What if everything you’ve been told about addiction treatment is wrong?

The rehab industry is worth billions… yet nearly 90% of people relapse. So the real question is:

Is treatment failing… or are we defining success completely wrong?

In this episode of Brokenish, we unpack the uncomfortable truth about addiction, recovery, and why the system might be measuring the wrong things entirely.

This isn’t a conversation about quick fixes or perfect sobriety. It’s about reality.

You’ll hear:

• Why relapse is NOT failure (and why treating it like one causes more harm)
• The biggest lie families are sold about “success rates” in treatment
• Why recovery is messy, nonlinear, and deeply personal
• The hidden damage caused by black-and-white thinking in mental health
• What real progress actually looks like beyond just “not using”
• Why most treatment programs focus on the wrong outcomes
• How honesty (not false hope) is the only ethical way to help people heal

We also dive into the deeper truth most people miss:

Addiction is often a symptom… not the root problem.

And if you don’t address what’s underneath, nothing changes long-term.

This episode is for:

• Anyone struggling with addiction or mental health
• Parents trying to help their child
• Professionals in the treatment space
• Anyone who’s ever felt like they “failed” recovery

Because maybe you didn’t fail.

Maybe the system failed you.

Everyone talks about chasing your dreams.

Nobody talks about who pays the price.

In this brutally honest episode of Broken-ish, we pull back the curtain on ambition, purpose, and the quiet casualties that come with building something that matters.

The world sees the momentum. The business growth. The mission. The impact.

But behind every dream is a harder truth:

The people who love you the most often carry the heaviest cost.

Late nights. Missed dinners. Phone calls from your kids saying they miss you. Partners holding down the fort while you're chasing something bigger.

And the question no one in entrepreneurship, leadership, or success culture wants to answer:

What if the impact you want to create in the world comes at the expense of the people closest to you?

In this episode we talk about:

• The real price of ambition • Why success can quietly destroy relationships • Betraying others vs betraying yourself • The internal conflict between family and purpose • How ego, drive, and selfishness shape leadership • The hidden sacrifices behind building something meaningful • What it actually feels like to chase a mission that could change lives

This is not a highlight reel.

This is the conversation behind the scenes of building something that matters.

If you've ever felt the tension between who you want to be for your family and what you feel called to build, this episode is for you.

Because sometimes the hardest truth in life is this:

You can be doing the right thing…

…and still wonder if you're paying the wrong price.

Subscribe to Broken-ish for real conversations about addiction, recovery, leadership, and the messy middle of becoming who you're meant to be.

New episodes weekly.

Behavioral health care in rural communities is messy, complicated, and often misunderstood.

In this episode of Inside Ava Health, we pull back the curtain on the realities of community mental health. From fractured systems and stigma to funding challenges and the everyday work of rebuilding trust, this conversation explores what it actually takes to support people struggling with addiction, mental health, homelessness, and instability.

Our guest shares his journey from working as a community employment specialist helping individuals with mental health and addiction find work, to stepping into leadership during one of the most turbulent periods in the Western Slope behavioral health landscape. At a time when organizations were under intense public scrutiny and the system felt broken, he saw something different. Opportunity.

This conversation dives into:

• How stigma around addiction and mental health still shapes community attitudes • Why collaboration across organizations is essential for real recovery support • The hidden pressures behavioral health providers face every day • The critical role of case management and addressing social determinants of health • Why recovery often starts with housing, food, transportation, and stability before therapy ever begins • How hope continues to drive the people doing this work despite constant systemic challenges

We also explore the larger history of community mental health in the United States, why funding structures have created fractured systems, and what it will take for communities to build sustainable behavioral health infrastructure.

Most importantly, this episode highlights the people on the front lines who show up every day to serve others, even when the system makes the work incredibly difficult.

Because at the end of the day, recovery isn’t just about treatment. It’s about rebuilding community.

If you care about mental health, addiction recovery, homelessness, or the future of behavioral health in America, this is a conversation worth hearing.

Today's guest is Chace Wheaton with Health Solutions West

What if grief isn’t just about death? What if it’s about identity, addiction, relationships… and the parts of ourselves we have to let go?

In this episode of Brokenish, we dive into one of the heaviest and most avoided subjects in life: grief.

After experiencing a recent loss, we sit down for an honest, raw conversation about death, fear, avoidance, and what it really means to move through pain instead of numbing it. From losing parents to putting down a beloved dog, from addiction recovery to the “absence of presence,” this conversation challenges the way we think about grief.

We explore:

• The truth about the 5 stages of grief and why they are not linear • Why grief and addiction follow a similar emotional path • The difference between “loss” and the absence of presence • Why men over 55 are at the highest risk for suicide • How identity, work, and purpose shape our experience of loss • Why avoiding pain only deepens it • What it means to leave nothing on the table before you die

This episode is not just about death. It is about meaning.

It is about the fear of losing your parents. It is about watching your father grieve. It is about losing a job, a relationship, or a version of yourself. It is about the stories we choose to tell after the loss.

If you have ever avoided a funeral… If you have ever numbed pain with substances… If you are afraid of losing someone you love… This conversation is for you.

Grief does not go away. But it can be integrated. And when it is, something powerful happens.

🎙️ Subscribe for more real conversations about addiction, recovery, purpose, and mental health. 📍 If you or someone you love is struggling, reach out. You are not alone.

