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What if the most loving thing a family can do is stop helping? In this raw solo episode, Jason Coombs shares the unfiltered story of his addiction, his parents’ breaking point, and the family therapy moment that changed everything: “Get off the beach.” If you’re exhausted from absorbing the waves of someone else’s addiction, this episode was made for you.

There’s a moment in almost every family’s addiction story where love and enabling look identical. You can’t tell them apart. That’s not weakness — that’s the nature of the disease.
In this solo episode, Jason pulls back the curtain on the season of his addiction that nearly destroyed his family, and the unexpected turning point that started their healing — long before his own sobriety began.
This one is personal. And it might be exactly what you need to hear today.

🌊 The tsunami metaphor — why every decision an addict makes eventually crashes onto the family shore
🔥 The night Jason confessed to his parents, and how their loving response quietly reinforced his denial
🪑 The family therapy session that gave his parents three words that changed everything: “Get off the beach”
🔐 The Cracker Barrel boundary — changed locks, restricted access, and the manipulation that finally didn’t work
👶 Nathan’s birth and the painful gift of placing his son for adoption — the why that grew bigger than the addiction
🌭 The hot dog stand conversation 72 days into sobriety that launched the mission behind Unhooked
🎣 How family members get “hooked” — managing probation, covering for their loved one’s boss, softening every consequence
💡 Jason’s five-principle boundary framework — a practical roadmap for exhausted families.

“For the first time, my parents understood that to love me did not mean to rescue me. It meant setting boundaries. It meant getting healthy. It meant getting off the beach and taking their life back.”

TIMESTAMP GUIDE:
∙[00:59] The survivors of the Titanic — why shared pain creates unlikely community
∙[01:21] The tsunami wave analogy explained
∙[03:28] The confession on the fireplace bricks — and the response that reinforced the disease
∙[06:12] “Get off the beach” — the family therapy moment
∙[08:38] The Cracker Barrel boundary conversation
∙[10:23] When the manipulation stopped working
∙[10:48] Nathan’s birth and the adoption decision
∙[13:53] The hot dog stand and the birth of Unhooked
∙[20:16] How families get hooked without realizing it
∙[21:12] Why pain is the engine of change
∙[29:14] The five-principle boundary framework
∙[33:59] Writing down what you “hear that isn’t said”

RESOURCES MENTIONED:
📘 Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover — available on Amazon and Audible
💻 Live Unhooked Course + Community — brickhouserecovery.com
📞 Brick House Recovery — 208-286-4274

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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There’s a moment most families never forget.
It’s not the first time they found the pills. It’s not the arrest, or the call from the hospital, or the Christmas that fell apart. It’s quieter than that. It’s the moment they realize that everything they did out of love, the bail, the hotel rooms, the money on the jail books, the middle-of-the-night rescues, may have been feeding the very thing trying to destroy their child.
That’s where this episode begins. And it doesn’t stay there.
In Episode 50 of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs delivers one of the most personal and practically powerful coaching sessions he’s ever recorded. This isn’t a lecture. It’s a living room conversation with someone who has been on both sides of the wreckage, the addict and the son, and who has spent years turning that wreckage into a roadmap for families who are still in the middle of it.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
∙Jason’s mother Janna share her testimony, from enabling in desperation to loving without losing herself
∙A rarely shared chapter of Jason’s personal story, including his childhood sensitivity, co-occurring diagnoses, and a newly discovered Auditory Processing Disorder that finally explained decades of struggle
∙How Jason became entangled in Utah’s largest OxyContin drug ring and watched the news story break on the very TV station where he worked
∙Jennifer Chase, Brick House team member and a mother walking her own road, asking one of the most honest questions of the episode: “How do they feel loved when I tell them I can’t get them a hotel room?”
∙A practical breakdown of the Stages of Change model and why expecting action-stage behavior from a pre-contemplation-stage person is a setup for heartbreak on both sides
∙Why relapse is not a moral failure. It’s a stage, and understanding that changes everything
∙Jason’s personal recovery beyond sobriety, including compulsive behaviors the recovery world doesn’t always talk about
∙Why faith over fear isn’t just spiritual advice. It’s the most effective influence strategy a family member can adopt
The truth this episode keeps returning to:
You cannot love someone into recovery. But you can learn to love them in a way that stops blocking it.
Janna Coombs didn’t find that truth through a program or a checklist. She found it the hard way, through years of trying to fix what she couldn’t fix, until she finally put down the weight of an outcome she was never meant to carry.
“If you don’t have hope one day,” she says, “just think of Jason’s story and take some of my hope. Miracles can happen.”
That’s the heart of this episode. Not a promise that it gets easy. A promise that it gets possible.
Resources mentioned:
∙Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover by Jason Coombs, available on Amazon and Audible
∙Fight the New Drug, fighthenewdrug.org
∙Brick House Recovery, brickhouserecovery.com
∙Stages of Change Model, Prochaska & DiClemente
Connect with Jason:
📧 jason@brickhouserecovery.com
📞 208-286-4274
🌐 brickhouserecovery.com

