This podcast started with a question I couldn't answer.

I know what it feels like to be lost. Not metaphorically — genuinely, deeply lost. I've sat with addiction, with purposelessness, with the kind of quiet despair that doesn't announce itself. And I've also sat on the other side of it, not because I found some magic answer, but because I kept moving forward and being as honest as I knew how with myself and others.

I started this podcast because I couldn't find the conversation I needed. Every resource felt clinical, or preachy, or written for someone else. I wanted something honest. Something that would meet me where I was — not where someone thought I should be.

So I made it. For the teenager who doesn't know how to say they're struggling. For the adult who thought they'd have it figured out by now. For anyone in recovery who needs to hear that the path forward is real, even when it's invisible.  When people think about addiction, they usually think alcoholism and drugs.  The roots of addiction are far more pervasive than just those.  One way of looking at addiction is  any frequently used behavior that changes the way you feel - often used when you know you should be doing something else.  Shopping, cell phones, social media, sex, reading, exercise, and many more activities fall into the category of potential addictions.  When you use things like these as coping skills to change the way you are feeling rather than address the source of the unease - you are placing a road block on the path to serenity.  These behaviors are certainly not intrinsically bad, but as the saying goes - too much salt is bad for you.  If they are used to run away from your feelings, perhaps that is worth thinking about.