Connection Is The Cure
This weeks episode the Agents of Recovery discussed the Connection is the Cure movement. Coinciding with this Thursday's concert in Mesa, Arizona hosted by Victory recovery, Max Hall and Brock Bevell. Listen as the Agents discuss why connection is so important and how to get involved in your own community.
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What is a Pain Threshold?
In this week's episode, The Agents discuss the emotional pain threshold. While in active addiction we can pretend our painful feelings don’t exist. We do our best to ignore them. We can judge and resist them. And so many of us do because we think that this will soften the blow. This will help us bypass the discomfort of our hurt, sorrow, agony, anger, and anxiety. We assume the feelings will just go away (and they might, but only temporarily). Listen and discover why it is important to heal these feelings and increase your experience on the path of recovery.
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Medication Assisted Treatment: Solution or Substitution?
In this week's podcast, the Agents take a deep dive into the MAT (Medication Assisted Treatment) method of addiction recovery. Blu offers his thoughts as Max and Brock take another look. Despite the viewpoints, they offer the listener a better path to understanding this path to recovery. The term medication-assisted treatment refers to the use of medication as part of the treatment plan for those with substance use disorders. This form of treatment is intended to be used in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies. For those in treatment for opiate use, MATs either work as opioid agonists or antagonists. In other words, they either produce the effect of an opioid in some capacity or block the effect of the opioid completely.
Those against the use of medication-assisted treatment generally make two arguments. The first argument is that certain MATs have the potential to be abused because they do, after all, produce the effect of opioids in some cases. The second is that abstinence should always be advocated first following along with the idea that if someone really wants to abstain from drugs they will seek forms of treatment that do not include taking more drugs. In many cases, physicians apply the “fail first” criteria when considering medication-assisted treatment, meaning they try other therapies and keep MAT as a last resort option.
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Powerful Questions
This week we continue answering listeners' questions. Listen as the agents discuss their thoughts on the topics you the listener have had. Max, Brock, and Blu take deep dives so you can gain your own understanding of this new way of life in recovery.
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Have You Hit Rock Bottom & Self Harming Behaviors
In this week's episode, the agents of recovery take listener questions. Listen as they explore what truly is rock bottom and how is it established. A rock bottom is defined as the lowest point by which an individual can go in their addiction before they seek to change. The agents also discuss the sensitive topic of self-harm and take a deep dive into the reasons, significance, and processes by which healing can occur.
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WE ARE THE TROOPS
On this week's podcast the Agents of Recovery take a deep dive into the current circumstances we find ourselves in, from the overwhelming epidemic of overdose to the tragedy of gun violence. Listen as the agents discuss their thoughts on what needs to be done in order to sync the rhythm of life back into the hearts of you, the agents of recovery. We know that the troops are not coming, that we are the troops to be able to address the overdose crisis, and recovery needs and help others become and stay sober. Thus, we need your help to be the beacon of light, to be willing to use your talents, time, and resources to help those in need. It is a call to action, to create a more excellent way for us to lean upon one another through support, healing, and ultimately love.
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Say Something
This episode the agents discuss some sensitive issues pertaining to heartbreaking circumstances that Coach Blu has experienced and things that Brock has come to understand. Listen as they describe action-oriented interactions and how crucial they could be in assisting individuals in overcoming adversity, assisting in the healing heart, and ultimately seeking forgiveness.
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How to Talk to Your Teen About Drugs
The Agents discuss the best way to start a conversation with your teen about drugs and alcohol and why it is important. Substance misuse in adolescents happens quite often, yet how parents respond can be vital on if a child continues to use or not. We know teens need structure to stay safe. Listen as they discuss building relationships before rules. It is crucial to have clear rules about drugs and alcohol. You can’t guarantee that your rules won’t be broken. But research shows that kids who have clear rules, even if they’re broken, are less likely to get into serious trouble than kids who don’t. It can be hard to know what to say. Don’t surprise kids with a big talk. Instead, let your child know you want to have a conversation about drinking and drugs. Be clear about rules and specific about what will happen if kids break them. Kids do best when they know what to expect.
Why Do Addicts Lie?
On this week's podcast, The Agents of Recovery take a deep dive into the reasons addicts lie. As you know, addictions of any kind can change the person you love and once trusted into someone you don’t recognize. Lying becomes a defense mechanism and this behavior continues even in the face of negative consequences. It’s hard to understand how a loved one, who may have been honest before their addiction, has now become an accomplished liar. They often feel shocked and betrayed as their loved one is caught in lie after lie. This is an episode not to be missed. Education and understanding of the behavior can help you and your loved ones.
To Thine Own Self Be True
When faced with your past and hoping for a brighter future, you need to look at yourself in the now. When seeking your true self, there will always be problems or obstacles that come up and hold you back. Pressure from your past influences is often the root cause that leads people down lives paths they don’t enjoy, so be true to yourself. You are worth it!
