Just Dan

05/15/14 • 20 min

Over 23 million Americans struggle with a substance use disorder, which is roughly equal to the population of Texas. There are many stories in the media dedicated to the horrors and downfall of addiction, but the stories of people actually getting to long term recovery don't often receive the same level of attention. This is one man's story of moving to the other side.

Previous Episode

Borderline

In this episode, we talked with Samb and his wife, Mary. Samb struggled with an undiagnosed case of Borderline Personality disorder until his 40's. To his friends and those who knew him, Samb was intelligent, funny, a skilled craftsman, and an all around superb guy. But there was a dark side. Most people never saw this side of him that included intense shifts in mood and affect, usually toward anger and rage. When these intense shifts in mood set in, Samb said it was like driving down a highway and hitting a wall of torrential rain. There is little to no warning of what's coming and he was completely captive to it. Samb did his best to hold it all in and never became violent, but the guilt and depression that followed an outburst became too much to bear. Mary noticed Samb's habits of reclusiveness and inner turmoil. This story is about how they journeyed through this confusion, found clarity, and got help.

Next Episode

Loss & Suffering

In this episode, we examine the nature of suffering and how we cope with it. Dr. Steven Hayes, the developer of Acceptance and Commmitment Therapy and one of the foremost psychologists in the world, talks about what we can find when we open ourselves to fully experience the grief and suffering in our personal histories. In our current age of what he termed the "syndromization of human suffering," Dr. Hayes' story speaks of a more compassionate, less labeling approach toward the unavoidable tragedies we experience, and the anxiety of simply being human. Parallel to Dr. Hayes' story, we talk with someone close to the creators of In Session, about a type of loss that too often lives in silence.