A Recovery Journey with Veronica Silva
10/31/22 • 33 min
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Rev. Veronica Silva, a New Thought minister and a nurse who has struggled with alcoholism since she was young, but who has been in recovery for 26 years.
Veronica has been on a spiritual journey since June 24th, 1996, when she got sober from alcohol and drugs. She has had a passion for spirituality as a result of attending AA meetings and finding a God of her understanding. She is SO passionate about God that she recently became a Minister in 2020 - right in the middle of the pandemic. She is a true believer in going right into the discomfort of life to free ourselves from our suffering. She is a registered nurse and works at a cardiac procedures unit and loves helping others during their times of fear and anxiety.
Here at Safe Home, one of our biggest priorities is to destigmatize addiction and mental health, so by hearing stories from people like Veronica, we are able to humanize addiction, find commonalities, and discover the way others have found their healing path.
===============
💌 Sign up for our Safe Home Families email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX
===============
RESOURCES:
Veronica’s information:
- Email: [email protected] r
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
- Namasté Center for Spiritual Living: https://namastecsl.org/
Other Resources:
- Other Parents Like Me - https://www.facebook.com/other.parents.like.me
- Heather Ross - Life Coaching for Parents of Addicted Teens: https://heatherrosscoaching.com/
- Find a Tele-Therapist: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/online-counseling
===============
Safe Home is created by Joseph Nakao and Beth Syverson
Music written and performed by Joseph Nakao
Cover art by Joseph Nakao, photo by Beth Syverson
Email questions or comments to Safe Home at [email protected]
Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
Support Safe Home on Patreon: Patreon.com/SafeHome
===============
TIME STAMPS:
1:40 Veronica’s childhood and early introduction to alcohol
3:16 Spinning all the plates during high school, self-medicating for anxiety
4:38 Unconscious intergenerational rage and machismo
7:30 How spirituality helped Veronica
9:50 Being a young mom in recovery and later supporting her son in recovery
13:22 Tools that helped Veronica with the initial stages of recovery
16:30 Stay-at-home drunk
17:33 Going back to school to become a nurse
19:12 Another new career as a minister
20:20 Veronica’s advice for family or friends of addicted people, setting boundaries with love
22:19 High-functioning alcoholics
24:25 Alcohol’s prevalence in our culture
25:34 Meditation as a recovery tool
27:25 Learning how to set boundaries, resentment as a boundary indicator
29:05 Each personal growth journey looks different for everyone, just take a step any direction
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/safe-home-podcast/message
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Rev. Veronica Silva, a New Thought minister and a nurse who has struggled with alcoholism since she was young, but who has been in recovery for 26 years.
Veronica has been on a spiritual journey since June 24th, 1996, when she got sober from alcohol and drugs. She has had a passion for spirituality as a result of attending AA meetings and finding a God of her understanding. She is SO passionate about God that she recently became a Minister in 2020 - right in the middle of the pandemic. She is a true believer in going right into the discomfort of life to free ourselves from our suffering. She is a registered nurse and works at a cardiac procedures unit and loves helping others during their times of fear and anxiety.
Here at Safe Home, one of our biggest priorities is to destigmatize addiction and mental health, so by hearing stories from people like Veronica, we are able to humanize addiction, find commonalities, and discover the way others have found their healing path.
===============
💌 Sign up for our Safe Home Families email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX
===============
RESOURCES:
Veronica’s information:
- Email: [email protected] r
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
- Namasté Center for Spiritual Living: https://namastecsl.org/
Other Resources:
- Other Parents Like Me - https://www.facebook.com/other.parents.like.me
- Heather Ross - Life Coaching for Parents of Addicted Teens: https://heatherrosscoaching.com/
- Find a Tele-Therapist: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/online-counseling
===============
Safe Home is created by Joseph Nakao and Beth Syverson
Music written and performed by Joseph Nakao
Cover art by Joseph Nakao, photo by Beth Syverson
Email questions or comments to Safe Home at [email protected]
Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
Support Safe Home on Patreon: Patreon.com/SafeHome
===============
TIME STAMPS:
1:40 Veronica’s childhood and early introduction to alcohol
3:16 Spinning all the plates during high school, self-medicating for anxiety
4:38 Unconscious intergenerational rage and machismo
7:30 How spirituality helped Veronica
9:50 Being a young mom in recovery and later supporting her son in recovery
13:22 Tools that helped Veronica with the initial stages of recovery
16:30 Stay-at-home drunk
17:33 Going back to school to become a nurse
19:12 Another new career as a minister
20:20 Veronica’s advice for family or friends of addicted people, setting boundaries with love
22:19 High-functioning alcoholics
24:25 Alcohol’s prevalence in our culture
25:34 Meditation as a recovery tool
27:25 Learning how to set boundaries, resentment as a boundary indicator
29:05 Each personal growth journey looks different for everyone, just take a step any direction
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/safe-home-podcast/message
Previous Episode
More Than Sex Ed with Emmalinda MacLean - Ep 64
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Emmalinda MacLean, co-founder of More Than Sex-Ed, a Los Angeles-based non-profit whose mission is to nourish healthy development through honest conversation about sex. She is the Director of Curriculum & Instruction at More Than Sex-Ed plus she wrote a children’s book around the topic of consent called “Everybody, Every Body!” In case you couldn’t guess, this episode will talk openly about sexual topics, so this episode might not be safe for work.
