Nancy Deyo spent years leading in the high-stakes world of Silicon Valley then a climb up Kilimanjaro left her with a spinal injury that changed the course of her life. In this episode of Too Light Too Dark, Nancy walks us through the full arc: the identity of a CEO built on control and performance, the injury that took that control away, the opioid addiction that followed in its wake, and the long, unglamorous work of finding a new normal on the other side.

This is a conversation about what happens when the body forces a reckoning the mind isn't ready for and how identity, purpose, and recovery get rebuilt from the ground up, piece by piece.

If you've ever had to become someone new after everything familiar was taken from you, this one's for you.

• opioid addiction recovery
• spinal injury recovery story
• Kilimanjaro accident
• ex-CEO addiction story
• chronic pain and opioids
• identity after injury
• Silicon Valley burnout
• women in recovery
• rebuilding after trauma
• addiction recovery podcast
• chronic pain management
• reinvention after crisis

Website: https://nancydeyo.com

Substack LIFE INSIDE PAIN: https://nancydeyo.substack.com

The conversation delves into the barriers to change for individuals with alcohol problems, highlighting the physiological, psychological, and systemic challenges they face. It explores the impact of physiological barriers such as cognitive impairment and liver disease, emphasizing the importance of harm reduction and positive risk management in supporting individuals through their recovery journey.

The conversation delves into the complexities of alcohol dependency, exploring positive risk-taking, male vulnerability, the role of alcohol as a coping mechanism, gender and age dynamics in alcohol dependency, the impact of alcohol dependency, self-care and motivation, housing and recovery models, and the potential for change and recovery.

Takeaways

• Engagement is a form of harm reduction
• Physical health insights can be motivational
• Positive risk management is important for practitioners Positive risk-taking
• Male vulnerability
• Alcohol as a coping mechanism
• Gender and age in alcohol dependency
• Impact of alcohol dependency
• Self-care and motivation
• Housing and recovery
• Change and recovery

Chapters

• 00:00 Understanding the Barriers to Change
• 03:06 The Impact of Physiological Barriers
• 22:12 Harm Reduction and Positive Risk Management
• 34:26 Positive Risk-Taking and Language
• 36:13 Male Vulnerability and Alcohol Use
• 38:09 Gender and Age in Alcohol Dependency
• 41:04 Self-Care and Motivation
• 46:15 Housing and Recovery Models
• 53:38 Change and Recovery

What happens when the parts of yourself you once saw as weaknesses become the source of your purpose?

In Episode 38 of Too Light Too Dark, I sit down with Lawrence C Harris —youth mental health advocate, keynote speaker, author and youth empowerment voice for a deeply personal conversation about autism, C-PTSD, childhood trauma, identity, self-worth and finding your voice.

Lawrence doesn't simply talk about what happened to him. He talks about what he has done with it.

Living with autism and drawing from his own experience of childhood trauma and C-PTSD, Lawrence has turned lived experience into a mission to help young people challenge limiting beliefs, build resilience and take ownership of their futures.

We explore:

🧠 Living with autism and seeing the world differently
🩸 Childhood trauma and the lasting impact of C-PTSD
🪞 The struggle between “too much” and “not enough”
🔥 Turning pain into purpose
🗣️ Finding your voice after feeling unheard
❤️ Self-worth, self-love and identity
👥 Why young people need connection rather than judgement
🌱 What happens when we stop allowing our past to define our future
⚫⚪ And the question at the heart of Too Light Too Dark: Can we integrate the parts of ourselves we've spent years trying to hide?

This isn't a conversation about being defined by trauma.

It's about what becomes possible when we start telling a different story about ourselves.

Lawrence C Harris
Youth Mental Health Advocate | Keynote Speaker | Author | Youth Empowerment Speaker

🌐 Lawrence: www.lawrencecharris.com
📱 Socials: @LawrenceCEmpowers

🎙️ Too Light Too Dark
Recovery, identity, trauma, meaning and the messy business of becoming whole.

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