Is Al-Anon and 12-Step the best approach for families navigating their loved one’s addiction? The pressure to issue ultimatums or cut them off entirely can feel like the only path forward. But what if the advice you've been given is outdated, incomplete, not for you, or just wrong?

In this episode, Jane Mackey, CEO and founder of We The Village and certified family coach, challenges what families are told about loving someone through addiction, and how to move beyond the 12-step approach used in Al-Anon and Nar-Anon.

Jane found CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) after desperately searching for real tools to help someone she loved, and has since built an accessible family coaching program around it.

Together, we get into:

• Why "tough love" and "rock bottom" became the default, and where they actually fall short

• The enabling myth: how to tell the difference between hurting and helping

• How to respond to their substance use without losing control

• Why cutting someone off makes it harder for them to get help and can reduce your influence over their recovery

• Whether CRAFT and 12-step can coexist, or if they're fundamentally at odds

• How families report feeling less anxious and depressed through CRAFT — even when their loved one never gets help

If you've ever felt like you're choosing between abandoning someone you love and losing yourself entirely, this episode is for you.

We The Village is offering listeners 20% off their programs — use code FLOR at wethevillage.co

📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey

🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery

📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram and TikTok
🎙Guest speaker: Jane Macky, founder and CEO of We The Village

This episode is for anyone navigating a sibling's addiction, early sobriety, or the complicated road of family recovery.

A year ago, I wasn't sure where my brother Justin would be today — or if he'd make it to his 21st birthday.

This episode, releasing in honor of National Sibling Day (April 10th), is one I've been waiting to record for a long time. Justin is 21, one year sober, and six months into a long-term young adult treatment program — and for the first time, he's sharing his story of addiction and early sobriety in his own words.

We recorded this together during a family visit upstate, and what came out of it was more honest, more raw, and more hopeful than I could have scripted.

We talk about:

• What the past year of young adult addiction recovery has actually looked like — the hard parts and the proud ones
• How drug addiction shaped his relationships, his sense of self, and what friendship even means
• The loneliness and shame in early sobriety that don't get talked about enough
• What he wishes people understood about addiction before judging someone going through it

📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey

🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery

📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram and TikTok

🎙Guest speaker: Justin Dajer

Related content:

• Episode: My brother’s addiction: Learning how to be his sister—not mom
  

Addiction is hard. But the stories we tell about it can make it even harder.

When someone you love is struggling with substance use, the questions feel endless:

Do they deserve my love right now?

Am I enabling them?

Should I cut them off?

In this episode, we unpack one of the most dangerous parts of addiction — the narrative around it. Because sometimes what harms our loved ones isn’t just the substances. It’s the shame. The labels. The fear-driven decisions. The belief that love must be earned.

In this episode with Joseph Green, a person in recovery and spoken word artist, we explore 5 powerful mindset shifts that can change how you show up:

• Moving from “deserving” to inherent worth

• Treating addiction as a mental health condition — not a moral failue

• Reframing “enabling” vs. compassionate care and harm reduction

• Rethinking cutting someone off vs. being there when they’re ready

• Choosing people-first language over labels like “junkie” or “addict”

If you’ve ever felt torn between protecting yourself and loving someone through addiction, this conversation will challenge you to look at the story you’re telling — about them and about yourself.

📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey

🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery

📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram and TikTok

🎙Guest speaker: Joseph Green

Related content:

• About LMS Voice: https://lmsvoice.com/productions/

• Start WIth Hope stories: https://startwithhope.com/stories-of-hope

• Take the Stories of Hope course and own your story: https://ncmwpic.learnupon.com/store/4553158-stories-of-hope-a-value-centered-approach-to-storytelling