Substance Misuse Makes Perfect Sense: Redefining Addiction and Recovery, with Adam Sud

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When I heard today’s guest on another (seemingly unrelated) podcast, I immediately wanted to bring his wisdom and perspective to the listeners of Hopestream. 

After years of stimulant and other substance abuse, Adam Sud tried to take his own life with an overdose - which thankfully failed. In the decade that followed that pivotal event, he became a behavioral wellness nutrition expert, international speaker, and the founder and CEO of a nonprofit that studies how nutrition impacts mental health and addiction.

I began this interview wanting to bring you a conversation more specifically about food and nutrition, but once we got started, it was clear that Adam had SO MUCH MORE to share – about the core motivations and behaviors connected to substance misuse. 

He’s full of truths that are sometimes hard to hear but are invaluable to help parents understand what their kids are going through, how to be an active part of their recovery, and, importantly, how not to sabotage it.

This episode is long, but that’s because it’s full of gems that I couldn’t bury in the editing room. Over the course of this conversation, we discuss:

• Why we must understand how it “makes perfect sense” to misuse drugs and alcohol 
• The evolutionary programming that leaves humans susceptible to addiction
• Why we should never ask, “Why won’t you stop?” and what to ask instead
• How food both fueled and healed Adam’s addictive patterns
• How the notion of willpower has become a trap
• Why Adam believes the word “recovery” shouldn’t be defined as “an absence of substances”

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• INFINITE Study about the benefits of a plant-based diet in addiction recovery
• Adam Sud's website
• Rip Esselstyn, PlantStrong
• Doug Lisle, Ph.D., Author, The Pleasure Trap
• Doug Lisle, Ph.D. Ted Talk
• Plant Based for Positive Change (Adam’s nonprofit organization)
• Johan Hari Ted Talk (Rat Park Experiment)

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
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