Latest / Harder Than Life / 106: Fighting the Opioid Crisis w/ Linda Davis

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106: Fighting the Opioid Crisis w/ Linda Davis · Harder Than Life

• 0:07
  I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:22
  Welcome back to the Heart of the Life podcast, folks. Today, I have the incredible honor of welcoming Judge Linda Davis to the Heart of the Life podcast. Appointed to the bench in 2000 by Governor John Engler, Judge Davis has not only served her community with distinction in the courtroom, but also become a leader, leading advocate for those impacted by addiction.
• 0:43
  Before her judgeship, she spent 13 years as an assistant prosecutor in Macomb County fighting for justice. As the executive director of Face Addiction Now, formerly known as Families Against Narcotics, she has been instrumental in the organization's remarkable growth and success.
• 0:58
  Judge Davis's leadership and passion have earned her numerous prestigious awards from the FBI, Care House, the Girl Scouts of America, and many others. She's a true humanitarian, a voice for those battling substance abuse disorder, and a proud member of the Michigan Opioid Advisory Commission.
• 1:14
  Judge Davis, we are thrilled to have you here today. And sorry for that long introduction, but I wanted to make sure that people understand that how important today is to me. Because as the Heart of the Life podcast listeners know, this entire brand is for charity.
• 1:31
  And I have the honor of being on the board with you. And I want to give this a little bit of segue is that last year I was at the event that we're going to talk about. And I saw your energy walk up on the stage and I loved every minute of it. And I'm honored and appreciative that you guys took a chance on me. And I'm going to pay it forward because I was a young kid, grew up in your district.
• 1:55
  And I thank goodness I was never in front of you. But that's what we're here for. That's what Heart and Life's here for. So thank you for coming today. Great. Thank you so much for having me, Kelly. Judge, can you share the mission and vision behind Face Addiction Now and how the organization works to combat addiction?
• 2:13
  Well, we basically, it's a really simple concept. We're here to support people who suffer from substance use disorder and their families. We know now that addiction is a disease. It's not a moral failing. And yet we as a society have treated it as though it's a moral failing, incarcerating people that are simply just using drugs to get through to the next day.
• 2:37
  And so 17 years ago, I was affected in my own personal life with a child that was affected with substance use disorder and really began to educate myself about addiction and how it affects the mind and the body.
• 2:52
  And I also was running a drug court at the same time and saw real success in providing services to people that were long term. Oftentimes in society, we treat addiction with a revolving door effect where we pay very expensive inpatient treatment.
• 3:11
  A person comes out with no aftercare whatsoever. They relapse. They go right back in again. And so our organization really provides a continuum of care to individuals using low dollar amount treatment so that we save a lot of money, but providing people with the necessary support that they need for up to 18 months so that they can be successful in long-term recovery. Absolutely.
• 3:38
  So the reason we're here is to promote the annual Fall Fest fundraiser on October 1st. NTM will be there with their whole team. All the board directors are going to be there. It was a good event last year. And I got to tell you, I was at that event. I just said, and I said, next year, I'm going to, I'm going to emcee the event. But this, but instead I'm on the board and next year I'll see the event, you know, be at a microphone. I love it. So yeah.
• 4:07
  How being a judge and making all this this wherewithal about addiction and what's all about. And I got to tell you, for those who don't know, this is very personal to me because a Macomb County, where she sat as a judge is where I grew up. Be my father died from drugs and alcohol. And, you know, we treated it.
• 4:26
  Like it was like it was a what did you call it? A moral failing, a moral failing. And it was a disease. And looking back now, I see exactly when I went through, you know, like an idiot followed right in his footsteps and almost went down the same paths. So it's very personal to me. But what made you go from a judge to the executive director role at the charity?
• 4:48
  Well, I had been working as a volunteer in the organization since 2007, and I gave up my position as a judge five years ago to take over leadership. But this was my passion. I saw how people were being affected. I was one of the lucky ones. I mean, my daughter found recovery, and she's doing great.
• 5:07
  celebrating 17 years of being opiate free this past summer. And so she's doing great. But I work with so many families that have lost their child, with so many families that are just being ripped apart because of substance use disorder, that that really has fueled my passion. It was the most devastating thing I ever went through. And I just don't want other families to suffer.
