You're listening to the Love Over Addiction Podcast. Over the next several weeks I'm going to be sharing with you eight really helpful tips but here's the deal.

I believe in giving you bite size, chunks of information.

So many times we get a hold of a book or you might join one of my programs and you do it

all in one chunk because you're anxious to get started and you're anxious to learn and that behavior is really admirable.

But it tends to be ineffective because you need time to apply what you're learning in order for it to really stick.

That's why a lot of times when I read a self-help book, which is almost always, I tend to manage myself. I'll read one or two chapters at

a time, put it down, and then apply what I'm learning. So I'm going to do that with you in this podcast. So these

podcasts might be a little shorter, but I really want you to listen to me, replay this podcast as many times as you need to throughout the week and then apply

what you've learned. Take action because you guys listen to me. Loving someone that suffers from addiction is painful and

instead of waiting around for them to get sober and start to feel better, you

need to take back control and power over your life because in

our community we don't buy for one single second that we are powerless over this disease. That's a load of bull.

We believe you have lots of choices and that you can get your happiness, your joy, your confidence, your self-esteem, your life back and in order and

straightened out and get yourself on the right path that you were supposed to be on whether they get sober or not.

And there's a lot of hope in that.

So let's start with the very first tool or tip that I'm going to share with you.

And this is find your team, okay?

Find your team. What you're going through right now by loving someone that's suffering from addiction, whether you are a husband, a wife, a parent, a friend, a sibling, is a lot of work. It is trauma, it is chaos, it is

dysfunction. There's a lot of lying going on. There's a lot of manipulation going on. It is a lot. It is a lot more on your plate than the average person is dealing with. You need a team of people around you

during this season of your life that are going to help you through this.

You cannot do this alone. Let me repeat that. I know you

think that you're strong and you are, but you cannot do this alone. It's going to take a village. And for a really long time we have allowed ourselves to be isolated by this disease. We've kept it a secret from our family, from our friends, because we don't

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