CLASSICS REVISITED: Putting a Positive Spin on Negative ThinkingCLASSICS REVISITED: Putting a Positive Spin on Negative Thinking
Coming Up for Air — Families Speak to Families about Addiction
Kayla Solomon and Laurie McDougall talk about how anxious, negative thoughts shape family life around addiction and share practical tools to shift towards a more positive, present mindset. Their conversation links everyday thinking habits with CRAFT-based strategies, gratitude, self-care and calmer interactions with a loved one.
32:53•16 Oct 2026
Turning Dread Around: Shifting Negative Thoughts in Families Facing Addiction
Episode Overview
- Thoughts influence mood, behaviour and the emotional climate around a loved one’s addiction.
- Anxiety keeps you out of the present and spreads a tense, negative energy that others can feel.
- Regular gratitude practice, even for very small things, can shift focus away from constant crisis.
- Tools like reframing, mindfulness, breathing exercises and time-limited worrying help loosen the grip of negative thinking.
- Listening calmly and looking for positives in a situation aligns with CRAFT and supports healthier interactions with a loved one.
“Your thoughts have power. Anxiety is a thought process.”
What drives someone to seek a calmer mind while living with a loved one’s addiction? This classic conversation from *Coming Up for Air* focuses on exactly that: how powerful your thoughts are, and how changing them can shift the whole atmosphere at home. Therapist Kayla Solomon and family advocate Laurie McDougall chat honestly about anxiety, dread and that constant cortisol-fuelled tension so many families recognise. Kayla puts it simply: **"Your thoughts have power.
Anxiety is a thought process."** She explains how anxious thinking pulls you out of the present, drains your energy and sends out "very negative vibes" that everyone around you, including your loved one, can feel. Laurie shares personal moments of being stuck in a permanent funk, where substance use disorder felt like a giant black file in her life, overshadowing everything else.
Through practices like nightly gratitude, she gradually watched that dark file shrink into a "tiny little sliver" while colourful memories of her daughters, husband and friends grew larger in her mind. You’ll hear concrete tools rather than vague pep talks: daily gratitude (even if it starts with "he lived another night"), reframing worst-case thinking, mindfulness, breathing exercises to calm the vagus nerve, and creative rituals like writing worries down and burning the paper or putting them in a "negativity box".
There’s even a light-hearted take on scheduling worry: give yourself 15 minutes to panic, then a hard stop. The CRAFT approach runs quietly through the whole chat: shift attention from catastrophe to what’s going well, listen instead of reacting, and actively look for the positive even when your loved one says, "I can’t take it anymore." The message stays grounded and hopeful: you’re allowed your fear and anger, but they don’t have to run the show.
Could changing the way you think be the first step toward changing the way your whole family feels?
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