Hopestream: Parenting Kids Through Addiction & Mental Health

Brenda Zane
  • 5.0 (232)
  • Parenting
  • Updated Weekly

When your teen or young adult is misusing drugs or alcohol, you need more than just tactics—you need hope, healing, and a path forward for your entire family. Hopestream delivers expert guidance and emotional support for parents navigating their child's substance use and mental health struggles. Hosted by Brenda Zane, Mayo Clinic Certified health coach and CRAFT-trained Parent Coach who nearly lost her son to addiction, this podcast goes beyond "how to get them into treatment" to address the full ecosystem of this journey. Episodes features: Leading addiction, prevention, and treatment expertsReal stories from families who've been thereEvidence-based strategies for helping your childSelf-care and coping tools for parentsDeeper conversations about finding meaning, joy, and even unexpected blessings through the hardest times Whether you're dealing with a teen or young adult's drug use, alcohol misuse, or co-occurring mental health challenges, Hopestream offers the comprehensive support other parenting and addiction podcasts miss. This is your safe space to heal, learn, and discover you're not alone. New episodes weekly. Join us between the episodes at hopestreamcommunity.org.

  1. 4d ago ·  Video

    The Surprising Power Of Non-Reactivity, with Cathy Cioth

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: The morning of our move, the pods were in the driveway, my dad had shown up ready to work, and my son was barely awake and in no shape to lift a box. Half an hour in, he asked if we were almost done. I felt the butterflies start up in my chest, and within seconds I was matching his drama word for word, with my dad standing right there taking it all in. Cathy has her own version of that moment - and I’m sure you do as well. We can laugh about it now, but both of us spent years believing we were responding to our kids when we were really just adding fuel to their fire. This episode is about non-reactivity, the piece of the Invitation to Change approach that I think quietly gets left behind while we focus on more concrete things like boundaries and natural consequences. Chaos needs two participants, so when you stop supplying your half, something shifts, and it has nothing to do with controlling your child. Cathy and I talk about where reactivity shows up in your body before your brain catches up, why the rules every "good family" follows can pull you into the wrong fight, and what to do when the demands and gaslighting leave you wondering who the parent is in your house. We also talk about safety, because sometimes that pounding heart is telling you something real. And we re-share a line from our friend Dina Cannizzaro that I think every parent should memorize. Put it on a sticky note, or your forearm, or bathroom mirror - it’s pure gold. If your home has started to revolve around your child's moods and you’re tired of losing the same argument over and over, this one is for you. YOU'LL LEARN: What Cathy and I each finally did mid-blowup that changed the relationship dynamicsThe early warning signs your body sends before you say something you regretWhy the small things you care about most can be the perfect distraction for your kidTwo questions to ask yourself when you feel triggered, and why one of them is about your safetyThe powerful line Dina recommends to step away from a fight without walking away from your childEPISODE RESOURCES: Hopestream podcast episode 297 with Dina CannizzaroThis podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    The Surprising Power Of Non-Reactivity, with Cathy Cioth

  2. Sep 24

    What Recovery Looks Like For Parents, with Janice

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: If you’re parenting a young person struggling with substance and someone tells you that you need recovery too, it can land sideways since you're not the one using. You're just trying to hold everything together while your kid gets better. And you're already doing so much: the books, therapy, podcasts, late-night Googling. Janice asked that question anyway. A member of The Stream and mom of two adult kids now in recovery, she used to be the one everyone called to get things done not for a hug. When she Googled what drugs her son was using, she chose to get educated instead of feeling sorry for herself. That education pointed straight back at her. We talk about the two biggest shifts she had to make (one starts before you say a word), the small non-negotiable practices she keeps no matter what's happening with her kids, and a standoff over the air conditioning that taught her more than she expected plus the question she asks herself when her own recovery feels like walking away from her child. It felt like the right way to close out Recovery Month, with the parent who so often gets left out of the conversation. If you've poured everything into your child's recovery and nothing into your own, this one's for you. YOU'LL LEARN: What "doing the work" meant for Janice, after months of researchThe two biggest shifts she had to make and why one starts before a word is spokenThe small, unglamorous practices she keeps non-negotiable, no matter whatWhat a standoff over the air conditioning taught her about the rope she kept picking upThe question she asks when her own recovery feels like abandoning her child EPISODE RESOURCES: Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, by Jeffrey Foote, Carrie Wilkens, and Nicole KosankeCo-Dependency Isn't What You Think, with Rawly Glass, LCSW: Hopestream podcast episode 324Hopestream Community free two-week trial of The Stream: https://hopestreamcommunity.org/tryFree e-book: Worried Sick by Brenda Zane: https://hopestreamcommunity.org/worriedThis podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    What Recovery Looks Like For Parents, with Janice