The Verdict: Tyler Skaggs
This week's episode of the Agents of Recovery, they speak on the sad story of Tyler Skaggs, pitcher for the Anaheim Angels who passed away from a drug overdose. On Thursday, a jury in a federal courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, found former Angels communications official Eric Kay, guilty of distributing the counterfeit, fentanyl-laced pills that led to Skaggs’ death and of conspiracy to possess pills with intent to distribute.
Listen as the agents discuss the sad situation on both sides of this unfortunate situation.
Is That A Trigger
This week's podcast focuses on triggers we face and how to handle them. The journey from addiction to recovery is full of many ups and downs. If you have managed to acquire some sober time, you are aware that the journey is full of productive, easy sailing days as well as days when you feel you can barely make it through. Triggers are the most common obstacles that can deter an individual from their recovery and sometimes lead to relapse.
Controversial Questions
In this week's episode, the agents of recovery discuss five controversial questions that seem to still be unanswered and misrepresented by many people. Listen as the agents discuss their thoughts on how come so many misconceptions of recovery, a person seeking sobriety and the way the public perceives them is still very biased.
Something Wicked This Way Comes; What is Fentanyl?
In this week's episode, the Agents take a deep dive into a problem we are not ready for, the Fentanyl epidemic. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. It is both a prescribed drug, as well as a drug that is at times made and used illegally.
Like morphine, prescription fentanyl is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, especially after surgery. It is also sometimes used to treat patients with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to other opioids. When prescribed by a doctor, fentanyl can be given as a shot, a patch that is put on a person’s skin, or as lozenges that are sucked like cough drops.
Fentanyl that is illegally manufactured is dangerous. It is made without the quality controls of pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl and is a major contributor to recent increases in synthetic opioid overdose deaths. This illegally manufactured fentanyl is sold illegally as a powder, dropped onto blotter paper, put in eye droppers and nasal sprays, or made into counterfeit pills that look like other prescription opioids.
Importantly, fentanyl is also being mixed with other drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA. This is especially risky when people taking drugs don’t realize that the drugs they are using might contain fentanyl and significantly increase their risk for overdose death.
A person can easily overdose on fentanyl. An overdose occurs when a drug produces serious adverse effects and life-threatening symptoms. Death from an opioid overdose happens when the drug depresses the parts of the brain that control breathing.
Fentanyl is addictive because of its potency. A person taking prescription fentanyl as instructed by a doctor can still experience dependence, which is characterized by withdrawal symptoms when the drug is stopped. A person can be dependent on a substance without being addicted, but dependence can sometimes lead to addiction.
Let's Get Real About Fentanyl
In this week's episode, the agents of recovery discuss the fentanyl epidemic and get very personal with their insights, thoughts, and perceptions on how their recovery and pursuit of sobriety have changed their lives. This podcast takes a very deep principle-based direction with an open conversation that is humbling at best.
Mentally Fit
In this week's episode, the Agents discuss mental health fitness and methods to keep your recovery on track despite the outside stresses of life. Healthy affirmation, or talking to yourself in a positive way, involves strengthening neural pathways to bring your self-confidence, well-being, and satisfaction to a higher level. It's time to increase your mental toughness.
Take Your Mark, It's 2022
In this week's podcast, the Agents of Recovery discuss the principles behind goal attainment. Deeper than simply choosing a New Year's resolution, the agents discuss the foundations of how to achieve goals by looking at the principles found within. This is a podcast loaded with amazing content that will assist you in taking your mark to start your 2022 off with a growth mindset.
It's Your Resistance To What Is
On this week's podcast, the Agents of Recovery discuss it is your resistance to what is, that is causing most of the struggles in your life. Listen as they review how to overcome adversity, where to pull strength from, and how to endure until the end to begin the journey all over. This inspirational podcast will help you overcome addiction, mental health challenges, and trauma. Max Hall NFL, Brock Bevell, former law enforcement, and Blu Robinson mental health therapist are the Agents of Recovery.
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Producing a Winning Recovery Plan
In this week’s episode, the agents of recovery discussed making personal plays in recovery. Going beyond the recovery playbook you've been establishing, this podcast focuses on your individuality of making plays to benefit your long-term recovery in the moment, adjusting when necessary, and repeating the process. Listen to the real talk as they discuss the importance of a relapse prevention plan and the situation that sometimes forces us to the sidelines but inevitably will lead us back into the field of life if we make proper choices.
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Making Plays For Recovery
If you want to capitalize on your sobriety you must follow your game plan. Recovering from addiction is more than simply abstaining from using alcohol or drugs. Recovery requires continuous growth, change, and an improved sense of self, and establishing a personal game plan. Additionally, living in recovery means that the individual needs to continuously reflect on their actions as well as their impacts.
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