• 5:31
  I love this podcast because I have been meaning to ask you how addiction hit your family. And I keep forgetting. And you just said your daughter. So it goes to show you that it can affect anyone. Absolutely. Anyone. And I got to tell you, I have a 15-year-old daughter. And one of my biggest concerns is that me being extremely passionate about addiction
• 5:56
  living a sober lifestyle that she goes down that path. I mean, the kids at 15 years old are all experimenting with drinking and drugs already. Right. And luckily so far she's been saying no. So sorry to put you on blast honey, but we're doing something right. That's the positive effect of the heart of the life brand, which is also to make more, bring more awareness to face addiction now. So I'm learning, uh,
• 6:25
  about the charity even though i'm on the board i'm learning more and more and you just sat me down and and drilled it into my head all the things that that that we do but let's let's spend a couple more uh minutes educating the harder than life listeners how does face addiction now support families directly impacted by addiction
• 6:44
  Well, we have a lot of different programs, but we are the largest diversion and deflection program in the entire United States. That means we work with 175 police departments in the state of Michigan in a variety of ways. You can walk into one of those police departments without fear of being arrested, say that you have a substance use problem. They call us. We send somebody to meet you right at the police department.
• 7:10
  Or you can call our Hope Line and we will instantly connect you with services that way. We have a quick response team that we do in partnership with police departments where we actually go to the homes of people who have suffered a nonfatal overdose.
• 7:25
  and we take our hope not handcuffed program right into their living room what's unique about our programming though is we don't only offer the person suffering from the substance use disorder services we also offer their family services as well uh... we are one of the only organizations in the state of michigan that has a very robust family program where we actually have
• 7:47
  Family peer coaches that work with you one-on-one to help you navigate this very difficult situation in your life. And then we have a pre-arrest diversion program with police departments where rather than arresting you, they give you an opportunity to seek recovery services through us.
• 8:04
  And if you are successful and stay connected with us, they don't ever bring those charges against you. We really help everybody face addiction now. We also work with 17 major hospital systems in the state of Michigan, where we go into the hospitals and if you're suffering from a substance use disorder, they call us and we take our services right into the ER, so that when you leave the hospital, you are going to be connected to services.
• 8:31
  And we just started a new program in the city of Detroit. They use their opiate settlement money. And we are going to be responding with EMS and the fire department that when they go out on a run, if you do not go to the hospital with them, we are going to make a house call to you within three hours and bring services right to your doorstep. That program is starting today. But before it even started, we had over 100 referrals.
• 8:58
  So we are going to be able to help massive numbers of people in the city of Detroit.
• 9:03
  Congratulations to Detroit guys make sure we tag at face addiction now on on all social media stuff for this and what's the website now that we've changed the name it's face addition addiction now that org so you can head over there to make any kind of donations and or find out about the programs guys what she just said the very first ones called hope not handcuffs and I'd never heard of this before so with I know we're not gonna get into politics today but with
• 9:31
  You read about Tyree kill or the Miami dolphins being pulled out of his car for Disobeying a police officer or whatever your stance is on this This is where you can go to the police and say I'm addicted and I need help and you will not get arrested I've never heard of anything like before that's wild and who came up with that?
• 9:52
  There actually was a police chief in Gloucester, Massachusetts that started the program. It was a really small, very, very small population in Gloucester, Massachusetts. And he was constantly going on runs. They only had a couple of people in their police department.
• 10:08
  And so they were constantly going on runs to neighborhood kids that they knew were good kids that were overdosing and dying. He just got tired of it and said, look, we're not arresting these kids anymore. If you've got a problem, you walk in and talk to me personally and I will call treatment facilities and get you in. And we thought we could do that on a large scale.
• 10:29
  So we started that in 2017 with 23 police departments, and we have placed over 14,000 people and connected them with services and started their journey to recovery. That's just wild. It's so good. I just think back on how that might have helped my father. My father's passed away at 46 years old. I'm 48. And then I followed right in the footsteps and almost did the same damn thing. I never got to the point where I was...
• 10:57
  you know, going to die or anything like that. But man, did I fricking waste a lot of time and energy. And it's just so important to me that guys, I've said a thousand times, feeling is healing. Sit in your shit. There's no crutch that makes anything feel better. And I've told you a thousand times harder than life fam. By the time it takes you to take a drug and feel it and, or take a drink and feel it. You could have sat in it.
• 11:26
  processed that feeling and or called me or anybody and been through it before you take that poison into your body. So again, there are options. We're here. This is a great, great charity. I'm very passionate about it. We're donating a big portion of the harder than life funds go to, we'll be going to this. So please support us. And so let's talk more about this podcast.
• 11:55
  I always go back to the hope, not handcuffs, but you went through a list of the programs. So what are some other successful initiatives, and can we dig into those and how...
• 12:06
  Have we implemented them to address the opioid crisis? Because you're hearing it. And again, I don't want to get into politics, but you're hearing on this presidential election more talk of opioids than I've ever heard before. Maybe it's because I'm involved in a charity now, but is it me or are we talking about it more? Well, I think it's a more acceptable thing to talk about. Politically, it wasn't a popular thing to talk about addiction years ago.
