Don't Mask It, Deal With It Part 1

Don't Mask It, Deal With It Part 1

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This episode of *Doc Jacques: Your Addiction Lifeguard* zeroes in on the hard truth many people in recovery would rather avoid: the problem isn’t the trigger, it’s the buried shame it wakes up. Dr. Jacques de Broekert, known as Doc Shock, talks directly to people with addiction issues who struggle to be honest with themselves about their past.

Using the story of Ray, who nearly relapsed after a brief dressing-down from his foreman, he shows how "the foreman didn't cause that night. He just said something that rhymed" with an old, unspoken trauma from nine years earlier. You’ll hear the difference between telling the truth and being truthful, and how "telling true things dishonestly by omission" keeps shame alive.

Doc Shock unpacks how isolation keeps that buried event smouldering, while saying it out loud to at least one safe person starts to shrink its power. There’s plenty here for those in 12-step recovery too. He talks about why so many people bail at Step 4 and Step 5, and how naming defects, writing them down, and speaking them can be terrifying but necessary.

He weaves in Bessel van der Kolk’s idea that "the body keeps the score", explaining how trauma shows up in shaking hands, sudden jolts, and hypervigilance. Doc Shock also contrasts two tough groups to work with: older adults who were raised to never talk about feelings, and younger adults who’ve been flooded with messages that "everything is abuse". Both, he argues, struggle to label their experiences accurately.

With honest humour, clinical clarity, and zero sugar-coating, this episode offers a straight-talking look at why masking pain keeps people stuck and why bringing it into the light—bit by bit—can change the way they relate to their triggers. Ready to stop blaming the trigger and start asking what it’s hooked to?