Elijah got clean at just 21 years old and never went back.

Seventeen years later, however, he learned that staying clean doesn’t mean life stops falling apart.

In this episode of Never Alone Never Again, Elijah opens up about a childhood marked by abuse, neglect, abandonment and trauma. He began using at a young age and eventually progressed to cocaine and methamphetamine, finding himself headed down the same destructive path he had watched growing up.

Today, despite having 17 years clean, Elijah is open about the fact that life still isn’t perfect. He is currently sleeping on a friend’s couch while finishing college and rebuilding his life.

“With 17 years clean, I didn’t think I would be homeless.”

Follow Elijah on TikTok:
Elijah (@elijah_8051) | TikTok

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#AddictionRecovery #Recovery #Sobriety #RecoveryStory #Addiction #MethAddiction #ChildhoodTrauma #TraumaRecovery #FaithAndRecovery #MentalHealth #LongTermRecovery #NARecovery #CleanAndSober #Fatherhood #SecondChances #RecoveryIsPossible #NeverGiveUp #Podcast #PodcastClips #NeverAloneNeverAgain

Brendan Clark knows firsthand how powerful addiction can be, even when the consequences are devastating.

After serving three years in prison, Brendan was introduced to prescription opioids and says he was hooked the first time he took Vicodin. Within a year, his addiction had progressed to heroin, IV drug use, and eventually fentanyl.

In this episode of Never Alone Never Again, Brendan opens up about the loss that followed. His infant son Carter passed away from SIDS, his son’s mother later died from a fentanyl overdose, and another former partner and mother of his child later died by suicide.

After the fentanyl overdose, Brendan recorded a video telling his young son that his mother had died. The video spread around the world and became a powerful piece of fentanyl-awareness content, with people still telling Brendan years later that it helped them or someone they love seek recovery.

But Brendan’s own recovery wasn’t immediate.

Even after experiencing firsthand what fentanyl could do, he returned to using. He went through treatment repeatedly, spent time in psychiatric facilities and jail, and says he had tried treatment countless times before something finally changed.

In 2022, dope sick on his mother’s couch, Brendan accepted another opportunity to enter treatment in California. This time, instead of leaving after 30 days and returning home, he stayed, entered sober living, found a recovery community, and built a new life.

Today, Brendan is four years sober, works in addiction treatment as a Business Development and Outreach Coordinator, and created Time to Go Recovery. He regularly takes Narcan, food, clothing, sleeping bags, and other supplies into areas including MacArthur Park and Skid Row while helping connect people with treatment and recovery resources.

His story is proof that even after relapse, repeated treatment attempts, prison, grief, and years of addiction, it is still possible to start over.


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#BrendanClark #Fentanyl #FentanylAwareness #AddictionRecovery #Recovery #Sobriety #OpioidAddiction #HeroinRecovery #RecoveryStory #Addiction #MentalHealth #Grief #OverdoseAwareness #HarmReduction #RecoveryIsPossible #SecondChances #SkidRow #Podcast #PodcastClips #NeverAloneNeverAgain

Judy Wilson’s story spans decades of addiction, trauma, success, relapse, and long-term recovery.

Growing up near San Francisco during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Judy was exposed to drugs at a young age. As she got older, her life took her to New York, where she built a successful career and eventually worked on Wall Street while cocaine and alcohol became a major part of her life.

In this episode of Never Alone Never Again, Judy opens up about freebasing while working on Wall Street, being courted by Bear Stearns, parties where cocaine was served on platters, and how addiction can exist behind a life that looks successful from the outside.

Today, Judy says she has spent 35 of the last 37 years in recovery. She reflects on healing old trauma, self-compassion, spirituality, and what decades of recovery have taught her about continuing to grow.

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Tyler VanWilder’s story goes from touring as a professional drummer at a young age to addiction, homelessness, and eventually rebuilding a life he never thought he would have.

In this episode of Never Alone Never Again, Tyler opens up about becoming a professional drummer at 14, touring Warped Tour, getting kicked out of a band because of his drug use, and how the party eventually turned into something much darker.

