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If you love someone struggling with addiction, you've probably wrestled with this question:

How do I stay loving and supportive without rescuing them, enabling them, or becoming a doormat?

In Episode 70, Jason breaks down one of the most difficult parts of loving someone with a substance use disorder: learning how to hold clarity and charity at the same time.

You can have empathy for the disease and still hold someone accountable for their choices. You can create a safe, nonjudgmental relationship and still enforce a boundary. You can love someone deeply without protecting them from the natural consequences that may ultimately help them change.

Jason walks through the Stages of Change and explains why your loved one may be making incredible progress in one area of life while appearing completely stuck in another. He shares the story of “Costa Mesa Chad,” whose family nearly overlooked 60 days of sobriety because they were focused on everything he wasn't changing fast enough.

You'll also learn why relapse doesn't automatically mean recovery has failed, how natural consequences can help resolve ambivalence, and why expecting someone to change every area of their life at once can leave the entire family frustrated and discouraged.

Jason also explores the work happening on your side of the relationship: surrendering fear, letting go of outcomes you cannot control, setting strong fences, and developing the emotional sobriety that allows you to respond instead of react.

Because the goal isn't to control their recovery.

It's to become someone who can support recovery without supporting the disease—while getting your own peace, identity, and life back in the process.

In this episode:
• The Stages of Change and why people don't simply jump from denial to action
• Why your loved one can be in different stages of change in different areas of life
• How unrealistic expectations create unnecessary suffering
• The difference between empathy and enabling
• How to respond when a boundary is broken
• Why natural consequences can actually help create motivation
• Jason's “clarity and charity” approach to difficult conversations
• Why relapse can sometimes become an important impact moment
• The role fear plays in controlling and rescuing
• What emotional sobriety looks like for the family
• Why sometimes the right decision is to stay—and sometimes it's to leave

You didn't cause their addiction. You can't control it. And you can't cure it.

But you can learn how to contribute to recovery instead of unintentionally making the disease more comfortable.

And you can learn how to live unhooked.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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What do you do when your loved one desperately needs help—but refuses to admit there’s a problem?

In this Q&A episode, Jason Coombs tackles some of the hardest questions families face: When is enough enough? Should I push them toward rehab? What if they deny they’re using? Should I keep helping financially? And how do I influence someone who doesn’t want to change?

Jason explains why people change at the speed of pain, how the stages of change affect recovery, and why pushing, convincing, rescuing, and repeatedly telling someone what they “should” do can create more resistance.

You’ll also learn why Jason says people don’t recover in buildings—they recover in relationships—and how building trust and rapport can put you in a much stronger position to influence your loved one when they become ready for change.

Most importantly, you don’t have to wait helplessly for them to hit rock bottom.

There is work you can do right now to regain your peace, set healthier boundaries, stop riding the emotional rollercoaster, and become the kind of steady presence your loved one may eventually turn toward for help.

If you’ve ever thought, “I can see exactly what they need—why can’t they see it?” this episode is for you.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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“I should have caught it sooner.”

For parents and spouses of an addicted loved one, that thought can create years of guilt, shame, hypervigilance, and sleepless nights.

In this episode, Jason Coombs explains how to stop arguing with reality without giving up on the person you love. Using Byron Katie’s four questions and “the turnaround,” he walks you through a practical way to challenge the thoughts that keep you trapped in fear and control.

You’ll learn why constant monitoring can turn you into a warden instead of a parent, how to respond to relapse without losing yourself, and why radical acceptance can make you more helpful—not less.

Jason also shares the personal turning point when he stopped fighting the truth about his own addiction and finally created room for grace to enter.

The addiction doesn’t have to take two people.

Listen now and discover how to get your life back while becoming a calmer, stronger influence in your loved one’s recovery.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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When you love someone struggling with addiction, every buzz, missed call, and stretch of silence can feel like a possible emergency.

Before long, your phone stops being a tool and becomes a leash attached to your loved one’s chaos.

In this episode, Jason Coombs explores the phenomenon known as “screen apnea”—holding your breath or breathing shallowly while checking a screen—and explains why families affected by addiction may be especially vulnerable to it.

After months or years of anticipating the next relapse, crisis, hospital call, or broken promise, your nervous system can become trapped in a constant state of vigilance. That chronic stress can disrupt your sleep, appetite, energy, physical health, relationships, faith, and ability to make thoughtful decisions.

Jason shares practical ways to loosen the leash while still loving your addicted family member, including healthier phone boundaries, better sleep, nourishing food, movement, sunlight, meaningful connection, and his daily “DOSE” approach to supporting emotional well-being.

You can be reachable without being owned. You can love deeply without being held hostage. And you can take care of yourself while your loved one works through their own recovery.

Because taking care of yourself isn’t selfish. It’s foundational.

To learn more about the Serenity Circle and other Live Unhooked resources, contact info@liveunhooked.com.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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Your loved one relapsed. Now what?