• 12:36
  I think it's become a more politically acceptable topic to talk about now. And so many people have been affected because of the prescription drug crisis where people were being overprescribed these drugs that every family is being affected now.
• 12:53
  So it's just something that is so much on the minds of everybody because everybody knows somebody. I speak all over the country, and one of the first questions I ask is raise your hand if you've been personally affected by the opioid crisis. And I would say 98% of the people raised their hands.
• 13:12
  And so I mean, personally, meaning a relative or a close personal friend has passed away or has suffered immensely from this disease. And so I think because it's affected so many people, it's now a more acceptable thing to talk about.
• 13:30
  Man, this is so wild. I'm going to deviate and I want to ask a question. I have a 15-year-old daughter and the number one thing in the world is to make sure to look for signs that there could be an issue. Opioids are a big thing nationally, but vaping is big. I wrote a paper a long time ago about legalization of marijuana.
• 13:53
  35 years ago. And the big negative against it is it's the gateway drug is what could we be looking for in our children to ensure signs that they could be dabbling in, in drugs and alcohol? Well, first of all, before you even start looking, keep having conversations. You know, that's the biggest thing is that we think our kids aren't listening to us, but they really do. And what you want to do is create an environment where, uh,
• 14:22
  If they are going to start to move in that direction that they're remembering something that their dad or their mom said, be open with your kids. This is a huge crisis in the United States. Don't be afraid to talk to your kids about it. You know, we live in this fear of we're going to anger our kids for some reason. We need to drop that. That's our job as parents is to talk to our kids.
• 14:45
  And then any signs that you see are a change in behavior. Don't just assume it's normal teenage behavior. It's a mistake I made. You know, their appearance starts changing. Their friends start changing. They're disinterested in things that they were once interested in. Any of those kind of things are things. Vaping is harder because it doesn't cause pain.
• 15:08
  tremendous personality changes. But when the drugs get stronger, you start seeing things. They're tired more often. They're disinterested in school. Any kind of drug use is going to cause those kind of things on some kind of a level. And so just be...
• 15:27
  super aware of what your kids are doing, be involved in their lives and don't be afraid of prodding. That is our right as parents is to prod into our children's lives. Don't be afraid that you're going to hurt their feelings or make them angry. If your kids aren't angry at you, you're not doing your job. Oh, that's a great reel. If your kids aren't angry, you're not doing your job. You hear that, Ari? She's always mad at me. I'm going to...
• 15:57
  I'm gonna pry a little bit because I wanna use your daughter and your instance as a blueprint.
• 16:06
  What did you notice in your daughter? How did it get bad? And then how did you overcome it? Well, everything that I just said is exactly the lessons I learned is that I saw changes in behavior, but she was 17 years of age at the time. And a lot of that just appears to be normal behavior, loss of weight. She'd started dating. And so obviously girls lose weight. They try to change their appearances.
• 16:31
  She had become sloppy in her behavior, but the guy she was dating was a little sloppy in his behavior, so I justified that. I really didn't see she came to me before the real signs started showing, but there was a disinterest in things that she once loved to do. She did competitive cheerleading. She wanted to quit it.
• 16:51
  I just assumed that she had outgrew it, but I didn't realize that it was due to the drug addiction. I just think that, you know, so many of the signs, especially with opiate use disorder, are things that you don't see until the problem is too big.
• 17:09
  But I was pretty dumbfounded when I found out about it, to be honest with you. But fortunately, we had a great relationship and she came to me and asked for help. And that started the process. That's not the normal way people find treatment is to tell their parents. What did you what did you do? That's that's the real answer to the question I was looking for. Like, what did you do? Did it was their programs back then? Like, well, that now.
• 17:33
  That's exactly what led me to lead this organization is that being a judge, I thought this would be an easy process that I would just make a few phone calls. We'd get her into treatment and we'd have this problem resolved in no time. I never could find treatment for her in the state of Michigan. I was on the phone for four hours trying to call.
• 17:53
  I was humiliated, called names, shamed by the fact that I was asking for help. I was told repeatedly that morning that she was probably going to die and that I needed to brace myself for it. So I was already distraught and fearful, and it just compounded adding fear to it.
• 18:15
  I finally had to go out of state to find treatment for and even that's not an easy process because if you type in treatment facilities, you're going to get bombarded with a million different hits. So how do you know which one is the right one to choose?
• 18:30
  And that's kind of what we decided to do is to make this easy for people. We have our pulse on what our good treatment facilities were to send people. We understand the system. And so when you call us, we walk you through that process. But I knew that morning that with the trouble that I went through trying to find treatment for her, that if we ever got through this, that I was going to be the voice of change in the state of Michigan.
