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Leading Saints Podcast

Helping Addicts Share Their Story | An Interview with Jessica Butterfield & Kelly Thompson

Leading Saints Podcast

Leading Saints

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jessica Butterfield and Kelly Thompson are two delightful, committed, intelligent Latter-day Saints who grew up in Utah. Both Jessica and Kelly are also recovering addicts with a compelling story that needs to be heard—a story of struggle, redemption, and a fervent desire to help the addicted and their families, friends, and church leaders. Kelly has authored the book Between Monsters and Mercy and has been a facilitator for the Church’s Addiction Recovery Program. Together they have begun a new podcast, "The Hope Addiction", as an extension of a podcast Jessica previously initiated. Highlights 04:15: Kelly’s story: Turned to drugs as a teen to deal with physical ailments. Her siblings were on the BYU/temple marriage path. Time on the streets doing whatever it took (e.g., prostitution) to support her addiction. Testimony struggles in a less-active family. God became a punching bag and later her best friend during her time in a deep abyss. D&C 121 took on added meaning. Has been sober 4 ½ years, following 28 years of addiction. Sister missionaries showed up miraculously at a critical time. Began to realize that she was not inherently all the bad labels she had taken upon herself. Wants other to know the Savior can change lives and hearts. Gratitude for other recovering addicts whose stories inspired her to change. 10:48: Jessica’s story: Raised in a small Utah town in an LDS home. Family became inactive when she was 12. Introduced to drugs/alcohol at 12. Had anxiety and depression she was not aware of. Addicted to heroin at 16. Addicted for four years. Hated the person she had become. At 20, went through heroin withdrawal. Did not wish to believe in the “Mormon God.” Attended an LDS 12-step meeting and experienced grace, hope and a priesthood blessing that changed her life. What could it hurt to try a different approach to life? Faith grew. Sealed in temple 3 years shy of being clean. Experienced a transformation through the Atonement. Has not relapsed since that change ten years ago. 15:45: What leads people to try drugs? Alcohol originally offered relief and seemed like a solution to anxiety/depression/trauma/family dysfunction/family history of addiction. Substance abuse worked fast and came with fun partying. Seeking out associates with similar adulterated values. Wired for anxiety? Drugs provided an escape “needed” to cope. God’s love supplanted the need for harmful substances. 21:40: Rationalizing the foray into drugs? Escape 23:20: Common misconceptions about the disease. Where does choice end and addiction/disease begin? Lying and manipulation comes with the territory. Abuse affects the brain and takes over the survival instincts. If you are on fire you jump into a water to save yourself. Addicted people begin viewing drugs as a survival tool. Addicts are not bad people who need to be good; they are sick people who want to be better. As an addict your behavior affects others adversely. Mental health issues require compassion. 27:30: What can a church leader or family member do when someone is in the middle of their addiction? No easy answers. Allow someone to suffer the consequences of their choices--landing in jail isn’t always a bad thing. Addicts need to be humbled. Pray for addicted loved ones to hit bottom and confess to being an addict so they can turn to the real source of strength. Heavenly Father knows our hearts and can provide healing circumstances. Be willing to plant seeds that can help an addict even if you don’t see immediate results. When Jessica was ready to change, she remembered the good people in the church who had been very kind (e.g., non-judgmental home teachers, sister missionaries, etc.) 33:40: What about relapse? It is a one-day-at-a-time deal. Need Christ. Don’t become overly confident. 36:45: Pushing the addictive experiences into the background vs being open about prior struggles. What about involving recovering addicts to help wards?

Transcript

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0:00.0

We live in a world plagued by pornography and people are looking for help.

0:10.0

When an individual struggles with pornography, they often turn to their church leader for that help.

0:15.2

How does a leader help a person overcome the shame of this issue and start seeing positive progress?

0:21.0

How can a leader help youth to open up about struggles with pornography?

0:25.0

What are some lasting proven tactics that actually make a difference?

0:29.3

In order to help, leading Saints has created the Liberating Saints Library with more than 20 presentations

0:34.9

featuring individuals who have a unique perspective or expertise around this topic.

0:40.2

Three of those most popular sessions are available to watch now.

0:43.7

Simply text the word lead to 4747.

0:47.4

To start watching now or visit leading Saints.org

0:50.5

slash liberating.

1:05.7

Hi, I'm Brian Bell. I'm the Executive Secretary in my ward in Adelope, California, And I've enjoyed listening to the conferences and emails that I received from leading Saints.

1:08.1

It's helped me understand how I can serve better

1:10.4

and support the members of my ward and outside of my ward more effectively.

1:19.1

Hey, thanks for hitting play on this podcast, the Leading Saints Podcast.

1:23.2

We welcome you back, this is Kurt Franklinum,

1:25.2

your host.

1:26.2

Now if you're not new to Leading Saints,

1:28.6

this is a point where you can hit that 30 second forward button

1:31.4

on the podcast player, and while I talk with all the newbies here

1:34.8

who just discovered leading Saints about what we are. We are a nonprofit organization

1:40.7

dedicated helping Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead.

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