That's eight five seven five six seven six.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah when they say gemma, yeah, unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
All right, well, thank you guys very much, and we'll talk.
What are you gonna come back next month?

Speaker 5 (29:51):
Next month unless they call for a sooner, but other
than that, we'll uh, doors.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
All just cancel.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Tom Brady will be back.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Oh yeah, no, don Tom's coming on something really cool.
I can't even talk about it. Oh, Man's special for
our listeners.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Really yeah, he's amazing.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
I'll tell you off the.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Because we haven't announced it yet, but it's really special,
fantastic in the list of like importance for me, it's
definitely like Tom Brady then Power Recovery.

Speaker 7 (30:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (30:17):
Hey, honestly, I'm not sure you're going to hear an
argument on any of us.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Tom Brady also yeah, sorry, No.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
It's fine, and be a number two to tom Brady's
not that bad, not at all.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
It's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, all right, guys, thank you both, and after show
Army we'll talk tomorrow. Always leave us to talk back
about anything. If you have any comments about this podcast,
you can leave a talk back on the iHeart app
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