• 18:55
  I love that. You're beautiful. We're going to get into stigma in a second, but I want to, I want to, if it's okay with you and if I pry a little too much and it's too personal, just, just stop me. What, what was she doing? Like, how does she get in? I'm asking because this is so near and dear. I have a 15 year old daughter and I just, this is my biggest fear in the world. That's it. Nothing else. None of my health. It's my daughter because
• 19:21
  The abuse and the drug, the abuse stops with me. And she's had every advantage that I haven't had. And yeah, it just hit me, sorry. And I don't want anything to ever happen to her. And so what was she doing? Like, how did she get introduced to it? And then how...
• 19:47
  did she ultimate what was the childhood trauma or whatever the thing that she was trying to cope come i can't speak because i'm so freaking emotional compensate don't get me started i know it's just i just started thinking about like bad things all of a sudden it's like what was she um what was she compensating for what was the what was she trying to cope with
• 20:09
  Well, let's talk in more general terms about kids in general. Thank you. That's okay. All right. Because her story is not unique. You know how she just collected me, by the way. Yeah. Her story is not unique to anybody. A lot of kids, especially back years ago, were getting addicted because of a sports injury. And were prescribed an opiate prescription that parents didn't know were addictive. Wait, what are they doing?
• 20:32
  What do they prescribe? Vicodin? Vicodin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, Norco. There's a whole array. There's like hundreds of opiate pills that are on the market. So parents really need to be diligent about what their kids are taking. My daughter was prescribed opiates for a knee injury that she had. I had no idea what I was giving her.
• 20:57
  And so we really need to question our doctors, make sure that they're not giving our kids something that are addictive and insist that if there is an alternative to a medicine that is a narcotic, that it be used as the first go to instead of going right to, you know, the highest, highest level of pain medication that you can give.
• 21:20
  But a lot of kids got addicted because of a wisdom tooth being pulled and they were prescribed medication. Other kids are just experimenting. I mean, experimentation with alcohol and drugs, it's been happening since cave days. You know, it has. We did it when we were kids. Fortunately for us, though, like when I was growing up, alcohol was the only thing anybody in my class ever used.
• 21:45
  And kids experimented with that. And most kids could handle it. But some kids, if they're wired differently, just couldn't and never came back from it. But then the drugs got stronger. It was marijuana and then it was LSD and then it was cocaine and then it became crack cocaine.
• 22:01
  And then it became opioids. And the problem is is that these drugs are so strong that you can't bounce back from them the way you did with other drugs. And now everything is being laced with like fentanyl, which is incredibly deadly. We're seeing a real rise in people that think they're using cocaine, but their cocaine is being laced with fentanyl and they're overdosing and their intent was never ever to use an opioid. And so you just have to be super diligent
• 22:31
  And be aware, the one that scares me the most are college age kids because college kids are under a lot of pressure to perform well. And so they use drugs like Adderall. Make sure if you are taking Adderall that it's being prescribed by a doctor and you're getting it from a legitimate pharmacy. You know, because if you are buying it on the street, there's a good chance that even that is going to be laced with fentanyl.
• 22:55
  And so it's like we have to talk to our kids and we have to warn them about the dangers of these drugs and be really, really blunt about it. I want to jump in there, too. And when she says the street, that also means the Internet, guys. So if you're not getting it from a doctor, there has been numerous reports. And I can't confirm this, but I know there's been reports that the Chinese are lacing some of these drugs.
• 23:22
  adderall pills to and kids are buying them online and taking them and dying so you know again like she says talk to them so on the street means and the internet as well and it just takes a minute amount of fentanyl yeah and they're done
• 23:38
  Yeah. And don't think just because somebody calls themselves something RX on the Internet that that is a legitimate pharmacy. Go physically. If you have to take a medication, go physically to your local pharmacy and pick up your your drug. Don't order it on the Internet.
• 23:56
  Why has big pharma, and it's not a political question, why has big pharma become big pharma? Because it's big money. There you go. Everything is driven by the almighty dollar. Where did we get to the point in our lives where it's a pill for everything? I mean, you're sad. Take a pill. You can't get an erection. Take a pill. You can't.
• 24:20
  I get a knee injury. That's like everything is the quick fix. Where did we go? We're people of age. When did this? We used to be tough. When did that? When did we get soft? I think we've just done that with an array of things.
• 24:37
  We become touchy feely people and that's not a bad thing in some some circumstances. But like we don't let our kids experience failure. You know, your kids on a little league team, everybody gets a trophy trophy, even if they're horrible at playing the sport.