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

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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In this deeply personal episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs sits down with Donna Pope, Executive Director of Heart to Heart Adoptions and an adoption advocate with more than 25 years of experience.

Together, they explore the rarely discussed intersection of adoption, addiction, and purpose through both professional insight and lived experience. Jason shares his perspective as a birth father in long-term recovery, opens up about his son Nathan, and reflects on the meaning that can grow from a story still being written.

This conversation is honest, emotional, and full of hope for birth parents, adoptive families, and anyone navigating recovery.

In this episode:

• [01:00] Jason introduces Donna Pope and shares why adoption is central to both his life story and recovery story
• [03:00] The Venn diagram of purpose, adoption, and addiction
• [07:45] Donna’s origin story and the beginning of Heart to Heart Adoptions
• [09:01] Monica’s story: addiction, placement, jail, faith, and extraordinary recovery
• [15:42] Josh’s pivotal question: why was he placed for adoption, but not his older brother?
• [21:35] How common addiction is in adoption stories
• [25:27] Nature, environment, and whether substance use disorder gets passed on
• [30:58] Why attachment is at the heart of both adoption and healing
• [33:10] The painful decision to send a 17-year-old to residential treatment
• [37:23] The response from Donna’s brother that changed everything
• [38:01] Where to follow Donna’s work and what’s coming with Adoptions.com

Key themes from this episode:

• The rarely heard voice of the birth father
• Why voluntary placement can be an act of courage, not abandonment
• How recovery can reshape families across generations
• The questions adoptees carry and why honest conversations matter
• Why attachment and consistent presence matter so much in both adoption and recovery
• Hope for families walking through addiction, adoption, or both

Jason also reflects on what it has meant to remain present in Nathan’s life, and how adoption became part of the deeper story God used in his own recovery journey.

Connect with Donna Pope:

• Heart to Heart Adoptions: hearttoheartadoption.com
• Voices of Adoption Podcast
• Choosing Adoption
• Adoption Utah
• Eternal Family Adoptions
• Adoptions.com

Jason’s book Unhooked is available on Audible and Amazon.

Learn more about Brick House Recovery at www.brickhouserecovery.com.

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 a family is living through addiction, most of the focus falls on parents and spouses. But siblings carry their own kind of heartbreak, confusion, and hope.

In this episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs is joined by his brother Cory, his sister Melissa, and co-host Jennifer Chase for an honest conversation about the sibling experience in family recovery. They talk about loving someone from a distance, learning the difference between helping and fixing, and discovering that recovery can change the whole family, not just the person struggling.

You’ll hear how distance sometimes became a healthy boundary, why education helped replace judgment with compassion, how trust was rebuilt slowly over time, and what actually helped their parents during the hardest seasons. This episode is a reminder that showing up with love, honesty, and presence can matter more than having the perfect words.

If you have ever wondered what siblings feel, what they carry quietly, or how family healing really happens, this conversation will stay with you.