For many families, relapse immediately triggers panic, anger, lectures, threats, silent treatment, or another round of rescuing. It is not because they are bad people. It is because they are scared—and in that fear, they forget everything they have learned.

In this episode, Jason Coombs shares the STORM Response, a five-step framework designed to help families respond to relapse without getting pulled back into chaos.

STORM stands for:

S — Steady yourself first
T — Tell yourself the truth
O — Open the right conversation
R — Remember the boundary you already set
M — Move one step, not the whole mile

Jason explains why relapse can be part of the behavior-change process rather than proof that all progress was fake. He also walks through how to regulate your nervous system, resist the urge to lecture, reinforce honesty, return agency to your loved one, and support recovery without supporting the addiction.

You’ll learn:

• Why panic leads to rescuing, persecuting, and controlling
• How to separate the truth from fear-driven assumptions
• What to say when your loved one tells you they relapsed
• Why honesty disappears when it is punished
• How to hold a boundary calmly and compassionately
• Why you should not create new boundaries in the middle of a crisis
• How to focus on one next step instead of trying to control the entire future
• Why doing nothing may sometimes be the wisest response

Relapse is a symptom of the disease. It is not a moral failure, and it does not automatically erase every step forward.

You did not cause it. You cannot control it. You cannot cure it. But you can contribute to recovery by responding with steadiness, truth, healthy boundaries, and love.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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What does a spiritual awakening actually look like?

For most people, it isn’t dramatic. It may be a Tuesday afternoon when you suddenly realize you haven’t checked your addicted loved one’s location in days. It may be the first time you hold a boundary without collapsing under guilt. It may be a full night of sleep after months or years of fear.

In this episode, Jason Coombs breaks down Step 12:

“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”

Jason explains:

• What a spiritual awakening really means
• Why small internal shifts matter more than dramatic moments
• How helping other families strengthens your own recovery
• Why service protects you from fear and isolation
• How to apply the 12 Steps to finances, education, work, health, and relationships
• What it truly means to live unhooked

The 12 Steps are not only a way out of addiction or codependency. They are ancient, practical principles that can change the way you approach every difficult area of your life.

You cannot control the path your addicted loved one takes. But you can recover your peace, strengthen your faith, help others, and become someone who stays grounded even when life around you is not.

Subscribe for more conversations about addiction, family recovery, healthy boundaries, spiritual growth, and learning how to be okay—even when someone you love is not okay.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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What if your loved one doesn’t change right away?

What if they’re still struggling, still making choices you don’t understand, and still leaving you wondering, “Am I doing enough? Am I helping? Am I enabling? Am I just stuck in the same painful loop?”

In this episode of Get Unhooked, Jason closes out week six of the family recovery masterclass with a powerful reminder: your freedom cannot depend on your loved one’s sobriety.

Jason walks through how the 12 Steps apply to families, not just the person struggling with addiction. He explains how steps 10, 11, and 12 become a daily way of living—turning fear, resentment, control, and exhaustion over to God while learning to respond with clarity instead of panic.

This episode is especially for parents, spouses, siblings, and loved ones who have spent years trying to fix, rescue, manage, monitor, or motivate someone they love. You’ll hear why progress may not always show up as a changed loved one right away, and why becoming more honest, more aware, and more spiritually grounded is still real progress.

Jason also talks about:

• Why family recovery is not about becoming perfect at every framework
• How to stop living in the emotional “911 call to God”
• Why prayer and journaling can become a real relationship, not just a crisis response
• How to know the difference between helping and enabling
• Why setbacks do not mean you failed
• How to unhook without giving up on the person you love
• What it means to “intuitively know” how to handle situations that used to baffle you

If you are exhausted from carrying someone else’s addiction, this episode will help you take a deep breath and remember: you can get the oxygen mask first. You can become healthy and strong. You can find peace in the storm.

And you can get unhooked—whether they choose recovery today or not.

Learn more about Brick House Recovery:
brickhouserecovery.com

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

Send us Fan Mail

What if the words “I’m sorry” are not enough?

In this episode of Brick House, Jason Coombs walks through one of the most powerful parts of recovery: making real amends. Not the kind that asks someone else to hurry up and forgive you. Not the kind that tries to erase the past with one emotional conversation. Real amends are different.

They require honesty, specificity, humility, and sustained change.

Jason introduces the CLEAN Framework for making amends:

C — Choose the moment
L — Lay out the wrong
E — Express remorse without relying on “sorry”
A — Accept their terms
N — Now sustain the change

Through personal stories involving his mother, a friend he manipulated for money, a former coworker, and even the little boy inside himself, Jason shows why amends are not about controlling the other person’s reaction. They are about cleaning up your side of the street.

This episode is especially meaningful for anyone in recovery, anyone who loves someone in addiction, or anyone carrying the weight of unresolved harm, shame, or broken trust.

You’ll learn why asking, “How can I make this right with you?” can change everything — and why the real proof of an amends happens after the conversation.

Because amends are not theatrics.

Amends are truth plus change.

Learn more about Brick House Recovery:
https://brickhouserecovery.com

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100