159 Touched By Addiction with Bohdan159 Touched By Addiction with Bohdan
You're Sober! Now What?
The conversation centres on Bohdan’s experiences with opioid addiction, long-term rehab, and the creation of Touched By Addiction to support others into treatment. It appears to highlight community, higher power, and purposeful work as key elements in building a satisfying life in recovery.
46:13•13 Dec 2021
Touched By Addiction: Bohdan’s Mission Beyond Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Long-term treatment, often around a year, is presented as more effective for severe addiction than 30–35 day programmes.
- Community, fellowship, and having people to call in moments of struggle are described as crucial for ongoing sobriety.
- A higher power is framed as essential, with Bohdan crediting his faith as a key reason he is still alive.
- Touched By Addiction focuses on raising funds to send people to long-term rehab and sharing recovery stories through a book project.
- Finding purpose and meaningful work after getting sober is suggested as a way to build a life so good that going back no longer appeals.
“Addiction is like a prey animal. It isolates you. It hunts you until you're alone and then it strikes and it gets you.”
How do individuals turn their lives around after addiction? This episode of "You're Sober! Now What?" focuses on Bohdan from Touched By Addiction, sharing how his journey through fentanyl dependence, methadone clinics, and long-term rehab has shaped a mission to help others into recovery. You’ll hear how a childhood move from Ukraine to Canada, the loss of his grandfather, and feelings of abandonment eventually fed into his dependence on opioids.
Bohdan talks about building a clothing business to support Ukrainian soldiers, the stress that pushed him towards oxycodone, and the shock of realising he was in withdrawal: a moment summed up by googling symptoms and seeing the word he never thought applied to him. One of the most striking parts of the conversation is his view on treatment length.
After relapsing only three hours after leaving a 35‑day programme, he contrasts short stays with the year‑long Teen Challenge programme he calls a "miracle factory". He explains that "scientifically it says that your brain takes about a year to two years just to go back to being normal" and stresses that long‑term structure, work, and mentorship gave him more than just abstinence – it rebuilt his life. Community and higher power are constant themes.
Bohdan credits Jesus Christ as his higher power and points out that without support, "addiction is like a prey animal. It isolates you… and then it strikes." Tamar joins him in highlighting how fellowship, mentors, and ongoing routines like prayer and meditation can keep recovery from slipping into complacency.
Touched By Addiction’s work funding long‑term rehab stays, building a recovery story book, and planning a speaking team is presented as a practical way people in recovery can turn pain into purpose. If you’re wondering what might lie beyond simply staying sober, this candid chat could spark new questions about what you want your own recovery to look like – and who you’d like it to help.
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