#TylerVanWilder #AddictionRecovery #Recovery #Sobriety #Homelessness #WarpedTour #Drummer #MusicIndustry #RockBottom #RecoveryStory #SoberLife #Addiction #MentalHealth #TraumaRecovery #RecoveryIsPossible #SecondChances #Podcast #PodcastClips #NeverAloneNeverAgain #NeverAloneRecovery

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Braunwyn Windham-Burke’s sobriety journey played out in front of millions on The Real Housewives of Orange County, but what viewers saw on television was only part of the story.

In this episode of Never Alone Never Again, Braunwyn opens up about the reality behind her drinking, the pressure of reality television, getting sober while the cameras were still rolling, and the moment she finally admitted, “I’m an alcoholic.”

She shares how a three-day bender in Miami ended with a moment of clarity, why public accountability became an unexpected part of her recovery, and the incredible story of how a producer helped get her into her first AA meeting when she had actually planned to go drink instead.

Braunwyn also talks about rebuilding relationships with her children, coming out later in life, therapy, finding herself outside of alcohol, learning that sobriety didn’t mean losing her personality, and the life she has built today.

Recovery can look different for everyone, but no one has to do it alone.

👇 Register for our FREE online recovery meetings:
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#BraunwynWindhamBurke #RHOC #RealHousewives #AddictionRecovery #Sobriety #Recovery #RecoveryPodcast #SoberLife #AlcoholRecovery #RecoverOutLoud #Addiction #MentalHealth #RealityTV #RealHousewivesOfOrangeCounty #Podcast #PodcastClips #NeverAloneNeverAgain #SoberCommunity #RecoveryIsPossible #Alcoholism

Dr. Nicole Labor was using IV heroin while attending medical school. At one point, she seriously considered walking away from medicine entirely so she could keep using.

Today, she is a board-certified physician in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine with 21 years clean, helping people understand addiction from both the medical side and the lived-experience side.

In this episode of the Never Alone Never Again Podcast, Dr. Nicole Labor joins Johnny Hayes and Krista Flanders to talk about her own addiction, getting sober during medical school, and why she ultimately chose to dedicate her career to treating addiction.

👇 Register for our FREE online recovery meetings:
https://neveralonerecovery.com/events/



📚 Learn more about Dr. Nicole Labor and her books:

The Addictoholic Deconstructed-
https://www.amazon.ca/Addictoholic-Deconstructed-irreverently-education-doctor-ebook/dp/B07ZV7SSDP

The Addictoholic Reconstructing-
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJD3F638?lv=shuf&channelId=520&plpRedirect=mhFallback




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Sober Shenanigans hosts Primo and Stauff join Johnny and Krista for a conversation that goes from hilarious to brutally honest very quickly.

Primo and Stauff met in a recovery meeting at two very different points in sobriety. One had decades of recovery behind him while the other was still relatively new. That friendship eventually became Sober Shenanigans, a podcast built around real talk, real recovery and the idea that nobody has to do this alone.

This episode of the Never Alone Never Again Podcast is a conversation about addiction, friendship, sponsorship, rebuilding your life, finding community in recovery and what happens when people with very different recovery experiences sit down and talk honestly.

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https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.122093484290821649&type=3

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Cassie Wood describes herself as a nine-time convicted felon who has been to detox 32 times and overdosed more times than she can count.

Today, she is a mother who works in recovery and uses the parts of her past she once felt ashamed of to help other people find their own path forward.

In this episode of the Never Alone Never Again Podcast, Cassie shares how addiction became part of her life at an incredibly young age. After being severely bullied and feeling like she never fit in, she drank for the first time at 12 and says that by 14 she was smoking meth and using multiple substances.

Cassie holds very little back in this conversation, and that's intentional. As she explains in the episode, sharing the things she once felt ashamed of takes away some of their power and may help someone else realize that their past does not have to define them.

👇 Register for our FREE online recovery meetings:
Never Alone Recovery Meetings

🎙️ Follow Cassie Wood:
https://www.instagram.com/calibudd/

👍 If this conversation helped you, LIKE, COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE to help us continue sharing real stories of addiction, recovery, trauma and hope.

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