#99 – Ashley Grimes: Was it Mental Health or Substance Use Disorder?#99 – Ashley Grimes: Was it Mental Health or Substance Use Disorder?
Recovery Survey
Brett Morris talks with Ashley Grimes about her journey from prescribed painkillers and a suicide attempt to long-term recovery, advocacy work and graduate study. Their discussion highlights the overlap of mental health and substance use, relapse, gratitude practices and the belief that recovery remains a daily choice.
44:40•2 Feb 2022
Mental Health, Pills and Gratitude Lists: Ashley Grimes on Redefining Recovery
Episode Overview
- Prescription pain medication after surgery can quietly escalate into severe dependence, even for people without a prior history of substance use.
- Untreated trauma, anxiety, depression and grief can fuel addiction, making mental health support just as critical as stopping the substance.
- Short-term treatment alone rarely fixes everything; returning to the same environment without enough support can increase the risk of relapse.
- Simple practices like daily gratitude lists and regular meetings can gradually shift a negative mindset and help build sustainable recovery.
- Recovery is ongoing; Ashley stresses staying aware that a single choice can trigger old patterns, while also showing that education, family life and leadership roles are still possible.
“I have to always be aware that I'm one choice away from ending back where I was.”
Ashley, president of NAMI Florida and a person in long-term recovery, talks honestly about growing up feeling like she didn’t fit in, early red flags around body image and perfectionism, and how prescribed pain medication after a serious elbow injury spiralled into taking “between 25 and 30 hydrocodone a day.” She shares how a suicide attempt led her first to a state facility and then to a private rehab where she first heard about trauma therapy – yet still felt judged with comments like, “You just did pills.
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This conversation with Ashley Grimes takes you right into that messy middle ground where mental health and substance use collide, and the lines between them feel painfully blurry. You’re not an addict.” Her story doesn’t hinge on a single lightbulb moment.
Instead, Ashley describes recovery as something built “one day at a time,” pushed along by 90 meetings in 90 days, a no-nonsense sponsor, and a nightly gratitude list that started with, “I’m grateful the day is over and I can go to bed,” and slowly widened into a new way of seeing life.
She also talks about co-occurring conditions, explaining how untreated trauma, PTSD, anxiety and depression once fuelled her use, and how her physical health changed dramatically after she stopped substances: her blood sugars dropped from “a 12.8… to a 6 point something” without any other lifestyle changes.
Today, Ashley balances roles in recovery organisations, studies for her MBA, and parents her children, while still stressing, “I have to always be aware that I’m one choice away from ending back where I was.” This episode is aimed at anyone juggling mental health and substance use, families trying to understand, and people who need proof that yes, “we do recover.” It might leave you asking: what small daily practice, like gratitude, could quietly shift your own recovery story?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.
Related Episodes
Similar episodes from other shows in the catalogue.