What does it really mean to love someone through addiction — and how do we move beyond the idea that rehab is the only way forward?

The answer is rarely simple. We want to show up, to help, to protect — but sometimes our love feels heavy, confusing, or not enough.

Joanna and I talk about the complicated love of siblings — the guilt, the hope, the heartbreak — and how stories like hers and mine can remind us that none of us are alone in this.

In The Opioid Trilogy, Joanna brings these stories to life with unflinching honesty: Brother captures her intimate phone calls with her brother as he navigates the fragile cycle of recovery; Do No Harm follows Raina McMahan’s 17-year struggle with heroin and the healing power of connection over punishment; and Coming Home traces Tahira Malik’s journey of rebuilding after addiction and incarceration, and her creation of a safe space for women reentering society.

Together we dig into:

• The complicated love of siblings — the guilt, the hope, the heartbreak

• Paths to recovery beyond rehab

• The failures of the rehab industry

• How to help and support a loved one in early recovery, or sober curious

• And what it means to love someone through addiction, even when you don’t have the answers

If you’ve ever wrestled with the idea of tough love, or questioned, “Am I loving them the right way?” this conversation is for you.

📘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: Joanna Rudnick

Watch The Opioid Trilogy’s short films:

• Ep 1: Brother

• Ep 2: Do No Harm

• Ep 3: Coming Home

“Rat Park,” explained:

• TED Talk: “Everything you know about addiction is wrong” by Johann Hari

What happens to the child who’s always told to “be good” while all the attention goes to their sibling? They grow up invisible. They become the Glass Child.

In the third and final episode of our Parentification Series, I talk with TEDx speaker Alicia Meneses Maples, who coined the term glass child, about what it’s really like to be the sibling who carries the burden quietly. We go deep into:

• The crushing pressure of being “the good kid”

• Parents leaning on you like their therapist

• The silence and shame of having no space for your own emotions

• How it all shows up later in toxic relationships and burnout

• And what healing, boundaries, and acceptance actually look like

If you’ve ever felt unseen in your own family, this one will hit home.

📘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: Alicia Meneses Maples

Related content:

• Alicia’s TEDx on recognizing the “Glass Child”

• “The parentified child: Why they’re often the eldest daughter”
  

What if the version of you that kept your family functioning isn’t the version you want to be anymore? You might have heard the term, “cyclebreaking” or “breaking generational trauma,” but what exactly does that mean and how do you know if you’re ready to change and challenge how you’ve done things before?

Growing up in a family shaped by addiction, people-pleasing, and the urge to “fix,” I knew it was time to break patterns. In this raw and honest conversation, I sit down with Kate Nichols, a LCSW who focuses on cyclebreaking to talk about what that really means, and what happens to us—and our families—when we decide that the dysfunction ends with us.

We place a special emphasis on the role of siblings, their dynamics and how they’re impacted when a parent or other sibling struggle with addiction.

Together we unpack the guilt, the grief, and the slow, steady work of building a life that’s yours—not one you inherited out of obligation.

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• 🎯 This episode will help you:

  • Identify the role you played in your family—and how it’s still shaping you
  • Determine whether you’re ready to get comfortable with making uncomfortable changes
  • Practical ways to start tuning into what you want and need (instead of what others expect)
  • Discover what free or low-cost mental health tools are available to you

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  📘 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: Kate Nichols, LCSW

  
  

  Related content:

  • “Beyond Blame: Family dynamics 101”

  • “The parentified child: Why they’re often the eldest daughter”

  • • Find affordable therapy through OpenPath Collective
    • 
      How to identify if you’re a cyclebreaker