#BrokenishPodcast #Grief #AddictionRecovery #MentalHealth #Loss #Healing #SubstanceAbuse #Trauma #RecoveryJourney #EndOfLife #MenAndMentalHealth

Homelessness is one of the most talked-about issues in America.

But how much do we actually understand about it?

In this episode of Inside Ava Health, we sit down with leaders working directly on the front lines in Grand Junction, Colorado to unpack what’s really happening behind the scenes. No politics. No headlines. Just real conversations.

Here’s what we explore:

• Why 75 to 90 percent of people living on the streets do not actually want to be there • The real barriers beyond “mental health and addiction” • Why “housing first” isn’t the full solution • What happens when hope gets crushed over and over • Why funding structures are creating unintended barriers • The loss of resource centers and what that means for communities • How innovative models like “Stand Down” changed lives • What communities must understand if we want real change

One powerful truth from this conversation:

“Hope hurts.”

When people try, and try, and try again only to hit closed doors, long waitlists, rising rents, and shifting funding priorities, eventually they stop believing anything will change.

And that’s when we lose them.

This episode is about restoring dignity, rebuilding trust, and rethinking how communities show up for the people who need us most.

If you care about homelessness, mental health, addiction, or the future of your community, this is a conversation you need to hear.

— Guests this episode include Chris Masters with Homeward Bound of Grand Valley and Philip Masters with United Way Mesa County.

Ava Health is a full continuum behavioral health and addiction treatment provider serving Colorado. If you or someone you love needs help, call us. Recovery is possible.

📞 Learn more: www.HelloAvaHealth.com 📍 Grand Junction, Colorado

Subscribe for more real conversations from the front lines of behavioral health and recovery.

Most people only show the highlight reel.

This episode is about everything they hide.

In this raw, unfiltered conversation, Chris sits down with David Purinton, CFO, partner, and one of the most quietly resilient humans he knows, to talk about what success actually looks like when you zoom out.

Not the wins. The failures. The shame. The jobs you never put on your resume. The moments where you’re convinced you are the failure.

From working in plastic factories and picking up dog shit… To eviction notices, food banks, addiction, and starting over from nothing… To building companies, losing them, and learning how to survive the collapse.

This episode is for: • Anyone who’s been laid off and feels lost • Anyone stuck in a job that’s slowly crushing them • Anyone who thinks they’ve fallen too far to come back • Anyone quietly carrying shame they never talk about

We talk about: • Failing your way forward • The long-term damage of shame • Why failure feels personal even when it isn’t • Addiction, recovery, and rebuilding trust with yourself • Losing a company you poured your soul into • How hope actually comes back, slowly and imperfectly

No fake motivation. No hustle culture nonsense. No “10 steps to success.”

Just two humans telling the truth about what it really costs to keep going.

If you’re in a heavy season, this one’s for you.

👇 Drop a comment if this hit close to home 👍 Like if you believe failure isn’t the end 🔔 Subscribe for more Broken-ish conversations about real life, recovery, and becoming human again

What if the biggest problem in behavioral health isn’t lack of care, but monetized chaos?

In this episode of Inside Ava Health, we have an unfiltered conversation about how confusion, vague timelines, hidden rules, and “clinical complexity” are often built into the structure of treatment systems and how that chaos dysregulates families before care even begins.

We explore why transparency is not a marketing tactic, but a form of care.

This episode dives into:

• How families and clients are harmed by unclear expectations and moving goalposts
• Why “30 days” so often turns into 45 and what that says about integrity
• The difference between simplicity and oversimplification in treatment
• How fear and urgency get monetized in admissions and marketing
• What ethical profit margins actually look like in behavioral health
• Why clients and families must be treated as the experts on themselves
• How reinvesting into staff, culture, food, facilities, and people changes outcomes
• What behavioral health care should have been from the beginning

We also share the lived experience, burnout, mistakes, and hard-earned wisdom that brought us together to build Ava Health. Not to disrupt an industry for attention, but to create a model rooted in dignity, choice, transparency, and trust.

If you are a family member trying to help someone you love, a clinician who feels disillusioned by broken systems, or a professional who knows this field can do better, this conversation is for you.

This isn’t a pitch. It’s a philosophy of care.

Inside Ava Health is about telling the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable, and building something better because of it.

In this episode of Brokenish, we ask a question a lot of men quietly feel but rarely say out loud.

What if communication isn’t the problem… but expectations are?

We dig into why so many men struggle with communication, especially in relationships, and why “just talk more” completely misses the point. From avoiding emotional conversations, to assuming our partners don’t care, to believing we’re supposed to carry everything alone, this episode goes straight at the modern male identity crisis.

We talk about: • Why communication is really about what lands, not what you think you said • The hidden ways men unintentionally withhold, protect, or shut down • How childhood patterns shape how we show up as partners and fathers • Why many men don’t know what they need when they’re finally asked • The shift from “provider” to true partnership and why it’s so uncomfortable • What has to die in order for men to actually grow up

This is an honest, unfiltered conversation about masculinity, emotional responsibility, relationships, and what it actually means to be a man today.

If you’ve ever thought: “I don’t need that much communication.” “Why would anyone want to hear this?” “I don’t want to burden anyone.” or “I don’t even know what I need.”

This episode is for you.

🎙 Brokenish is where we sit in the uncomfortable middle of growth, healing, and becoming something better without pretending we have it all figured out.