Restoring Faith and Hope in Families Facing Addiction with Lori Bolen

Across the wide array of people in need of coaches, today marks the first opportunity to speak on the dangerous nature of addiction with Lori Bolen, who having experienced first-hand the problematic nature of substance addiction found her true calling as a Family Recovery Coach with her website, buildingbridgestorecovery.org

In this episode, we delve into the difficult discussion of addiction and how it manifests uniquely in our current time of 2023, though the subject matter is far from temporary. We discuss the differences and similarities in substances and processes, instilling hope even in the most despairing of circumstances and how faith matters to each of us but in unique ways.

Find Lori online

buildingbridgestorecovery.org

Find us online

https://impactfulcoachingpodcast.com/

2:48 what Lori does, as it relates to helping families deal with a loved one undergoing a problematic, intrusive substance abuse that prevents them from meeting their daily responsibilities. There is a difference between substances and processes.

7:17 How addiction looks different in 2023, both how substances of an addictive nature have changed but also how awareness has allowed us to resist previous ones like cigarettes and more recently alcohol

10:42 We talk about the feel-good chemical dopamine that we access through ill-gotten means as well as positive ones like exercise. Processes are embedded into our social fabric.

14:32 Joseph observes that over time, we have been able to mitigate the social acceptance of certain addictions and that the internet is providing enough information to counterbalance all the substances and processes we can addict ourselves to

16:00 We work on destigmatizing, Lori is a proponent of “person first language” a “person” with a disorder etc.

22:12 Its difficult to sometimes see people in despair and chaotic use as people, as we can feel threatened by them

26:53 Lori’s backstory is, as she puts it, truly a lifelong one. She recalls her first memory and how it impacted her growing up.

34:42: Joseph asks Lori about some of her challenges early on.

36:10 Joseph asks Lori if she’s had personal experience with proactive cases, where family members / spouses observed usage that could lead to a crisis state in a loved one.

42:38 After a brief discussion on the nature of faith, Joseph asks Lori how do we restore faith in times of such despair?

49:22 Lori’s challenges include tracking on social media, she feels like it’s a moving target.

51:06 Joseph asks about how to de-stigmatize addiction, we don't want to co-opt addiction in to a positive point of view, but we do acknowledge the impactful potential of positive, habitual reinforcement.