• 24:53
  They get a trophy. We build this thing that we don't let kids learn. We don't let them learn how to experience disappointment and pain. And then when they get older, they don't know how to cope with those kind of things. And so they see their parents taking pills. You know, people pop pills for, like you said, just about everything now, to wake up, to go to sleep, to feel good. And I don't want to get away from that. Some people need medication. I mean, I'm not...
• 25:23
  nixing medication across the board, but be careful with it. You know, we need to teach coping skills to kids. And we've gotten away from that. We want kids to feel good all the time. And like you said, life is hard. And you need to deal with the hard parts of life too. And so I think that's where a lot of drug use with both adults and young people come in is we just don't want to feel anything that's negative. And unfortunately, life has a lot of negative feelings in it.
• 25:53
  Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about that Rocky Balboa quote where he says life's going to be hard. It's going to hit you and you got to be able to take that hit and hit back harder. And that's literally where harder life comes from. And I have had every disadvantage known to man. And the thing about life is.
• 26:10
  I believe in God and I believe God is telling us, showing us where we need to get better. And the repetitive bad negativity in your life is exactly where you need to get better. So if you, every single time that you feel bad and you pop a pill,
• 26:26
  or take a drink, write that down what you just felt like. There's your portal to happiness. Solve that thing. And I'm not saying that's easy. No. In any way, shape, or form, because that's how hard a life was. I took myself to the brink and almost went too far. So you brought up stigma.
• 26:46
  How has the stigma surrounding addiction evolved over the years and what work still needs to be done? Well, we've come a long way with stigma. We're having conversations about addiction now, so that's really dispelling stigma. If you look at TV programs, you can tell that stigma is really starting to be addressed, even like in movies like Law and Order and all of the law shows that are on TV, where they're no longer just painting a horrible picture of someone that suffers from addiction.
• 27:16
  but talking about who they were before the addiction took place, that this was a good person, that this happened to them, and they went down this road. There used to be no hope in recovery, but now we have so many people that are walking the walk and that are involved in the world of treatment that have lived experiences that that's dispelling that you can't get well from addiction because you can. You can fully recover from addiction.
• 27:43
  And so all of those things are starting to make changes. But stigma runs deep, you know, and we've always treated. I think the way our society has treated addiction plays into the stigma that where we we used to punish people that if you went for treatment and you weren't successful, you couldn't go back again for a year. We don't do that with any other disease. If you get cancer and you get it back 30 days from now.
• 28:09
  You go get treatment 30 days from now. And so that's gotten a little bit better. But we also need to look at the facilities that we treat people with addiction in. They're sometimes dilapidated, run down, dirty. We somehow want to punish people that are seeking treatment for addiction. We need to clean those places up. People need to want to go there and feel like they're valued when they walk through the door.
• 28:33
  And I always tell treatment facilities, you need to have somebody go undercover and call your treatment facility. And if people aren't treated respectfully when they call, if they're not treated as though they're valued when they're called, you need to fire your receptionist. Because addiction starts the minute the phone is picked. Recovery starts the minute that the phone is picked up.
• 28:56
  If you're already beating yourself up because you suffer from this disease and you call and you're shamed or demeaned when you make that first phone call, you're not likely to follow through with that. You know, if you don't feel like you're going to be valued when you walk through the front door. And so we have a whole lot to learn about how we've treated people with addiction and the system needs to change before stigma is going to change. Yeah.
• 29:24
  You guys follow at face addiction now on Instagram. This is so good. She said recovery starts the moment the phone is picked up. And that is so true. They're already coming.
• 29:35
  To us or to you or to whatever treatment they are with low self-esteem and probably low morale and low and shame so to make them feel worse, you just push them away you can lose them immediately. So There's no shame and I think about it to this day. I'm I'm walking talking belief, you know, I I still struggle with saying I was an alcoholic because I
• 30:00
  I walked away from a cold turkey. I didn't go to any treatment. I just said, I'm done. And I walked away. So the first step in the 12 steps is admit you're powerless over alcohol. I don't think I was powerless if I could just walk away from it, but it's irrelevant. I'm done with it. I have alcohol all around me. I was at the Lions game yesterday. I went to the DAC and everybody's drinking. I have zero desire. I actually look at people and be like, ooh, that's gonna hurt tomorrow. So, but
• 30:29
  you call me an alcoholic or how much were you drinking or drunk? And I'm like, Hmm, uh, so that stigma is real. And that's the other thing is I would never call you an alcoholic. I would say that you suffered from, from alcohol use disorder. That's a disease. Alcoholic is a name calling. And so we really need to get away from that as well. But you didn't just walk away.
