What does it take to keep going when recovery feels like the hardest mile of your life?

Dr. Larry Smith joins Alex Doyle on The Pulse Of Addiction for an open conversation about alcohol addiction, recovery, and the marathon mindset. Alex shares more of his own experience than he usually does, making this a personal conversation between two people willing to speak honestly about what it takes to keep showing up.

They talk about the voice of addiction, the endurance recovery demands, and why reaching a milestone does not mean the work is over. If you’re rebuilding your life or supporting someone who is, this episode is for you.

Dr. Larry Smith
Website: https://www.drlarrysmithauthor.com/
Media and interviews: https://www.drlarrysmithauthor.com/media-interviews

Alex Doyle and The Pulse Of Addiction
Podcast: https://pulseofaddiction.lovable.app/
Cedar Path: https://cedarpath.tech/
Bake It Forward: https://www.bakeitforward.net/
Rewired Recovery: https://rewiredrecovery.ca/
Halo Ridge Recovery: https://haloridgerecovery.com/

In this solo episode of The Pulse Of Addiction, Alex Doyle talks honestly about what it means to live “close to the fire” as a front‑line worker in the overdose crisis — working and teaching recovery tools while standing beside the very substances that almost killed you. From midnight outreach on Vancouver Island to camping trips where a forgotten cooler turns into mental torture, Alex breaks down how trauma, cravings, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma collide for peer workers, outreach teams, medics, and sober companions.

You’ll hear the story of a sixteen‑year‑old who overdosed at midnight while family members fought over top of him, and what it feels like to give CPR and Narcan with drugs and alcohol everywhere — without flinching, because it’s “go time” and someone’s kid needs to live. Alex explains how half the brain is using grounding, breathing, and craving‑management tools just to stay sober, while the other half is trying to teach those same tools in real time to the people they’re saving. This episode is for anyone on the front line of addiction, overdose response, harm reduction, and recovery coaching who struggles to “turn off” and have a happy, normal day when work is wall‑to‑wall trauma.

If you’re a peer overdose responder, shelter worker, harm‑reduction volunteer, or recovery coach, this conversation names what you’re living with: burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and the double life of being both helper and survivor. Alex shares the exact practices he uses to stay clean while working in high‑risk spaces — honest check‑ins, cravings tracking, community support, and faith‑based and evidence‑informed tools that keep his nervous system from snapping.

For listeners looking for practical support beyond the podcast, this episode also connects you with Cedar Path, a lived‑experience recovery and aftercare toolkit you can run on your phone, and Halo Ridge Recovery, a private live‑in recovery program in the mountains above Courtenay, BC, offering structured, trauma‑informed care in a discreet setting.

Cedar Path: https://cedarpath.tech
Halo Ridge Recovery: https://haloridgerecovery.com

Brad McLeod is the creator and host of Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories, one of the top‑rated recovery podcasts helping people quit drinking, stay sober, and build lives they’re proud of.

In this conversation, Brad and Alex talk about:

• Why he started Sober Motivation out of his own early‑recovery loneliness and confusion

• What he’s learned from interviewing hundreds of people about quitting alcohol, relapse, shame, and rebuilding their lives

• How carrying other people’s stories has changed his sense of responsibility — to his listeners, to his own recovery, and to the wider sober community

This episode is for anyone who uses recovery podcasts as part of their daily routine and wants to hear from the guy who’s been quietly holding up a microphone to other people’s truth for years.

Brad / Sober Motivation

• Sober Motivation podcast:
  https://www.sobermotivation.com/podcastsobermotivation

• Sober Motivation on Apple Podcasts:
  https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sober-motivation-sharing-sobriety-stories/id1650658049podcasts.apple

• Sober Motivation community & app:
  https://www.sobermotivation.comsobermotivation

Alex / The Pulse of Addiction

• The Pulse of Addiction on Spotify:
  https://open.spotify.com/show/69xIjWXGwEMYgFEPOItiZpopen.spotify

• Bake It Forward (bakery + outreach + recovery tools):
  https://www.bakeitforward.netbakeitforward

• Cedar Path (self‑paced recovery and aftercare):
  https://cedarpath.techbakeitforward

• Sage Recovery Cloud (operations platform for recovery orgs):
  https://sagerecoverycloud.lifesagerecoverycloud

Private recovery center

• Halo Ridge Recovery (live‑in private recovery, Courtenay, BC):
  https://haloridgerecovery.com

Kate Bee is the founder of The Sober School, a former BBC journalist, and a woman in long-term recovery who got sober in 2013 without waiting for a Hollywood rock bottom. She coaches women through grey-area drinking, early sobriety, and alcohol-free living when the old “you’re an alcoholic or you’re fine” story does not fit.

On this episode of The Pulse of Addiction, host Alex sits down with Kate about the 5 p.m. wine loop, hangover shame, Getting Unstuck, and what actually happens when “I don’t think I have a problem” stops working. We talk grey-zone drinking, wine-as-self-care culture, online recovery for women who do not see themselves in traditional rooms, and the line between a course and needing more help.

If you are sober-curious, stuck in Dry January repeats, or already in recovery and still thinking about drinking all the time, this one is for you.

