Alex Colyer realized she really didn’t know about addiction and recovery after losing her best friend Reed McGregor to an overdose in January 2021. To honor Reed’s memory and legacy, Alex started the Albertus Project, a nonprofit organization that is transforming the way the world views addiction.
In this podcast, Alex talks about:
- Holding old, stigmatized views of addiction—without knowing the truth
- What Reed McGregor meant to so many people around the world
- How the world doesn’t show compassion to people with addictions
- That addiction isn’t who people are, but something they have
- Starting to do research but not finding the answers to her questions
- Turning tragedy into action by founding the Albertus Project
- The goals and values of the organization
- Pulling the Me’s into the conversation
- Giving people a voice with the Humans of Addiction stories
- Learning about SMART and the Family & Friends program
- That money shouldn’t stand in the way of a person’s recovery and the initiatives the Albertus Project have in place to help
- How her views on harm reduction changed with a simple analogy
Additional resources:
- Humans of New York
- Bridging the Gap Between Treatment and Recovery podcast
- Destigmatizing Addiction
- SMART Family & Friends
- Parent CRAFT
- Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
- Acadia Healthcare
- Mike Hooper’s Tapping into the Human interview
Click here to find all of SMART Recovery’s podcasts
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