• 30:51
  You've spent years improving yourself, reading everything you could get your hands on, on how do I tackle what might have led me to this? How do I make myself a stronger person? That's unique because most people that walk away and just stop using, they still have an array of problems that go with it. And so the fact that you spent a lifetime...
• 31:16
  Trying to help people learn that life is hard and here are some tools that you can use to make your life better is not just walking away from something that you did. You improved yourself along the way. So don't don't sell yourself short. Well, I'll tell you, and I say this over and over and over again. I was raised in an abusive family when I was I was.
• 31:39
  I wasn't anything. I was to be seen and not heard. I was literally, and I hate using this term, but it's the only thing I can think of is, I was literally there to serve and slave for my parents so they could continue drinking and being lazy. And I just wasn't a kid. I wasn't able to be a kid. I was scared to death. And the moment I was able to look at that and realize,
• 32:06
  My parents did the best they could with what they had. And I took back my power.
• 32:13
  The need, the desire, and the want of alcohol went away just like that. So if you can find whatever it is, and I ask people this every time they could reach out to me for drinking. Do you know why you drink? And most of them do, but it's usually a layer or two deeper than that. And mine was everybody loved drinking Kelly. He was the life of the party, and he could get all the love he needed.
• 32:41
  Well, guess where I could get all the love I needed from myself? Yep. And man, it's growing and growing. And it's no coincidence is that I grow the love for myself and being able to provide everything I need from inside. The brand is growing. We're going to be making bigger donations. The podcast has reached top 20. We're going to get to number one. All.
• 33:03
  manifested inside me and you can too. I share that not for, Oh, the feel goods. It's if I can do it, I'm just a poor old kid from fricking Warren South Warren. Yeah. I'm a lot older than you. And I, I just say that, you know, we learn from our mistakes and if you stop trying to improve yourself, I don't care what age you are, you're done. You know, it's like I wake up every morning and, and I'm,
• 33:28
  tell myself what I'm grateful for. I think about the things about myself that I need to change, and I work on doing those. And I think we can continue to grow and be better people every single day. And you're living proof of that. I mean, you just constantly are trying to better yourself, better your program, and help the people that are listening to you better themselves. Sing it, please, because people think that I'm being arrogant. I just...
• 33:56
  I've lived both sides of the life, and I want everybody in this world to wake up every single morning the way that I wake up and love their life and happy. And I watch, you wrote here, learn from their mistakes. As a judge, you know that most don't. And that's the saddest part about this, and that's why I'm gonna scream every day until I take my last breath. Guys, this is an internal battle. You're not facing it alone. Success has helped.
• 34:22
  So we're here. That's why programs like ours exist. That's why harder than life exists. But you're not alone. And it's just, oh, my God, life is so good. I just can't tell you enough. I'm being sober and clean and facing things. It's so much easier. And I don't have to wake up and wonder where my car is or what I did last night.
• 34:48
  Saved a lot of money. So I really want everybody to understand that we do need to learn from our mistakes. A mistake repeated several times is a habit. And we have to break those habits. And that's how you break addiction. It becomes a habit.
• 35:06
  Right. I think they say in in treatment facilities, if you keep doing the same thing over and over again and it's not working, you need to change what you're doing to get a different result. And I think that's true across everything that deals with addiction is that with treatment facilities, if we're doing the same thing over and over again, it's not working. We need to change what we're doing. Our jail system, if we're arresting people over and over again and it's not working, we need to change what we're doing.
• 35:34
  I think that's kind of a good model for everything is if you're not happy with where you're at, you need to look at what you're doing on a routine basis and you need to change it up. What therapy do you think would you recommend for young people? Is it just talk therapy? Or if you think you may have an issue but you're not sure, what should that person do?
• 35:59
  I run into them all the time. That's why I ask you that. People are like, well, I only drink on these days and I only take Adderall when I have to get a job done. When do you know that it might be misaligned and what can you do? Well, clearly when you wake up in the morning and you're thinking about, you know, what
• 36:19
  if you're gonna drink that day or if you're gonna take a pill that day, you're well on your way to a problem. Well hold on, how about if you need it to do it? Nothing in life requires you to drink or take a pill. There's nothing. No, there's not. And so, you know, if you, other than if you have a true illness that you're taking medication for, I want to stress that because I don't want people that are taking legitimate medication to feel bad for that. But,
• 36:48
  You know, I think that when your life begins to change and starts being centered around the drinking and centered around the taking of pills, that's when things are doing it. And when your self-identity is like you had said, I was drinking Kelly and everybody liked to be around that guy. You know, usually only other people that are drinking want to be around that guy.