Guest: Kate Bee, founder of The Sober School
Guest links: thesoberschool.com · The Sober School Podcast

Host: Alex — recovering opiate addict, recovery coach, The Pulse of Addiction
Show: Listen on Spotify · pulseofaddiction.lovable.app
Bake It Forward: bakeitforward.net
Cedar Path: cedarpath.tech

This one is not a Q-and-A. It is two people in recovery who did time at different points in life, sitting down and talking like people who have actually been in a cell.

Sean Lizée is an actor, a father, and the author of Angel On My Arm: The Prison Letters, written from real handwritten letters during incarceration. Host Alex is a recovering opiate addict who spent years unhoused on Vancouver Island. They did not run a polished interview. They shot the shit. Prison. Using. Getting out. Fatherhood. Shame. What recovery looks like when the walls come down and nobody is counting you anymore.

Sean’s book goes through heartbreak, addiction, trauma, homelessness, suicide ideation, and the fight to stay human inside. This episode is about the part after the letters: two recovering addicts comparing notes on doing time, staying sober, and finding each other through recovery instead of through the system.

If you have done time, love someone who has, or are trying to stay clean on the outside, this is the honest version.

Guest: Sean Lizée, author of Angel On My Arm: The Prison Letters
Link: angelonmyarm.com

Pulse of Addiction Resources:

• Bake It Forward:https://bakeitforward.net

• Cedar Path (recovery/wellness tools):https://cedarpath.tech

Rural addiction recovery looks different when there is no detox down the street, no NA bar, and no Uber to a meeting. Darrell Keim, Executive Director of the Latah Recovery Center in Moscow, Idaho, and the Whitman Recovery Community Center in Pullman, Washington, sits down with Alex on The Pulse of Addiction to talk about building peer-run recovery community organizations in places most systems forget.

Darrell is a dedicated advocate, not a person in recovery himself. He has spent years standing up rural drop-in centers where people in recovery and family members run the rooms: recovery coaching, peer support, anonymous groups, harm reduction, naloxone, re-entry from jail, student recovery, and a place to land after treatment instead of a shelter bed.

In this episode we get into:

• Why rural and frontier communities still lose people between treatment, crisis, and real life

• How a peer-run recovery community center works when you are not “in recovery” but you are in the room every day

• Funding fights, NIMBY pushback, and what it takes to keep the lights on

• The gap between “you finished treatment” and “you have a life”

If you live in a small town, a campus town, or anywhere that recovery still means driving two hours, this one is for you.

Guest: Darrell Keim, Latah Recovery Center / Whitman Recovery Community Center
Links: latahrecoverycenter.org · whitmanrecoverycommunity.org

Pulse of Addiction Resources:

• Bake It Forward:https://bakeitforward.net

• Cedar Path (recovery/wellness tools):https://cedarpath.tech

In this episode of The Pulse of Addiction, host Alex talks with Jason Rilogio, Founder and Executive Director of FAVOR Laurel Highlands, a fully peer‑run Recovery Community Organization (RCO) in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Jason shares his journey from early chaos and getting clean in 2010 to building a recovery community center, weaving peer support into reentry, and helping shape statewide policy as a Certified Recovery Specialist (CRS) and Certified Peer Specialist (CPS).

They talk honestly about:

• What a recovery community center actually looks like on the ground — drop‑in space, mutual‑aid groups, sober socials, wellness programs, and peer mentoring in a region hit hard by opioids and economic decline

• How Bridging the Gap connects people leaving jail to recovery housing, employment support, and ongoing peer services through partnerships with probation, parole, and local nonprofits

• The reality of being a peer leader and recovery ecosystem coordinator — building recovery capital, training peers, and pushing for peer‑supported services in mental health, substance use, and justice systems

• The gaps that still exist in rural recovery, from transportation and housing to long‑term behavioral health care and stigma in small towns

• What second chances should actually look like for people with lived experience who want to work in child care, recovery housing, treatment, and community leadership without being permanently defined by their past

This conversation is for anyone interested in peer recovery support, reentry after incarceration, recovery community organizations, rural addiction recovery, and the day‑to‑day work of turning personal recovery into community infrastructure.

Keywords naturally woven in: peer recovery, recovery community center, reentry program, sober living, addiction recovery Pennsylvania, recovery coaching, lived experience, harm reduction, behavioral health, rural recovery, opioid recovery, substance use disorder support.

• FAVOR Laurel Highlands (Recovery Community Center, Johnstown PA):
  https://www.favorlaurelhighlands.org

• Contact / leadership page (Jason as Executive Director):
  https://www.favorlaurelhighlands.org/contact/

• Bridging the Gap reentry initiative (Cambria County, PA):
  https://www.jbhknowledgeexchange.org/meet-the-cossup-grantees/cambria-county-pa

You can also find Jason via LinkedIn under “Jason Rilogio – Founder Executive Director, FAVOR Laurel Highlands” and through Pennsylvania peer support and behavioral health commission pages where he’s listed as a recovery ecosystem leader.

• The Pulse of Addiction on Spotify:
  https://open.spotify.com/show/69xIjWXGwEMYgFEPOItiZp

• Show site:
  https://pulseofaddiction.lovable.app

• Bake It Forward:
  https://bakeitforward.net

• Cedar Path:
  https://cedarpath.tech

Guest links – Jason Rilogio / FAVOR Laurel HighlandsHost & show links – Alex / The Pulse of Addiction