This is the Shameless Mom Academy episode 454 with Brenda Zane.

Show notes for this episode, including any links mentioned in the episode, can be found by going to shamelessmom.com and clicking on episode 454.

Welcome to the Shameless Mom Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. I'm here to give you and other

passionate, driven, unapologetic moms, tools, resources, and a little bit of humor to help you lead

more positive, powerful, and purposeful lives every damn day. One of the best things about the

Shameless Mom Academy is our community. So be sure to join us in our free

private Facebook group to connect with other shameless moms just like you. You can find us over

at shamelessom.com forward slash Facebook. All right. Let's dive into today's episode.

Brenda Zane is a shameless mom to four sons, ages 14 to 22, a Mayo Clinic certified health and wellness coach, and the founder of The Stream, an online community to support

moms of kids with substance abuse disorder. Based on her personal experience, she provides a space

to get and keep

moms healthy while they fight for their children's lives. She also hosts HopeStream, a podcast

for parents whose kids are struggling with addiction. Brenda spent the first 25 years of her career

in advertising, working for global agencies and Fortune 500 clients like Target, Microsoft, Nike,

Hawaiian Airlines, and Procter

and Gamble. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their blended family of four boys and two

dogs. This conversation was so powerful and deep and vulnerable and painful and all the

emotions. I'm so grateful for Brenda for coming on the show. I think this is something that we

don't talk about enough, and I think it's something we don't talk about with enough transparency.

And I know that Brenda sharing her story and sharing her son's story is going to save other teens'

lives. So listening to hear Brenda share her journey of parenting a teen addict, how she made the decision to have her son involuntarily taken to a wilderness recovery program at age 16, how she led a double life being a leader at a Fortune 500 company and managing her child's addiction and legally complex life, what the vicious cycle of addiction looks like, the emotional rollercoaster

of hope and heartbreak as the parent of an addict, how her son went from death by overdose to

...