Show Notes
In Episode 47, Jason sits down with his brother Cory and sister Melissa to explore a side of family recovery that often goes unspoken: the sibling perspective. Together with Jennifer Chase, they unpack what it was like to love someone through addiction, support their parents from different distances, and watch recovery reshape the entire family system.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why family recovery can begin even before trust feels fully restored
• How geographic distance created natural boundaries during the chaos
• The different ways siblings process fear, confusion, and love
• How education helped replace anger and judgment with understanding
• Why trust is rebuilt slowly, honestly, and over time
• What actually helps parents in crisis and what does not
• Why listening matters more than interrogating
• How simple acts of presence can become powerful turning points in recovery

Episode Highlights:
[01:26] Jason reframes family recovery as a process separate from sobriety
[03:29] How distance became a protective boundary for sibling relationships
[09:22] Jennifer shares what she hopes to learn from a sibling perspective
[10:08] Cory reflects on a brotherly bond that never broke
[13:50] Cory shares the impact of attending Jason’s treatment graduation
[17:34] Melissa opens up about once believing Jason could “just stop”
[18:46] How reading recovery literature and attending family group changed Melissa’s understanding
[22:11] Why trust-building happens slowly and rarely in a straight line
[24:32] Cory explains how Jason’s recovery work became a mirror for his own growth
[30:22] What helped and what did not when supporting their parents
[38:41] Why listening matters more than asking more questions
[43:01] Jason closes with a reflection on showing

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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Episode 46: How Do I Navigate Relapse? - Understanding the Cycle of Change

Relapse is one of the most feared words in a family’s recovery vocabulary. It shatters trust, reignites fear, and leaves everyone asking the same desperate question: Why would they go back after everything they’ve been through? In this raw and revealing episode of the Get Unhooked Podcast, Jason Coombs pulls back the curtain on his own relapse story and reframes how families can respond when their loved one stumbles. The answer is not panic. It’s not control. It’s surrender, and it looks nothing like giving up.

Episode Highlights

• [01:00] Jason introduces the topic: How do I navigate relapse?
• [02:25] Jason recounts his personal history of loss, homelessness, failed rehabs, and incarceration
• [03:24] The drug court graduation that ended with a devastating relapse in Wendover, Nevada
• [05:14] How the removal of external motivation exposed the power of the addict voice
• [07:26] The escalation from one Long Island iced tea to cocaine, debt, and a violent confrontation with a dealer
• [09:39] A participant shares her perspective on surrender and “making friends with the worst case scenario”
• [11:14] Why behaviors don’t always mirror someone’s true stage of change
• [13:19] Jason reads from his book Unhooked on the cycle of relapse and shame
• [16:32] The story of Grace: how a holiday relapse became a springboard to lasting action
• [22:14] Relapse, ambivalence, and the deep identity ties to substance use
• [25:29] Applying recovery principles as a family member and advocate
• [28:30] Introduction to the seven steps of surrender
• [30:11] Why surrender is hopeful, not hopeless

The Day External Motivation Disappeared

Jason opens this episode with a story that most families will recognize in some form. He had done the hard thing. He completed drug court. His felonies were reduced to misdemeanors. His parents took him to lunch, gave him gifts, told him they were proud. By every external measure, he had made it.

Then a coworker invited him to celebrate in Wendover, Nevada. One Long Island iced tea seemed harmless. He never really got in trouble for alcohol, after all. But the drink triggered what he describes as an allergic reaction, both physiological and mental. That single drink ignited a craving that ended the night with a thousand dollars gone, a club ejection for disorderly conduct, and a cocaine binge. By the next morning, shame had already begun feeding the cycle again.

What Jason wants families to understand is this: the promises were real. The commitment was genuine. But when external motivation lifted and internal ambivalence remained, the disease found its opening. Families often smack their foreheads and ask, What were you thinking? The honest answer is that thinking had very little to do with it.