• 37:10
  You know, and so those aren't your true friends. But I think that you just have to really look at your life. And is it affecting you? Are you thinking about it too much? Is this how you're getting through the day? And if it is, then you've got a problem. Yeah, I interviewed Amanda Kudo. She wrote the book on bottled potential. And she said, if you have to drink to make something fun, it probably just isn't fun.
• 37:35
  Right. So I take that for drugs, too. If you need drugs, drink it or drugs. I just ain't fun. Yeah. Yeah. People self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. And that means that they're uncomfortable in a social situation. And so they think that's going to make them feel normal in that situation.
• 37:54
  I have a friend and her daughter suffers from alcohol use disorder. And she was like you. She was a life of the party. I mean, always like over the top, hard to be around. She was so over the top. And we went out one time and she said she wanted to stop drinking. And I said, you know, you and I have sat for hours talking today and you haven't made me laugh once. And I have enjoyed this conversation more than any conversation I've ever had with you because it's the first time you've let me see you.
• 38:24
  And I just think that that's where you really start changing. When you're using drugs or alcohol to be something that you're not, you probably have a lot of really wonderful qualities. You're just not letting people see them and share them with you. And so you need to learn how to be vulnerable. Yeah.
• 38:44
  That's why it's called a mask and a crutch. Man, do I know those days. And I got to tell you that that's, oh, man, you're speaking my heart today. There are so many more questions I have. Let me think about where we want to go with the rest. Don't forget, follow.
• 39:02
  FaceAddictionNow.org. At FaceAddictionNow on Instagram. Everybody's on Instagram now, Judge. I'm old. Yeah, FaceAddictionNow.org if you want to know more. You guys, I'm on the board. DM me. I'll connect you with the programs. And, you know, we have the Heart of the Life Coaching Program, which will help you through most of this. A lot of this stuff, I believe...
• 39:25
  can be confident stuff too, because what you're doing is you're drinking and doing drugs to build false confidence. And it's false confidence. People are the right people are going to love you no matter what. And you don't want people to love you because you're a drinker do drugs. That's not the right people you want around you. So it was a great question I had here and I freaking lost it.
• 39:49
  While you're thinking of it, I just wanted to tell people, too, that if you are suffering from substance use disorder or alcohol use disorder, we deal with anything that involves a substance. You can call our HOPE line, which is 1-833-202-HOPE or 4673. That's 833-202-4673. And we can connect you right by the phone to services if you need them.
• 40:18
  I've never heard of any programs like this, and I'm so honored to be a part of this, and I gotta tell you, it's just, it's awesome to sit in our meetings and how spirited and how everybody cares. And it's different, all different walks of life, so.
• 40:32
  Yeah, about 98% of our employees have lived experiences, either a family member that has experienced this with a loved one or they are in the recovery themselves. And so when you call, you're not just getting somebody answering a phone, you're getting somebody that actually has been where you're at and really knows what you're going through. And that makes all the difference in the world.
• 40:54
  You know, a big thing about charities too nowadays, or nonprofits, let's call it, is how much of the money goes back to the actual programs. And that drew me to this organization. What is that? What is the percent of every dollar? About 86% of everything that we get goes to programming. But even our administrative staff, I mean, I'm not above going to a police department to meet somebody
• 41:21
  or answering a phone and helping somebody access treatment. Even our administrative teams work boots on the ground. We are everywhere helping people wherever the need is. And so, you know, we all call ourselves working administrators because we're not just sitting back making decisions. We actually get involved in the work that takes place. If you could change one major aspect of how society views addiction today, what would it be and why?
• 41:51
  look at it as though it's a disease because when people have diseases we treat them compassionately and thoughtfully and we make sure that they have a continuum of care that ensures their success in beating that disease and don't judge people if the disease comes back. We don't do that with cancer or diabetes or any other disease. This is a disease that
• 42:16
  can reoccur. You know, if you let your guard down, same thing like with cancer, you, you can get cancer again by doing nothing wrong. You know, the same thing is true with addiction. And so we just need to treat this more compassionately and realize that people are not bad people that suffer from substance use disorder. They are sick people that need treatment. We can all stand to be a lot more compassionate in life. We tend to judge
• 42:45
  others on their actions and ourselves on our intentions. So compassion is king. Kindness is queen. I know you've seen this, but I want to reiterate this. I've seen a lot of this. When you call it disease, it's dis ease. If you really think about it, that's what this is all about. It's there's uneasiness. So I need something. If we can just sit in that, uh,
• 43:12
  dis-ease. It won't become a disease. And I've been watching a lot of that lately and I'm like, oh, that's really good. What is the most rewarding aspect of your work at Face Addiction Now?