===============
💌 Sign up for our Safe Home Families email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX
===============
RESOURCES:
Emmalinda’s information:
- More Than Sex-Ed website: www.morethansex-ed.org
- Emmalinda’s children’s book Everybody, Every Body! https://www.morethansex-ed.org/bookstore
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morethansex_ed/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morethansxed/
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
- Unitarian Universalist Our Whole Lives programs: https://www.uua.org/re/owl
- Consent PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gQriYaFDc05goL_A0qMOYqugby3kxSzv/view?usp=sharing
Other Resources:
- Other Parents Like Me - https://www.facebook.com/other.parents.like.me
- Heather Ross - Life Coaching for Parents of Addicted Teens: https://heatherrosscoaching.com/
===============
Safe Home is created by Joseph Nakao and Beth Syverson
Email questions or comments to Safe Home at [email protected]
Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
Support Safe Home on Patreon: Patreon.com/SafeHome
===============
TIME STAMPS:
1:42 How Emmalinda landed a career in sex ed
4:24 Gender diversity is NOT a new thing
7:21 Parental backlash?
8:22 Beth’s sex ed experience at church
10:33 Teaching consent
12:00 Questions about “gay sex”
14:00 What is sex?
15:52 Can parents rely on school or church to teach about sex?
17:53 Don’t Freak Out!
19:33 Acknowledging pleasure reduces victimization
20:25 At what age can kids start learning about sex?
22:30 The topic of menstruation and Turning Red
25:23 How does gaming and social media affect our kids?
27:30 What’s the deal about furries?
30:18 Anonymous question box and porn
33:31 What about sexting?
35:19 What should parents do regarding phones?
36:03 How the fall of Roe will affect our teens
39:19 Emmalinda’s best piece of advice for parent
42:10 LGBTQ+ identities
44:00 What services does More Than Sex-Ed provide?
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/safe-home-podcast/messageNext Episode
Chronic Suicidality with Frank King - Ep 66
**TRIGGER WARNING** This episode will be talking directly about suicide, so this might not be for everyone to listen to right now. But we at Safe Home believe this is a very important topic so we hope you’ll listen when it’s safe for you to do so.
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Frank King, a comedian who wrote for The Tonight Show for over 20 years and who performs standup worldwide. Along the way, he focused his creative attention on the topic of mental health, and specifically suicidality. Now known as the Mental Health Comedian, he talks openly about his own suicidality and, using humor as a tool to open up the conversation, he informs people about suicide prevention, destigmatizes mental illness, and helps people feel seen and heard. He has a few wonderful TED Talks: including A Matter of Laugh or Death, Mental with Benefits, and Born To Be Funny.
===============
💌 Sign up for our Safe Home Families email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX
===============
RESOURCES:
Frank’s information:
- Frank’s website: https://www.thementalhealthcomedian.com/
- Frank’s Tedx Talk “A Matter of Laugh or Death”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBUXND5BD4M&t=967s
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
- Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 988 - or text HELP to 741741 -https://988lifeline.org/
- The Message of You: Turn Your Life Story into a Money-Making Speaking Career by Judy Carter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250007100
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - free resources: https://www.nami.org/
===============
Safe Home is created by Joseph Nakao and Beth Syverson
Music written and performed by Joseph Nakao
Cover art by Joseph Nakao, photo by Beth Syverson
Email questions or comments to Safe Home at [email protected]
Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
Support Safe Home on Patreon: Patreon.com/SafeHome
===============
TIME STAMPS:
1:30 Frank explains creating a career from comedy about suicide
7:48 Vulnerability is Frank’s superpower
9:58 Dentists, veterinarians, and construction workers have the highest incidence of suicide deaths
11:17 Frank’s mental illnesses - Major Depressive Disorder and Chronic Suicidality
15:35 Mental with Benefits - what if mental illness is a desirable disadvantage?
17:30 Frank’s self-care plan - 5 daily requirements to maintain his mental health
20:40 Suicide prevention tips
22:20 Does talking about suicide make it more likely someone would attempt suicide?
23:48 We’re not saying “commit suicide” anymore - what do we call it now?
25:08 The new 988 suicide prevention lifeline
28:02 **TRIGGER WARNING** Frank’s intergenerational depression and suicide stories
32:09 Sugar addiction as a long-term death sentence
33:15 Ambivalence about suicide means most people can be saved from suicide; what are the warning signs?
36:33 Lock up your medications, parents!!
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/safe-home-podcast/message
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/unraveling-adoption-286047/a-recovery-journey-with-veronica-silva-36508849"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to a recovery journey with veronica silva on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy