Chasing Heroine: Addiction Recovery and Sobriety

In this episode of High Functioning - an off shoot of the Chasing Heroine podcast, I'm sharing my all-time favorite mindset tool, one that has the power to completely change how you experience everything that happens to you. It's Jack Canfield's E + R = O formula (Event + Response = Outcome), and once you have it, you can't unsee it.
The core idea is this: you can't control what happens to you, but your response is where all of your power lives, and that response is what determines your outcome. This means that no matter what life throws at you, you have more control than you think.
I walk you through four stories from my own life so you can see exactly how this plays out in real time:
The Black Friday sale at my fitness studio, where I turned an objectively great sales day into anxiety and regret purely through my response, and what that cost me
My addiction, which I now see as the best thing that ever happened to me, showing you that even your hardest chapters can be reframed into fuel
A collaborator canceling last-minute on a creative project, where choosing my response over my reaction led to a better outcome than I originally planned
A near-relapse at McDonald's in early recovery, where one split-second response decision changed the entire trajectory of my life
By the end, you'll be looking back at your own life and spotting every moment you already did this without realizing it, and more importantly, you'll know how to start doing it on purpose.
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Email me chasingheroine@gmail.com
See you next week!

What starts as a story about a kid from Utah with a promising football career ends somewhere nobody saw coming — including Chad himself.
Growing up in Utah, Chad was the guy with a future. Athletics, ambition, a clear path forward. Then a knee injury in high school changed everything. What started as pain management turned into something much harder to put down. Weed and ecstasy in high school gave way to pain pills after the injury, and once that door opened, Chad walked through it fast.
He dropped out of high school. Got into door to door sales. Found ways to fund a life that was quietly unraveling. The escalating drug use brought escalating problems, including criminal activity that started stacking consequences he couldn't outrun.
A move to California was supposed to be the reset. It didn't quite work out that way, but it did lead him to the woman who would become the mother of his child. They moved back to Utah together, and Chad kept trying to get it together. He couldn't. The relationship didn't survive it.
And then came the moment that actually broke through.
Separation from his daughter.
That was the thing that reached him where nothing else could. Chad made the decision to move back to California, and this time something was different. He found lasting sobriety in 2024 and hasn't looked back. Today he works alongside his brother at Sacred Journey Men's Recovery Center, turning everything he lived through into something that helps other men find their way out.
Connect with Sacred Journey Treatment Center on ⁠Instagram⁠
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Email me chasingheroine@gmail.com
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What starts as an Adderall pill shared in a high school hallway on Long Island doesn't look like the beginning of a story about psychosis. But for McKenna, that's exactly what it was.
In this episode, we sit down with McKenna Mangan - soon-to-be mom, wife, entrepreneur, and woman with over three years of sobriety — to trace the long and winding road from her ambitious beginnings to her most devastating lows, and ultimately to a life she never could have imagined for herself.
McKenna was doing everything "right." She graduated from Fordham University, landed a coveted finance role on Wall Street, and had every box checked on paper. But underneath the success, what had started as casual Adderall use in high school had quietly grown into a full-blown dependency — one that Wall Street's pressure-cooker culture only accelerated. When the jobs disappeared, McKenna found herself back on Long Island with her addiction running the show, cycling through toxic and abusive relationships, and spiraling further from the woman she once was.
The turning point came in the form of a two-month psychosis — a terrifying rock bottom that finally opened the door to real change.
Now on the other side, McKenna shares how treatment didn't just save her life — it completely redirected it. Through connections made in recovery, she discovered a surprising new career path she never saw coming, one that lights her up in ways Wall Street never did. Today, she's building a business, a marriage, and a family, all rooted in the clarity that only sobriety can bring.
Today's episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Seasons ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠in Malibu. For over 18 years, Seasons has been a sanctuary for individuals seeking to reclaim their lives from addiction and mental health challenges. Our story began with a simple but profound vision: To create a luxurious sanctuary for individuals struggling with addiction or mental health issues, where they can receive the finest, evidence-based treatment in the world.