  3. Sep 17 ·  Video

    From Self-Harm to Healing: A Highly Sensitive Girl’s Path to Recovery, with Ciara Fanlo

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: You’ve heard some version of it: Leave me alone! I know what I am doing! You don't understand me!” Ciara Fanlo said all of that to her mother, but what her mom didn’t know was that those statements were hiding a plea…please help me. Ciara was a sensitive kid in San Francisco, the kind who felt everything the world hurled at her at full volume before she had language or coping skills for it. Her parents divorced and she started self-harming by age ten, before she’d ever seen anyone else do it. She just knew she needed to displace the emotional pain she felt. By high school she had been through therapists, medications, and a residential program. She came home on a contract and broke every rule on it in one afternoon, which ended with a wrecked car, police, and her mother angrier than she had ever seen. On the drive home they passed a church, and her mom pulled into the parking lot. That stop at the church led to a life-changing wilderness therapy experience where she spent three months getting to know and love herself. One night in the wild of Colorado she looked up at the moon and felt something she had never felt in her life, and it changed what she thought was possible. Today she mentors teen girls through her practice, Homing Instinct. This is a recovery story, and it is also the closest thing to a translation I can hand you. Ciara says out loud what our kids cannot, including one line about hope that will especially resonate if your child currently feels out of control and beyond reach. If your child is pushing you away with both hands, this one is for you. YOU'LL LEARN The second message running underneath every angry "leave me alone," and why parents almost never hear itWhat Ciara wanted an adult to say to her to felt heard vs. diagnosedHow she unraveled a home contract in a single afternoon, and her mom’s reactionWhy her mom got the worst of her, and why that was never about her mom EPISODE RESOURCES: Homing Instinct: https://www.hominginstinct.org/Work with Ciara, start here for parents: https://www.hominginstinct.org/mentorshipPeer support groups: https://www.hominginstinct.org/peer-support-groupsCiara's essays: https://www.hominginstinct.org/blogHoming Instinct parent support group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hominginstinctCiara on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ciarafanloThe Stream, free two-week trial: https://hopestreamcommunity.org/tryWorried Sick free ebook: https://hopestreamcommunity.org/worriedThis podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    From Self-Harm to Healing: A Highly Sensitive Girl’s Path to Recovery, with Ciara Fanlo

  4. Sep 10

    Parents: You Change First, Then Them, with Brook McKenzie

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: You might already know what needs to change - or at least that something definitely needs to change in the dynamic with your child. Underneath the crisis calls, the covered debts, the conversations you soften before you have them, there’s a quiet voice telling you, “this has to stop.” But how? Brook McKenzie says that voice is right, and then says the harder part. You must go first. Brook is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, the CEO of Burning Tree Programs, and a person in long-term recovery. He’s also the author of the field guide parents truly need, “You’re Waiting On You: Why Real Recovery Starts With You - Not Them.” Brook didn’t find recovery until his thirties, and he’s clear about why. His parents loved him fiercely and did what most of us do. They softened the truth, absorbed the consequences, and kept the peace. He describes what that felt like from the inside, and it’s not what you might expect. The moms in The Stream talked about Brook’s book for months before I finally read it, in an hour and a half, and emailed him that same day. What lands here is that Brook does not perform sympathy. He highlights that the things that feel hardest are usually the effective ones, and the things that feel like relief are usually what keeps everyone stuck. He has his own word for what parents are doing when they rescue, and spoiler alert, it is not enabling. He also has an answer to the question that is in the back of every parent’s head, the one that starts with "but what if they die?" I asked about the sixteen year old you still have to house and feed, and what belongs on the list of what you will and will not do. He answered both without flinching. If you have been waiting for your child to be ready and change, this one might sting, and then it will help. YOU'LL LEARN Why Brook doesn’t use the word enabling, and the word he uses insteadThe two things he says sit underneath every ineffective parenting decision, without exceptionWhat he says to parents who tell him they will not put their child on the streetThe one change in how you talk to your child that he has watched work in months, sometimes weeksWhat you’re really telling your child when you fix their problems, clean up their mess and make decisions for themThe specific thing he wants you to bring to your next therapy sessionEPISODE RESOURCES: Brook McKenzie’s websiteGet the book, “You’re Waiting On You, Why Real Recovery Starts With YOU, Not Them”Burning Tree Ranch websiteThis podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    Parents: You Change First, Then Them, with Brook McKenzie

  5. Sep 3

    His Mom’s Hard Boundary Drove His Recovery, with Darren Hobbs

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: You‘ve probably watched your child make a decision so obviously terrible you could not understand how it made sense to them. Darren Hobbs can tell you exactly how it looked, because he made that decision. He had done treatment. He had a sponsor, a home group, a year chip. Then he took some cash he made, drove back to his old dealer, and fully believed he could be the sober cocaine dealer in a small college town. His story starts at 14, with a Vicodin prescription after surgery and the discovery that with substances in him, everything was better, easier and more fun. It runs through years of drinking and cocaine, wrecked cars, stolen money, and parents who kept trying to love him out of it. It ends, or maybe begins, on the floor of a Nashville bar with undercover detectives on top of him, staring at 20 years in prison. What changed him was not the arrest. It was a phone call from his mother, and one sentence she said that I know broke her heart - and drove his recovery. Darren is a Certified Intervention Professional, founder of The Firm Addiction Consulting in Nashville, and a cast member on A&E's Intervention. He has taken hundreds of families through interventions, and he is blunt about what parents do that keeps their kids stuck. He also told me the most extraordinary story of divine timing I have heard on this show. If you watch on YouTube, you will see the goosebumps on both of us. This is the first of four recovery stories this month, and I started here because Darren says out loud the things our kids cannot. If you are watching your child choose the things that will hurt them and cannot make sense of it, this one is for you. YOU'LL LEARN What Darren told himself the day he decided he could sell cocaine and stay soberThe one sentence his mother said on the phone that did what years of crime, jail and chaos never didWhy he says parents are the ones who installed the buttons their kids know how to pushThe two things he sees in almost every family who calls him at crisis pointThe tool he calls an industry guarded secret for families who cannot get in a room togetherEPISODE RESOURCES: The Firm Intervention and Addiction Consulting, Nashville, TNDarren on InstagramDie Sober Podcast, hosted by Darren Hobbs and Zach Livingston: https://www.thefirmaddictionconsulting.com/podcastThe Stream, free two-week trial: https://hopestreamcommunity.org/tryWorried Sick free ebook: https://hopestreamcommunity.org/worriedThis podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    His Mom’s Hard Boundary Drove His Recovery, with Darren Hobbs

  6. Aug 27

    What Are Boundaries and Why Parents Need Them, with Cathy Cioth

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: This week's episode is a Summer Replay originally aired in 2023.  You have rules. You have said them out loud, more than once. And somehow your kid is still doing exactly what they want, and you are the one lying awake wondering why nothing you say seems to land. Before I knew the word boundaries, that was my whole life. I felt invisible in my own house. Like a doormat. Like the rules I set were something my son found funny. The anger built until I was short with everyone, and I once yanked the cord out of the wall and threw an Xbox across a room. I'm definitely not proud of that reaction and never thought I'd be that mom. What changed things for me was learning that a boundary has nothing to do with controlling how someone else behaves. That distinction sounds small but it's not. Cathy and I sat down for this one because we watch parents struggle with it constantly. Not with coming up with the boundary. The hard part is holding it, and there is one specific reason we see people fold, and it is probably not what you think. We get honest about our own attempts, including the ones that went badly. Cathy shares the boundary she was too scared to enforce for a long time. I share the one that took therapy to get through; the day the moving pods were packed and my son was in a sleeping bag in an empty room. Fair warning. When you start holding boundaries after years of not holding them, things usually get more uncomfortable before they get better. We talk about that too. If you feel like you have lost your footing in your own home, start here. YOU'LL LEARN The one reason we see parents abandon boundaries they have already set, and why willpower has nothing to do with itWhy an ultimatum and a boundary can sound identical out loud and do opposite thingsThe picket fence and the hula hoop, and which one you need for which kind of boundaryThe boundary Cathy was too afraid to enforce, and the conversation with her husband that finally made it possibleWhat it actually cost me to hold the hardest boundary of my life, and who I needed around me to do itEPISODE RESOURCES: Setting and Holding Healthy Boundaries workshopOriginal episode: Ep. 174  Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    What Are Boundaries and Why Parents Need Them, with Cathy Cioth

  7. Aug 20

    Sending Your Struggling Kid To College, with Cathy Cioth

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: This week's episode is a Summer Replay from 2025. There is a version of August that has been living in your head since they were small. The car packed to the roof. The drive. Target for the bedding, the sweatshirt, the bumper sticker, the parent barbecue where everybody's kid looks fine. Except it is three weeks out and you are not picturing it anymore. You are watching them. Cathy and I both know what it costs to send them anyway. The tuition is paid. The housing is paid. Somebody in the family belongs to that fraternity. And underneath all of it sits the thing almost nobody says out loud, which is that you are tired, and you need your house to be quiet again. We understand that. We have both wanted the break badly enough to talk ourselves past our own gut. Cathy's son told her two weeks before he left that he did not think he wanted to go. They chalked it up to nerves. He was right, and what followed was not one crisis. It was months of them, and eventually two of her kids were struggling under the same roof at the same time. So we get into what we would each do differently now. The paperwork almost no parent thinks about until they are standing in a hospital hallway being told nothing. What is already sitting on that campus that you could call and ask about before move-in day. Why deferring a year is not the punishment it feels like. And the grief, which is real, of a fall you do not get to have. If your kid is leaving in a few weeks and something in you has not settled, listen before you load the car. YOU'LL LEARN What Cathy's son said two weeks before move-in, and what she and her husband decided it meantThe document most parents never think about until a hospital will not tell them anythingWhat is already available on most campuses that almost nobody calls to ask forWhy the money you think is locked in probably is notWhat Cathy and I both got instead of the college experience we wantedEPISODE RESOURCES: Success is Subjective podcastTreatment locator - AllKindsOfTherapy.com Assoc. Of Recovery in Higher Education - Collegiate Recovery ProgramsLearn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    Sending Your Struggling Kid To College, with Cathy Cioth

  8. Aug 13

    Substance Use Isn't the Whole Story, with Dr. Graham Husick

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: Your kid has been to a program. Maybe two. Maybe four. Each one handed back a diagnosis list a little longer than the last, and none of it ever explained why nothing is sticking. My guest uses a comparison in this one that stopped me cold. If your child had stomach pain, no surgeon would just open them up and look around. They would scan first. And yet with our kids we tend to go straight to treatment, treatment, treatment, without asking who this person actually is underneath the substance use. He calls it treating the problem inside the person instead of the person with the problem, and once you hear it you cannot unhear it. Dr. Graham Husick is a clinical psychologist in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the director of clinical assessment at the Lakeside Independence Program, which works with severe and complex mental health cases. Part of his job is reading the evaluations other people wrote about kids like ours, and he can tell you precisely what keeps getting left out of them. We get into why he includes IQ testing in every evaluation, what your child's preferred substance choice tells him that they could never say out loud, and why he will usually steer a family toward paying out of pocket rather than running a psych eval through insurance. He also names something I had never heard put into words: why a kid who is finally doing well will sometimes walk straight back into the thing that nearly took them out. I did not have any of this intelligence when my son was in it, and I have thought about that a lot since. If your child has cycled through program after program and you still cannot answer the question "but what is actually going on with them," start here. YOU'LL LEARN: Why Dr. Husick recommends not testing in active addiction, and the window he actually wantsWhat a diagnosis list eight items long tells you, and what it can never tell youWhy he includes IQ testing every time, even when nobody asked for itWhat the substance your child reaches for most says about what they may be needingThe recommendation he sometimes has to put in writing that parents least want to readEPISODE RESOURCES: Dr. Husick’s websiteLakeside Independence Program websiteThis podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms Find us on Instagram here Watch the podcast on YouTube here Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

    Substance Use Isn't the Whole Story, with Dr. Graham Husick
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When your teen or young adult is misusing drugs or alcohol, you need more than just tactics—you need hope, healing, and a path forward for your entire family. Hopestream delivers expert guidance and emotional support for parents navigating their child's substance use and mental health struggles. Hosted by Brenda Zane, Mayo Clinic Certified health coach and CRAFT-trained Parent Coach who nearly lost her son to addiction, this podcast goes beyond "how to get them into treatment" to address the full ecosystem of this journey. Episodes features: Leading addiction, prevention, and treatment expertsReal stories from families who've been thereEvidence-based strategies for helping your childSelf-care and coping tools for parentsDeeper conversations about finding meaning, joy, and even unexpected blessings through the hardest times Whether you're dealing with a teen or young adult's drug use, alcohol misuse, or co-occurring mental health challenges, Hopestream offers the comprehensive support other parenting and addiction podcasts miss. This is your safe space to heal, learn, and discover you're not alone. New episodes weekly. Join us between the episodes at hopestreamcommunity.org.

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