Addiction: Habit or Disease? (Episode 4 - Archive)Addiction: Habit or Disease? (Episode 4 - Archive)
Relational Recovery
Matthew shares how family history, grief, and deep discontentment in his mid‑20s contributed to his opiate addiction. The conversation raises the question of whether addiction is a habit, a disease, or something more complex tied to pain and identity.
10:51•5 Aug 2026
Habit, Disease, or Both? Matthew’s Honest Story of Opiate Addiction
Episode Overview
- Addiction is discussed through Matthew’s personal story, questioning whether it is driven more by habit, disease, or a complex mix of both.
- A loving but dysfunctional family, including the pressure of being a "miracle baby" donor, shaped Matthew’s identity and need to save others.
- An emotionally disengaged father, financial strain, and learning about a long-term affair contributed to deep emotional hurt.
- Early exposure to opiates through prescriptions did not lead to addiction until later, when discontentment and emotional pain made the pills feel like medicine.
- Pill mill culture and the belief that prescription pills were harmless played a significant role in Matthew’s progression from occasional use to daily dependence.
“"This time it was medicine… it just didn’t make me feel better, it made me numb everything else that I was discontent about with my life."”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol or drugs? This conversation on Relational Recovery circles around that question as Wes Thompson and Austin Hill sit down with Matthew to hear how his life spiralled into opiate addiction, and what lay beneath it. Matthew talks through his story in raw detail, stressing that his journey didn’t fit the stereotype of the “broken home”. He grew up in a close, loving French-Italian family, yet still calls it “dysfunctional”.
From a young age he was labelled the “miracle baby” after donating bone marrow to his brother twice, the second time ending in his brother’s death. That experience, and the pressure he felt to “save” others, quietly shaped how he saw himself and his role in the family. He also shares how an emotionally distant father, financial stress, and later discovering a long-term affair chipped away at his sense of safety and worth.
Opiates first appeared in his life as prescribed pain relief in high school and college, but he didn’t latch on then because, as he puts it, he liked who he was and felt he had “the whole world in front of me”. The turning point came in his mid‑20s: a bad relationship, physical pain from restaurant work, and deep disappointment about where his life had ended up.
This time, when a friend handed him a pill, “it just didn’t make me feel better, it made me numb everything else that I was discontent about with my life.” What began as occasional use became a daily habit, fuelled by pill mill culture and the false belief that these pills were “just like marijuana”.
Anyone wrestling with the question “habit or disease?” will appreciate how this conversation ties together family history, emotional pain, and the slow shift from relief to dependence. It might just prompt you to ask: what’s really underneath the behaviour you’re trying to change?
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