The man of few words speaks, a lil bit. 

“What I was born into, I do not have to become.” The poverty.  The abuse. The drug centered lifestyle. In Ep. 036 Tish takes us from being the person who through the best house parties to being homeless. She opens up about growing up alongside her parents, ultimately losing her mom to a drug overdose, and making the decision to not continue that pattern in her daughters life.  We interviewed Tish’s daughter, Rylee Jo, in Ep. 034 - also a must listen.  Not your Average IV User is streaming almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists. 

In the late winter of 2023, I had just finished a workout with the 9a CrossFit class. A tall fella stood at the end of the gym - dressed in all black, with a fresh pair of J’s on. I thought, “This is my guy.”  This was Paul. Paul has been a senior writer at Rolling Stone for thirty years. He covered the NFL concussion scandal, including the Aaron Hernandez story, was the first to report the horror-show conditions at Walter Reade Hospital, and has written a series of stories that helped free innocent men who were doing life without parole in state prisons. He is the winner of two Genesis Awards and more than a half-dozen selections to the Best American Sports Writing anthologies, produced the Documentary hit “How to Fix a Drug Scandal” & has been a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award finalist.  Over the next weeks after we met, Paul spent time in Southern Ohio to learn about the breadth of the opioid epidemic and the overdose crisis and the small town, grass roots approach to reintegrating individuals with substance use disorders back into the community.  Paul told that story in the most recent drop of Rolling Stone magazine.  In Ep. 036, Paul talks about his experience in shedding light in the stories that happen in the dark.  Not Your Average IV User is streaming almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists. 

Healthcare is all about measurements: survival rates, success rates, no show rates, outcomes. But the addicted population can be terribly difficult to get and keep any data on.   A lot of us receive treatment in facilities where our information is protected by federal law (HIPPA & 42 CFR Pt. 2, for all my industry nerds out there). A lot of us stay clean in fellowships that are centered in anonymity. A lot of us go back out a few times before we get it right and good luck tracking us down out there.   And some people are famous, even in an anonymous fellowship.    Jake’s curriculum vitae is stacked: co-owner of Forward Health Ohio, the voice of Humans of Addiction, internationally syndicated content expert of advocacy around addiction, treatment, and recovery. He’s also known as the guy that got picked up by the Fed’s outside a 12 step meeting.    In Ep. 035, JB talks growing up in a small town, the early days of the dark web, and about a minor project he completed with the New York Times (who even reads the paper?!)   Not Your average IV User is discoverable almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists. 

NYAIVU has largely hosted individuals in recovery and given them the platform to address stigmas, stereotypes, and preconceived notions about the nature of addiction, treatment, and recovery. Their stories have challenged societal norms and we’ve heard from people who have pushed the bounds on what a good comeback story looks like. We have also been lucky to have a few episodes where we have discussed the same topics with content experts that have done their own diligence in telling stories of communal devastation and personal redemption, giving us a long peek behind the curtain of how the opioid epidemic built up and unfolded. In Ep. 034 we interviewed Rylee Jo, who adds an important voice to our conversation that we have not heard from firsthand to this point – the child of a person with a substance use disorder. Rylee, a brave and bold guest, talks with me about what it was like to figure out that something wasn’t quite right in her home life, how she and her mothers relationship has grown and changed over the years, and offers some advice for other kids that might be going thru the same thing. Not Your Average IV User is streaming almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists.  

Some people are led to places in life that give them a sense of clarity and purpose that fix everything. Timmy recounts that one day in his life, where he changed – and people around him noticed the change. He recalls, “It made for a slow Senior Year of High School.” Unfortunately, that period was only a small harbor of reprieve and Timmy would return to using, going on to the bitter ends of active addiction. Thankfully, treatment works and recovery is possible. In Ep. 032, guest Timmy Stacy talks about his ups and down with his family, traumatic loss, and how Another Chance Ministries transformed his life through their combination of clinical services and faith centered approach to treatment. Today, Timmy is a counselor, pastors at church, and is a representation that returning to an old behavior isn’t a death sentence. Not Your Average IV User is streaming almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists.

Stories of addiction and recovery demonstrate the resiliency that humans possess; to go from the darkest pits of despair to leading meaningful lives in the light.    Ep. 031 Guest, Melissa Stacy, takes on a journey through losing her mother, foster care, the Department of Youth Services, human trafficking, and being hopelessly addicted to being a mom & wife, a counselor, an anti-human trafficking advocate working with universities and law enforcement to provide education and raise awareness - and while this is her first podcast, she's been featured on a documentary produced the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) around the topic.    Not Your Average IV User is discoverable almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists. 

NYAIVU has been both humbling and rewarding - having guests discuss their deepest and darkest days so candidly while simultaneously choosing this platform to share their hard won victories and triumphs. In Ep. 030 we welcome Philip Eil, a freelance journalist based in Rhode Island, who has been at work for over a decade chronicling a story closely related to this project. Below, from Philip: “I’m writing a book about Paul Volkman, who was a pain-clinic doctor in Portsmouth from 2003 to 2005 (and for a few additional months in Chillicothe) before he was shut down by the DEA. Volkman went on trial for prescription drug-dealing in Cincinnati and was eventually sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison, which I believe is the longest sentence given to ANY U.S. doctor convicted of drug-dealing during the opiate epidemic. One Chicago TV-news station dubbed him the "Pill Mill Killer." Volkman went to college and medical school with my dad, and I’ve been working on this story since 2009. I wrote a magazine article about the case in 2017 (https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/features/pill-mill-portsmouth/), but there's much, much more to the story. My book is currently tentatively scheduled for publication in Spring of 2024.” Not Your Average IV User is discoverable almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists.

Substance Use Disorders have the ability to affect a person’s entire existence – mind, body, spirit. While recovery can be a journey of improving and restoring ones mental and physical health, spirituality is a hallmark of numerous recovery pathways like nature, church, or the anonymous fellowships. With that being said, there are those of us that feel the spiritual malady a little deeper and such feel compelled to stay in touch with that part of self a little bit closer throughout our journey. In Ep. 029, Julie talks about her days with the Dooba’s, the appearance of a spiritual guide on her way through a long & tumultuous detox, and encourages listeners to remain open minded to exploring multiple pathways to recovery – taking what they need from each to sustain themselves. Not Your Average IV User is discoverable almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists.

Sometimes the universe just seems to bring people together.  Through a friend of a friend of a friend - I got hooked up with J Troy Gray.  Troy is the Pastor at Zion Baptist Church and the CEO & founder of Another Chance Ministries. One thing he and I have in common is feeling called to be active personally and professionally in the addiction treatment field and recovery effort in Ohio. Moreover, we both have life experiences that have led to this involvement. One difference, I am a person with a substance use disorder living in long term recovery - Troy comes to this as a father, a loved one dealing with addiction in his family. In Ep. 028, Pastor opens up about some of his previous ideology around addiction, the accomplishments he has seen happen for people involved in his ministry, and how he sent so much money through Western Union, they cut him off from wire transfers – turns out even WU has their limits on enabling. If it’s odd, it’s God. Not Your Average IV User is discoverable almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists.