The Hopeaholics

Addicted to Hope
  • 4.8 (71)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

Chad Carlsen started The Hopeaholics Podcast after his soon-to-be son-in-law died of fentanyl poisoning. Not as therapy. As a response to a crisis that kills tens of thousands of people a year while most of the country looks the other way. Hosted by Chad and WWE superstar Natalie Eva Marie, The Hopeaholics brings on survivors of addiction, mental illness, and the kind of rock-bottom moments most people never talk about. Long-form, unfiltered conversations with people in recovery, families who've lost someone, and the professionals working inside the addiction treatment system. 327+ episodes. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday. If you or someone you love needs help with addiction or substance use, call 949-615-8588

  1. 1d ago

    $1.2 MILLION in Debt & Facing Federal Prison with Ian Bick | The Hopeaholics Rereleased

    At 18 years old, Ian Bick was running a nightclub and booking major artists. Just a few years later, everything came crashing down — leaving him facing massive debt, federal charges, and ultimately three years in federal prison. In this episode of The Hopeaholics Podcast, Ian Bick shares the unbelievable rise, fall, and comeback that completely changed the course of his life. Ian opens up about the pressure of finding success so young, the decisions that led to his federal conviction, what life was really like behind bars, solitary confinement, and the reality of rebuilding your life after prison. But Ian’s story didn’t end there. After his release, he eventually turned his experiences into a platform for second chances, redemption, and conversations about the criminal justice system. Today, he is the host of Locked In with Ian Bick, where he sits down with former inmates, law enforcement, attorneys, victims, and others to tell stories from every side of the system. This is a conversation about ambition, consequences, accountability, resilience, and what it takes to rebuild after losing everything. $1.2 MILLION in Debt & Facing Federal Prison with Ian Bick | The Hopeaholics Rereleased CHECK OUT IAN BICK HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@ianbickCT  Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: PODCAST HOPEAHOLICS for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

  2. Sep 28

    We Should Have Seen the Fentanyl Crisis Coming w/ Sheriff Don Barnes | Re-Release #109

    In this re-released episode of The Hopeaholics Podcast #109, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes shares warnings about fentanyl, the rise of counterfeit pills and the programs his department developed as the crisis grew. Sheriff Don Barnes has spent more than 35 years in law enforcement and has been confronting the fentanyl crisis in Orange County since his department began seeing the drug in 2015.  Barnes discusses naloxone deployment by deputies, medication-assisted treatment inside the jail, reentry programs, counterfeit pills sold as Xanax, Percocet and Adderall, social media drug sales, youth drug education, mental health crisis response and why he believes there is no single solution to fentanyl. We Should Have Seen the Fentanyl Crisis Coming w/ Sheriff Don Barnes | Re-Release #109 Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie 0:00:00 Intro 0:05:54 Orange County starts seeing fentanyl in 2015 0:13:41 Addiction treatment inside the Orange County Jail 0:16:15 Prop 47, drug arrests and consequences for addiction 0:23:56 Marijuana, psychosis and the developing brain 0:29:19 Addiction, mental illness and homelessness 0:32:31 Why short insurance stays fail people in treatment 0:36:55 Reentry, relapse risk and counterfeit pills 0:41:35 "If it's not from a pharmacist, it's fentanyl" 0:50:02 Kids selling fentanyl and the changing drug market 0:52:39 Cartels, trafficking and border security 1:00:45 Overdose vs. poisoning 1:05:38 Fentanyl dealers, murder charges and criminal liability 1:12:13 Barnes recalls years of warnings about fentanyl 1:18:36 How Narcan races against fentanyl 1:25:59 What Orange County's death investigations show about addiction 1:36:20 Fentanyl deaths among teens and talking to your kids 1:52:51 The arrest Barnes says helped change one man's life 2:01:24 Mental health stigma and Orange County's Be Well centers 2:16:11 Chad: "This is a podcast that I wish never existed" 2:19:45 Chad thanks the deputies who helped save his life 2:22:43 Preventable deaths, education and final thoughts

  3. Sep 24

    Firefighter PTSD, Addiction & the Cost of Being "Tough" w/ James Owen | The Hopeaholics Podcast #363

    Retired Long Beach Fire Captain James Owen spent his career running toward other people’s emergencies while addiction, trauma, and post-traumatic stress were building behind the badge. In this episode of The Hopeaholics, James opens up about the murder of his close friend and fellow firefighter Captain Dave Rosa, surviving a motorcycle crash that broke his neck, losing and rebuilding his sobriety, and the realization that ultimately changed his life: after spending his career trying to save everyone else, the last patient he needed to save was himself. James joined the Long Beach Fire Department and built the career he had dreamed about, eventually becoming a fire captain. But as the job became more of his identity, his recovery began to disappear. After years of sobriety, James found himself drinking again while dealing with divorce, overwhelming stress, internal investigations, traumatic calls, and the cumulative weight of life as a first responder. James also discusses first responder PTSD and suicide, Alcoholics Anonymous, Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA), nonlinear recovery, alternative recovery modalities, the importance of continuing to seek new ways to heal, and his book, The Last Patient. Firefighter PTSD, Addiction & the Cost of Being "Tough" w/ James Owen | The Hopeaholics Podcast #363

  4. Sep 14

    My AA Friend Got Me Drunk In My First 90 Days w/ Rachel Sereni | The Hopeaholics Podcast #362

    Rachel Sereni is co-host of the 2 Girls in a Chair podcast and sober for over 2 years. She grew up mostly alone with her little sister while their dad worked two jobs, because their mother was addicted to opiates and spent most of Rachel's early childhood nodding out on the couch. Rachel got a DUI after she left work early to drink and forgot to pick up her son from school, woke up in jail with her car impounded and her son at his grandma's house. By the end of her drinking she was 221 pounds, had over 32 W2s because she couldn't hold a job, and was blacking out most nights and cursing out her husband without remembering any of it. On April 10th, 2024, she drove to a parking lot with a bottle of wine and two shooters for one last hurrah, got halfway through the wine, started throwing a tantrum in her front seat and almost kicked her windshield in. She got out, threw everything into a field, and landed on her knees sobbing. She drove home, woke up April 11th, and that was her sobriety date. She's been sober since, lost 80 pounds, and chose April 11th as the date she married her husband. Rachel also announces an amazing surprise for the very first time in our show's history! Check out the 2 Girls In A Chair podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@2GirlsInaChair Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie 00:00 — Intro 04:00 — Pregnancy Announcement 08:00 — Day one of sobriety: got on the scale, saw 221 13:29 — In and out of halfway homes with Mom 15:14 — Mom came back at 11 16:57 — Mom had numerous overdoses 17:31 — The night mom died 21:51 — Daily drinking by 19; violent, fighting people; 22:20 — Found out she was pregnant 23:33 — The friend nobody wanted to go out with 24:18 — Left work early to drink; forgot to pick son up; woke up in jail 29:40 — The surrender moment 31:39 — Friend did an intervention while she was the one who got Rachel drunk 33:17 — Started 2 Girls in a Chair with Jessica 36:41 — She thought she'd never genuinely laugh again 37:49 — Addiction doesn't have to define your whole personality 43:55 — "I married the love of my life the day I got my life back." 46:41 — Grief in sobriety 47:24 — Started EMDR for PTSD from seeing her mom's body 50:47 — Not continuing EMDR while pregnant 53:33 — What you feel during pregnancy, the baby feels 54:33 — Her son forgives her 57:22 — Blackout drinking 57:47 — How alcohol is glamorized vs what it actually is 1:02:19 — AA experiences mirror bad church experiences 1:07:04 — How she and Jessica met 1:09:14 — Grew up with no mother; all mother figures have passed

  5. Sep 10

    I Hid My Heroin Addiction from My Wife for 3 Years w/ Jesse Sanchez | The Hopeaholics Podcast #361

    Jesse Sanchez was 11 the first time he smoked weed, 14 when he tried cocaine and opiates, and 17 when he looked up from a carpet covered in crack and thought "holy s***, what are we doing." He eventually landed on heroin as his drug of choice and spent three years hiding it from his wife, driving 4.5 hours round trip to his dealer while she thought he was at work, once using a co-worker's real funeral as cover to go pick up. When she finally found out, he ended up on his sister's couch in Washington sweating it out, then a year in AA still drinking, still taking chips for heroin. He's been six years off heroin, four years fully clean. Six months into his final sobriety, his brother Julian had died from fentanyl poisoning. The depression that followed got dark enough that when the thought of taking his son with him crossed his mind, it scared him into finally getting real help. Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie 0:00    — Into 2:07    — The shirt: in memory of Julian 7:43    — Parents divorced when he was 2 8:14    — Age 11: first smoked weed with a friend, not his brother 10:06   — Age 14: no weed around, tried cocaine 13:17   — Age 17: became a crackhead 14:12   — Opiates vs everything else 17:15   — When pills got scarce, friends switched to heroin 18:06   — Met his wife from Ukraine 23:17   — Wife caught him, admitted pills, never mentioned heroin 32:37   — Used a co-worker's real funeral as cover to go pick up drugs 34:30   — Confessing addiction to wife 42:45   — Detoxing at sister's house 45:18   — 6 years off heroin, never touched it since 46:04   — Tried AA while still drinking 51:22   — Relapsed on cocaine at work, told his sponsor 55:24   — Mom calls to tell me my brother died 58:20   — 800-pound steel tube cut his fingertips off on the job 1:04:39 — Staying sober through brother's death 1:09:05 — Rock bottom in sobriety 1:17:33 — What turned the corner: therapy, EMDR 1:21:06 — What you tell your sponsor vs what you tell a therapist

  6. Sep 7

    My Dad Was My First Dealer w/ Jessica Nolin | The Hopeaholics Podcast #360

    Jessica Nolin is a content creator, recovery advocate, and co-host of 2 Girls in a Chair podcast. Jessica's dad dealt drugs her entire childhood and helped manage her anxiety by giving her a vodka orange at 12 along with random pills she didn't even know the names of. By 15 she was drinking daily. A few years ago she detoxed at home alone over nine days without telling anyone, sleeping an hour at a time, still showing up to work and helping customers on the sales floor between rounds of throwing up. What got her through it was sheer will and a decision she made going in that she wasn't going to be ashamed of it. After those nine days she started figuring out what sobriety actually looked like for her and found an Instagram community of people in recovery just by putting herself out there during a dry January and posting every day. Today she has two years sober, a genuine support system, and is continuing to share her experiences and spread her message with her content.  Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #mystory  #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie 01:12 — Jessica Nolin 04:38 — Parents were 17 and 18 05:27 — Struggling with anxiety and depression 06:28 — First drink at 12: dad gave her a vodka orange for her anxiety 11:46 — Living in dad's trap house 19:24 — Hair falling out, throwing up every day 25:42 — Grandpa and dad sold drugs 30:00 — Moment of clarity 31:47 — Nine days of home detox 33:46 — What's kept her sober 35:49 — Radical self-acceptance 36:46 — How she met Rachel and started their podcast 42:58 — Dad is still using; relationship with mom is better now 43:48 — Why she does this

  7. Sep 3

    I Used To Do Heroin At Work Now I'm 10 Years Sober w/ Adam Wittbrodt | The Hopeaholics Podcast #359

    Adam Wittbrodt is a personal trainer and recovery advocate. He grew up with an alcoholic father who walked out on his 12th birthday and died before Adam turned 19. Carrying grief Adam spent the next decade and a half burying under IV heroin, forged checks, and 8 felonies. One day he collapsed at the front desk where he worked after injecting what he thought was heroin. It was laced with fentanyl and cocaine. A hotel guest walked in at exactly the right moment and called 911. Three weeks into county jail after that, he heard himself tell his cellmate he was pissed that the paramedics had saved him. That was the break. He went through Midland County Recovery Court, then treatment at Harbor Hall in Petoskey. Sober June 22nd, 2016. He has 10 years, runs a personal training operation with 100+ clients, a fitness and recovery program inside the Midland County Juvenile Justice Center, and co-hosts the Level Up Life podcast. I Used To Do Heroin At Work Now I'm 10 Years Sober w/ Adam Wittbrodt | The Hopeaholics Podcast #359 Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie 0:00   — Intro 0:58   — Adam Wittbrodt 11:59  — Cigarettes at 13 to IV heroin 12:53  — First Vicodin prescription at 14 14:50  — "Maybe if I do what my dad did, I'll understand him" 16:34  — Dad dies; $10K in life insurance gone in a month 18:29  — First 90 days in jail at 21 21:06  — The Curry Hotel: 3 × 80mg Oxy loaded into one shot 23:24  — Conning doctors 25:08  — 23 months to 14 years 30:00  — Grandmother dying in the ICU 31:20  — Using laced Heroine at work  33:06  — It was fentanyl and cocaine: just hitting the market in 2016 33:52  — Survivor's remorse: "Why was I saved?" 35:42  — The ER should treat addiction like a diabetic emergency 52:32  — 7th and 8th felonies, $500K bond 1:03:23 — 10 years sober; 210 meetings in 210 days 1:14:37 — Building the personal training business 1:15:48 — The Rebuild Program 1:19:52 — 300 fentanyl deaths a day: why he thinks he was saved

  8. Aug 31

    I Called 911 Mid Psychosis And They Hung Up On Me w/ Riley Jensen | The Hopeaholics Podcast #358

    At 18 Riley moved to LA, got into the adult entertainment industry, made fast money, found cocaine & alcohol, and ran that combination through her entire 20s.  In 2023 she got pregnant but couldn't stop using. She missed 2 Christmases that she blamed on her daughter being sick when it was Riley being hungover. Riley's breaking point was being in closet at 4am doing coke, convinced there were people in her house that weren't there, called 911, the operator told her to get some sleep and hung up, and she grabbed her daughter and drove 80 miles an hour to her ex's parents' house to try and convince them they needed safety. Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials: https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics  https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off! Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.  Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC: https://www.infinitigroupllc.com  Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics  Our Merch:  https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com #TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie 00:00 Intro 01:40 Riley Jensen 06:40 The family disease 08:32 Doing P*** at 18yo 14:14 First attempt at sobriety 16:23 Pregnant and couldn't stop 18:28 Post partum addiction 20:06 Going Into Psychosis 22:33 Walking into AA, 3 times a day, the first 60 days 31:55 First sober airplane and vacation 35:51 80-year-old sponsor 39:43 Dad chaired her first meeting 43:18 Breaking the cycle 56:24 "This is me. This is the real Erica."

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4.8
out of 5
71 Ratings

About

Chad Carlsen started The Hopeaholics Podcast after his soon-to-be son-in-law died of fentanyl poisoning. Not as therapy. As a response to a crisis that kills tens of thousands of people a year while most of the country looks the other way. Hosted by Chad and WWE superstar Natalie Eva Marie, The Hopeaholics brings on survivors of addiction, mental illness, and the kind of rock-bottom moments most people never talk about. Long-form, unfiltered conversations with people in recovery, families who've lost someone, and the professionals working inside the addiction treatment system. 327+ episodes. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday. If you or someone you love needs help with addiction or substance use, call 949-615-8588

Information

  • Creator
    Addicted to Hope
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    364
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Hopeaholics
  • Show Website
    The Hopeaholics

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