Why Relapse Happens and What It Actually Means

Jason leans on Dr. Prochaska’s stages of

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 a text

Episode 45: Jason Coombs on That Sober Guy Podcast with Shane Ramer

A wide-ranging conversation on recovery, faith, fatherhood, identity, and the daily work of staying sober.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How a legitimate injury and pain pills turned into a life-consuming spiral
• The collapse of an OxyContin supply chain and why heroin surged next
• What it’s like to survive homelessness in a brutal winter
• The moment a text from Jason’s mom disrupted a suicidal night
• “The gift of volition” and why lasting change has to become personal
• A simple reflection practice that builds momentum instead of shame
• The difference between the “smaller story” and the “larger story”
• A faith-rooted decision framework: study it out, choose, then take it to God
• Warrior Heart Retreat and the three pillars that wake a man’s heart up again
• How Jason now supports families who feel exhausted, scared, and alone

Timestamps

• [01:00] Crossover episode intro: That Sober Guy Podcast with Shane Ramer
• [01:43] Year-end reflection: journaling victories and lessons
• [08:11] Emotionally shut down, risk-taking, anxiety/ADHD self-medicating
• [12:05] The OxyContin ring and the spiral that followed
• [16:06] Homelessness, felony charges, surviving winter on the streets
• [17:21] Court-mandated treatment, five rehabs, psychosis before sobriety
• [23:07] The text from Mom that interrupted a suicidal moment
• [24:26] “Volition”: why internal motivation outlasts external pressure
• [26:13] From selling hot dogs to a calling to help families
• [30:26] Stepping out of the smaller story into the larger story
• [36:10] 12 Steps as a pathway to conscious contact and guidance
• [40:37] Decision-making: study it out, choose, take it to God
• [44:32] Warrior Heart pillars: battle, adventure, beauty
• [52:14] Retreat impact: stripping the crust, restoring identity
• [56:50] Resources for families: book, podcast, free tools

Quotes worth revisiting

• “External pressure can work for a season. Internal motivation is what lasts.”
• “You don’t just get out of the hole. You get outfitted to climb.”
• “A plan beats panic. Support beats isolation.”

Resources mentioned

• Brick House Recovery: (add your link)
• Get Unhooked Podcast: (add your link)
• Unhooked (book): (add your Amazon/Audible links)
• Warrior Heart Retreat: (add your link)
• That Sober Guy Podcast: (add show link)

For families who feel stuck

If you love someone who’s struggling, you’re not powerless and you’re not the cause. You may not be able to control their choices, but you can change how you show up, create healthier conditions, and get support for your own nervous system, boundaries, and peace.

Gentle note

This episode includes discussion of addiction, homelessness, and suicidal moments. If you or som

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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Why You Say You Want Peace… But Refuse to Do the One Thing That Brings It

Most families say they want peace.

But when it comes time to grieve the loss of the relationship they hoped for…

they tighten their grip instead.

In this deeply honest episode, Jason reveals:

• Why control disguises itself as love
• How fear keeps families emotionally hooked
• The grief step most people skip
• Why surrender is not giving up
• And how to finally reclaim your life — even if your loved one hasn’t changed

This episode is both confronting and freeing.

If you’ve been strong for far too long…

this one will hit home.

⏱ Episode Highlights

[01:01] Why families show up strong, not weak — and how control hides behind love

[03:12] Step 1: The Hula Hoop Principle — what’s yours and what’s not

[05:23] Step 2: Facing your worst fear without catastrophizing

[07:12] Step 3: Letting go of attachment to specific outcomes

[09:04] Step 4: The grief stage most families avoid (and why it keeps you stuck)

[11:30] Why families say they want peace but refuse to grieve

[14:59] The five stages of grief explained through Jason’s personal loss

[20:57] Step 5: Trusting something bigger than your fear

[21:37] Step 6: Holding onto hope while releasing control

[22:37] Step 7: The daily practice of surrender

What You’ll Learn

✔ The difference between surrender and enabling

✔ Why fear creates the very outcomes you’re trying to prevent

✔ How grief breaks the control cycle

✔ How to be okay — even if they don’t change

✔ A 14-day surrender blueprint to begin reclaiming your peace

A Personal Note from Jason

You don’t have to wait for your loved one to recover before you recover your life.

That’s not selfish.

That’s sane.

Surrender is not giving up on them.

It’s finally picking yourself back up.

Resources & Support

📖 Unhooked: How to Help an Addicted Loved One Recover — Available on Amazon & Audible

🌐 Learn more about family recovery support at:

https://www.brickhouserecovery.com

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