#116 – Jennifer Irwin: Sex Addiction (A Dress Series)#116 – Jennifer Irwin: Sex Addiction (A Dress Series)
Recovery Survey
Author Jennifer Irwin talks about her award‑winning Dress series, drawing on her experiences with trauma, addiction and codependence to shape a realistic picture of sex addiction and rehab. The conversation also touches on indie publishing, relapse, and how storytelling can help break stigma around treatment and recovery.
32:45•8 Jun 2022
Sex Addiction, Trauma and Rehab Through the Lens of Jennifer Irwin’s Dress Series
Episode Overview
- Fiction rooted in real experiences can help people understand what rehab and early recovery actually feel like.
- Many addictions grow out of unprocessed childhood and adult trauma, including abuse and family dysfunction.
- Rehab communities are made up of everyday people from all backgrounds, not stereotypes.
- Letting go of victim mentality and working on codependence is crucial for healthier relationships.
- Creative practices like writing, journaling and meditation can be powerful tools for ongoing healing.
“When you're using, you have one problem. And it's your only problem. And it's a very big problem.”
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? For fans of honest, character‑driven tales about addiction and healing, this chat with author Jennifer Irwin hits that sweet spot between raw truth and page‑turning drama. The conversation centres on Jennifer’s "Dress" series – *A Dress the Color of the Sky* and *A Dress the Color of the Moon* – novels rooted in addiction, sex addiction, trauma, and rehab.
She shares how a painful divorce and growing up as the child of a cross‑addicted parent pushed her to ask a hard question: why did she marry an alcoholic when she already knew the damage addiction causes? Writing became both research and self‑therapy as she worked through codependence, childhood molestation, and family chaos. Her main character, Prudence, is a sex addict who checks into rehab to save her marriage.
Through group sessions, art and music therapy, and those brutally honest chats in the smoking area, readers get a close‑up look at treatment. Jennifer wanted people to see that rehab isn’t full of stereotypes, but "housewives that had back surgery and got addicted to vicodin", alongside firemen, police officers, lawyers and doctors.
You’ll also hear what it’s like to be an indie author writing about addiction: chasing reviews and awards, handling shameless self‑promotion, and juggling a demanding sales job while trying to keep the dream alive, including interest from Netflix. Both she and host Brett Morris relate to being one‑person operations relying on the recovery community to spread the word.
For anyone affected by addiction – directly or through loved ones – this conversation offers a fictional doorway into very real emotions, from relapse and shame to hope and connection. Could a story like Prudence’s be the nudge someone in your life needs to look at rehab differently?
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