193: Separating Yourself from Addiction with Tish Marsh

There’s always shame and guilt attached to addiction. But once you get to the other side of addiction, it’s going to be better than the life you had before. One of the mindset shifts important in recovery is being able to separate yourself from the addiction. Addiction is a chronic disease, it’s not a moral failing. Therefore, you should learn not to take it personally.

On today’s episode, Duane speaks with Tish Marsh who shares her own struggle with opioid addiction that started after she had some medical procedures. Tish was a high-functioning addict that as a pharmacist, she still managed to work with drugs daily. But she reckons her profession was also instrumental to her recovery.

Listen in as Tish also talks about her YouTube channel, Ask Pharmacist Tish, where she interviews the homeless community and advocates for mental health and addiction treatment and support. Her purpose is to expose the addiction and mental health issues that need to be treated so people can ultimately get out of homelessness.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Her addiction and recovery story
• How addiction gets you to a survival mode
• How being a pharmacist helped her with her addiction
• Understanding the science behind the addiction
• Homelessness and addiction
• Talking to the homeless, hearing their stories, and validating their pain

Key Quotes:

[09:30] - "If you don't have those medications or whatever you're addicted to… everything is tunnel vision… Everything is about survival. You're in survival mode.”

[10:12] - "Because I was a pharmacist, that helped me separate the addiction from myself... understanding it was the nature of the beast.”

[11:02] - "It doesn't matter who you are, addiction will grab you. And if you don't know how to wrestle with it, it's going to pull you down with it.”

[17:10] - "With addiction, you get so embarrassed...know what the drugs are... don't take it personally. Back away from the stigma."

[25:48] - "My purpose is to expose or to bring to the surface the mental health that needs to be treated, and the addiction that needs to be treated from that to get out of the homelessness."

[30:56] - "There's life on the other end of that and you're still alive. You still have a purpose."

[31:58] - "Don't take it personally. It's a chronic disease. It's not a moral failing. Get a purpose, do something else. This addiction is lame, do something else."

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If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.

Supporting Resources:

NovusMindfulLife.com

YouTube: Ask Pharmacist Trish: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbJGHpudhkX3JPrfED2U9fg

Episode Credits

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