Sexual abuse. Family betrayal. Meth, heroin, and fentanyl. Borderline personality disorder. Jail. Stevie survived all of it — and has been clean since August 2025. | Free Like Me Podcast with Clark Fredericks

Stevie grew up in small-town Maryland in a home full of heavy drinking and conflict. She was first abused around age 6 by an uncle by marriage. Then groomed and assaulted by her great-uncle. At 11 years old — terrified for her little sister's safety — she reported him. He served 18 months and landed on the sex offender registry. Her extended family blamed her anyway. Her school made it worse.

What followed was years of compounding pain — diagnoses of borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder, addiction that escalated from alcohol at 15 to meth, heroin, and fentanyl, repeated suicidal crises, and a revolving door of psychiatric facilities. Then jail. That became her turning point.

Stevie opens up about how DBT and CBT therapy, music, movement, sleep, and mindset work pulled her out — and why she went back for maintenance help when cravings returned instead of staying silent. This is one of the most honest conversations about what early recovery actually looks like day to day.

Religious trauma. Coercive control. Addiction. Depression. Deanna survived all of it — and rebuilt her life on her own terms.

Deanna grew up inside a strict Fundamental Baptist home where shame replaced support and obedience replaced safety. When she finally left, she had no tools to recognize manipulation — which made her the perfect target. A man named Steve used love-bombing, ecstasy, and calculated coercive control to pull her into repeated sexual exploitation she identifies as rape.

When she told her family, they stayed silent.
What followed was a spiral into heavy drinking, multiple DUIs, and a depression she drowned in alcohol. Rock bottom came in a jail cell. From there — through Alcoholics Anonymous, treatment, and community — she built something no one handed her: long-term sobriety, a storytelling platform called Intrepid Storytelling, and a family of three kids she created by choice through IVF, foster care, and adoption.

This is what recovering from religion and trauma actually looks like.

Ian Bick joins Clark Fredericks on the Free Like Me Podcast.

It started with hustle. As a bullied teenager desperate for acceptance, Ian channeled his energy into school dances, house parties, and eventually some of the most profitable teen nightclub events in his region. But when he tried to scale into full-size concerts, the losses came fast — and instead of stepping back, he doubled down.

He guaranteed investors their principal. Then he offered 50% returns through an electronics deal built on counterfeit products. When that fell apart, he started cycling new investor money to cover old promises. The spiral deepened with every failed show, every new pitch, every lie told to buy more time.

Federal investigators took notice. What followed was an FBI raid, a wire fraud indictment, a gambling spiral that ran through his own trial, bond revocation, and ultimately a three-year federal sentence with $495,000 in restitution — most of which he has now paid back.

Ian opens up about what prison actually taught him, how he rebuilt from the ground up through restaurant work and Whole Foods, and how a single viral TikTok post launched a criminal-justice podcast that now commands serious audiences and notable guests.

This is a story about what happens when ambition outpaces integrity — and what it takes to earn your way back.