#135 – Sharon Fekete: The Broken Road to Mental Health#135 – Sharon Fekete: The Broken Road to Mental Health
Recovery Survey
Brett Morris talks with author and business owner Sharon Fekete about her journey from addiction, homelessness and a suicide attempt to long-term sobriety and mental health advocacy. The conversation highlights depression in early recovery, the value of outside help and the power of sharing openly about both addiction and mental health.
34:43•9 Nov 2022
From Crack Addiction to Woman of the Year: Sharon Fekete on Sobriety and Mental Health
Episode Overview
- Sobriety can bring up depression, and needing therapy or medication alongside recovery programmes is presented as completely normal.
- Feeling different from others in rehab or meetings is common, but shared stories can break that isolation.
- Outside support such as employee assistance counselling can be life-saving when suicidal thoughts appear.
- Long-term recovery can lead to meaningful work, healthy relationships and unexpected achievements, even after severe trauma.
- Speaking openly about addiction and mental health (“recovering out loud”) can help others find help sooner.
“The 12 steps saved my life, but it didn't stop my depression.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Brett Morris and guest Sharon Fekete offers a raw, funny, and very honest look at what long-term recovery and mental health support can actually look like.
Sharon, author of *The Broken Road to Mental Health* and host of a podcast by the same name, talks candidly about growing up in a large Irish Catholic family, early insecurities about her body, and how drinking went from feeling innocent to a full-blown problem by her late teens.
She shares how blackouts, arrests, two rehabs, homelessness in Detroit and an abusive relationship led her to a suicide attempt and the realisation that, as she puts it, "I did not want to be on this earth. I could not function without alcohol and drugs." The heart of the episode is Sharon’s insistence that sobriety and mental health treatment often need to work together.
"The 12 steps saved my life," she says, "but it didn't stop my depression." She explains how an employee assistance counsellor, Ben, asked the direct question about suicidal thoughts, helped her access medication and therapy, and gave her permission to talk honestly about how bad things felt in early sobriety.
For anyone in recovery who worries that depression means they’re "doing it wrong", Sharon’s message is refreshingly normalising: giving up substances can leave you alone with your thoughts, and "we could use some outside help." She and Brett talk about 12-step fellowships, other recovery options, and why sharing openly about mental health can stop people feeling so isolated.
Sharon also describes building a successful career in healthcare consulting, writing her book in five days, speaking about mental health in workplaces, winning a Woman of the Year award, and why she’s committed to "recovering out loud" so others don’t have to suffer in silence. If you’ve ever wondered whether recovery can coexist with depression, this conversation might be exactly what you need to hear right now.
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