Built on Compassion, Driven by Excellence
What started as a small number of compassionate professionals has grown into one of the nation’s most respected luxury treatment centers. But growth has never meant losing sight of what matters most—the individual engaging with our therapists, one-on-one, taking the courageous first step toward healing.From the beginning, we understood that truly transformative treatment requires more than clinical protocols. It demands a personalized approach, led by the most qualified professionals, in an environment that nurtures the whole person. That’s why we’ve assembled a team where every primary therapist holds a Doctorate in Psychology - a distinction virtually unmatched in our field.Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Seasons Malibu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ online or call 1-866-314-5160 for more information.
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Email me at chasingheroine@gmail.com
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What happens when a University of Chicago-trained psychologist spends three years at Stanford's bipolar disorders clinic, deploys to four war zones with the Navy, works counterterrorism intelligence with the LA Sheriff's Department - and then lands in a Malibu addiction treatment center asking patients one simple question: where does it hurt?
Dr. Matthew Schumacher joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about the science of addiction, the biology of balance, and why some of the most powerful tools for recovery are also the oldest ones. From dopamine fasting to behavioral activation to the underrated magic of a social routine, Dr. Schumacher breaks down what actually moves the needle - whether you're in a luxury treatment center in Malibu or sitting at home trying to figure out your next step.
Reasons You Need to Hear This:
There's a specific reason your brain craves constant noise — and Dr. Schumacher explains exactly what's happening biologically when you can't turn it off, and what that has to do with why substances feel so necessary in the first place.
There's a decades-old treatment for depression that nobody talks about — not a medication, not a complex therapy, not a $300 supplement.
Your daily routine might be doing more damage than you realize — Dr. Schumacher breaks down the surprising biological link between the rhythm of your day and the stability of your mood, and why this might be the most overlooked piece of long-term recovery.
The thing your body is actually trying to feel when it reaches for a substance — it turns out nature already built the answer in. Dr. Schumacher explains what it is and how to start accessing it again, especially when you feel like nothing else brings you pleasure anymore.
The question he asks every single patient in their first session — it's not what you'd expect from someone with his level of training, and the reason he starts there will genuinely make you rethink what healing actually requires.
There's a free, research-backed tool for anxiety that's been around since the 1960s — most people have never tried it because it sounds too simple. Dr. Schumacher makes the case for why simple might be exactly what's needed.
If you've been to treatment before and it didn't stick, this episode explains why and it has everything to do with what was - and wasn't - being treated while you were there.
Today's episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Seasons ⁠⁠⁠⁠in Malibu. For over 18 years, Seasons has been a sanctuary for individuals seeking to reclaim their lives from addiction and mental health challenges. Our story began with a simple but profound vision: To create a luxurious sanctuary for individuals struggling with addiction or mental health issues, where they can receive the finest, evidence-based treatment in the world.
Built on Compassion, Driven by Excellence
What started as a small number of compassionate professionals has grown into one of the nation’s most respected luxury treatment centers. But growth has never meant losing sight of what matters most—the individual engaging with our therapists, one-on-one, taking the courageous first step toward healing.From the beginning, we understood that truly transformative treatment requires more than clinical protocols. It demands a personalized approach, led by the most qualified professionals, in an environment that nurtures the whole person. That’s why we’ve assembled a team where every primary therapist holds a Doctorate in Psychology - a distinction virtually unmatched in our field.Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Seasons Malibu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ online or call 1-866-314-5160 for more information.
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Dana grew up between New Jersey and New York City with a Vietnam vet father who struggled with heroin addiction. After moving to California, building a career as a celebrity hairstylist, and starting a family, everything fell apart when a back injury led to an opiate prescription. Within months she was buying pills off the street, and eventually that turned into a years-long heroin and meth addiction that cost her her marriage, her career, and nearly her children.
In this episode Dana talks about using while pregnant, discovering she was six months along in an emergency room, losing custody of her youngest son to CPS, and spending years cycling through rehabs while still finding ways to get high inside them. She also shares what it took to finally get sober, the three-year legal battle to get her son back, and how she rebuilt her life, her relationships with her kids, and her own business from nothing. Eight years later, she credits her faith as the thing that carried her through all of it.
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Email me chasingheroine@gmail.com
See you next week!