• 43:28
  Um, the stories, I mean, we get people writing us letters constantly about how their life has changed once they found fan. Um, and that's the most report working thing to me is people see people that were once living homeless and intense and now are going to college and doing wonderful things with their life is just seeing the growth of human beings that grab hold of their life and do things a different way is just incredibly rewarding.
• 43:57
  Thank you for sharing that. We talked about the Fall Fest fundraiser on October 1st. Where is it?
• 44:04
  Exactly. And the tickets are available on our website, right? They are available on the website. Where is it? It's in Michigan, obviously. But yeah, it's in Macomb County on 25 mile in Van Dyke at the Palazzo Grande. It's an amazing event. All of our fundraisers obviously are to raise money, but they're also to really let you walk out knowing more than when you walked in about this. And so this is unlike any fundraiser you'll go to because it really will hit you in the heart.
• 44:33
  And we really share our successes with the community. And that's really an amazing thing to see. We are told constantly it's one of the best fundraisers that people have ever gone to. Well, I went last year and...
• 44:48
  Here I am a year later on the board and then watch what I do in the next year. We are this close to blowing this brand up. And the goal is to donate a million dollars to charity every year. And one of them is face addiction now. So we're doing our small part right now, but buying a table, coming and doing the podcast and creating awareness and everything we can. This is very passionate to me. I mean, I grew up in this.
• 45:12
  Judge, I think I told you this, but I'm not sure, but most of my friends are either dead, or from high school, I went to Lincoln, Warren Lincoln, are dead or in jail. And it's from addiction. That's what we knew. You grew up just off of 8 Mile, and your friends were just party animals. And we're all party animals. I remember getting into fights and
• 45:37
  I can't believe I'm not dead or in jail, all the stupid things I've been in. So, um, yeah. And that's true for like your age group. Um, it's really amazing, but my daughter knows more people, her age that have died than I know that are my age that have passed away. Um, and it's all from substance use disorder. Guys, death is a real thing. We can fix anything but death. And I've said it a thousand times, man. Ooh, this is real. That, that just, that hurts my heart. Um,
• 46:05
  All right, a couple more questions. We'll get you out of here. Thank you for coming this morning, making this long trek. And I just love being a part of this. I love everything you're doing. And thank you for being you. Who has been the biggest inspiration or mentor in your journey of advocating for those impacted by addiction?
• 46:22
  Um, this is probably a strange answer, but I think it was the people that were negative about substance use disorder that prodded me to get involved the most. You know, it's like, I, I don't look to any one person that has really inspired my attitudes about this. What inspired my attitudes were the people that didn't care.
• 46:44
  And that's why I'm a part of this because you tell me I can't do something. I'm going to, it only motivates me. Impossible only describes a degree of difficulty. You and I are cut from the same cloth and I, I, Ooh, man, does that mode? Negativity does have a place and it has, it's a motivator for me. And that's why I was laughing. I'm like, I'm sick and twisted, but that's what harder than life is all about. If you, if you could leave us with one piece of advice, what would it be?
• 47:10
  Donate to fan. Hey, come to the party. Come to the party. Hey, that's my job is to raise money for the organization. But in all honesty, get involved. You know, there's such a need for volunteers. If you're in long-term recovery, we need you. We're always hiring peer coaches that...
• 47:28
  can work with individuals. If you have military experience, we work with military people and like to give life experiences, like experiences to them. So get involved. And if you can't give of your time, give of your money. Because we do things like we pay for sober living for individuals. A lot of people, why there's a revolving door is they go into treatment when they come out.
• 47:52
  there's not a safe environment for them to go live in. And so we pay for rent for up to a month for an individual while we're working on getting them a job so that they're not just part of that revolving door system. And so all of the money we collect go to help directly to services, help house people, help feed people.
• 48:12
  I help pay transportation for people who most people that have been using drugs for a long time don't own a car. And so they have no way to get to treatment and to their their follow up appointments. And so all of that money that we collect go directly to help individuals that can't help themselves.
• 48:33
  I just want to leave, wrap this up again, follow at face addiction. Now on Instagram, donate face addiction. Now.org and come to family fall fest. And on October 1st, there's other events that happen. You'll see them all over my Instagram. Now I'm a part of this. I'm really, really proud of your daughter. I'm really proud of you. Thank you for being here.
• 48:56
  who you are. And I got to tell you, since you stepped up on that stage last year and you, and I just could feel your love. There was almost a thousand people in the room and I could feel your love and passion. And that is contagious and it's doing good. So continue to do what you do. I love you. I appreciate you. I thank you guys. Thanks for playing along today. And thanks for listening to heart of the life. Thanks Kelly.
• 49:27
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with. Delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.