Emotional InvestmentsEmotional Investments
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Skyler and Chantel Jensen share their shared journey through addiction, jail, medication-assisted treatment and a life-threatening illness, stressing honesty, communication and community support. Their story centres on how a couple can rebuild trust and family life while staying committed to recovery.
54:45•26 Aug 2019
Emotional Investments: Skyler and Chantel’s Journey from Addiction to Honest Love
Episode Overview
- Honesty with oneself and a partner is essential; hiding use and lying only prolongs the pain for everyone involved.
- Partners should look for warning signs, avoid enabling, and learn to ask hard questions even when it risks the relationship.
- Medication-assisted approaches like suboxone can help, but work best when used under proper medical guidance and with clear communication.
- Strong support systems, such as community recovery teams and sport-based groups, can give structure, accountability and a sense of family.
- Open communication about triggers, fears and everyday behaviours helps reduce suspicion and rebuild trust over time.
“I really feel like I’ve truly fallen in love with the real Skyler and not the Skyler that I met.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation on Addict II Athlete follows Skyler and Chantel Jensen as they show what it really looks like to rebuild trust, love and family life after years of substance use. Skyler walks through his journey from a sport-loving teenager in a "typical Mormon family" to heavy pill use, heroin, jail time and drug court.
He talks openly about reaching the point where he was almost “praying to get caught”, and how that arrest became the start of genuine change. Chantel shares the partner’s side of the story: the secret bathroom trips, the baggies and tinfoil hidden in a bathroom caboodle, and the moment she literally sat on the sink and refused to leave while he tried to use. As she puts it, "I could get out… and I didn’t.
I really don’t know why I stayed except for I felt like he could do it." Together they describe the messy middle ground of recovery: using suboxone off the street, then under a doctor’s care, and Chantel insisting on sitting in appointments so she could hear everything first-hand. They explain how they found Addict II Athlete through a friend’s charity run, and how the team’s family feel and focus on sport gave them a fresh way to stay sober.
One of the most gripping parts is Skyler’s near-death liver abscess. Misdiagnosed multiple times with “the flu”, he ends up in hospital where staff push strong pain meds while he and Chantel fight to protect his recovery. He recalls how that experience proved to him he could face extreme pain without returning to heroin. This episode is ideal for couples, family members and anyone who’s wondered how to balance tough love, support and self-respect in recovery.
It might leave you asking: what “emotional investments” are you willing to make—for yourself and for the people you love?
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