Addiction: Habit or Disease? (Episode 5 - Archive)Addiction: Habit or Disease? (Episode 5 - Archive)
Relational Recovery
Wes, Austin and Matt talk through how prescription painkillers, discontent and a lack of joy fed into long-term opiate addiction. The conversation reflects on dependence, faith, fading hope and the moment Matt chose to seek help rather than keep trying to quit on his own.
8:35•6 Aug 2026
Addiction: When Medicine Becomes a Parasite
Episode Overview
- Addiction is described as a parasitic process that turns something good, like medicine, into something harmful that dominates life.
- Joy is suggested as a key threshold: when drugs become the main source of joy, addiction gains power.
- The conversation distinguishes physical dependence on medication from addiction, noting that dependence can exist without destructive behaviour.
- Matt shares that repeated cold-turkey attempts and growing self-hatred eventually led him to admit he needed help beyond his own efforts.
- Witnessing overdoses and sensing his own hope slipping pushed Matt to reconsider the story he wanted his life to tell.
“Addictions fun until it becomes not fun.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This instalment of Relational Recovery sits with Wes Thompson, Austin Hill and their guest Matt as they wrestle with a big question: is addiction simply a habit or is it more like a disease that takes over your life? You’ll hear Matt talk about prescription painkillers, back injuries and how the pills didn’t just numb his body, they dulled a much deeper discontent.
Drawing on Christian spirituality, Wes and Austin reflect on how pain naturally pushes people to look for relief, pointing to Jesus as someone who “walked around softening pain, healing people, comforting people that were in pain.” That frame lets them treat suffering seriously while still asking hard questions about when something good like medicine turns parasitic, “taking something good, turning it evil and hurting people in an unnecessary way.” Matt’s story moves from early attempts to quit cold turkey and go to work while withdrawing, through eight years of repeated relapses, dwindling hope, homelessness and watching others die from opiates.
He’s honest about the difference between being physically dependent on a drug and being addicted to it, sharing examples like long-term medical use where medication keeps someone alive without taking over their identity. The conversation keeps circling back to one key idea: joy. Matt suggests that a lack of joy made him more vulnerable, and that addiction really takes hold when the drug starts to replace joy as the main source of feeling good.
His turning point comes when he realises his hope is slipping away and starts to picture the “wasted time” and the kind of death he’s heading towards if something doesn’t change. If you’ve wondered where the line sits between habit, dependence and full-blown addiction—or you’re questioning whether there’s still hope for you—this conversation might be the nudge that helps you ask, “What do I want my story to be from here?”
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