Finding Your Identity Beyond Addiction with Candace B.Finding Your Identity Beyond Addiction with Candace B.
Finding Hope
Candace B. shares how finding a faith-based support group and shifting from control to surrender helped her reclaim her identity beyond her loved one’s addiction. The conversation offers practical spiritual tools and encouragement for anyone feeling weighed down by a family member’s substance use.
30:46•5 Nov 2026
Finding Your Identity Beyond a Loved One’s Addiction with Candace B.
Episode Overview
- A loved one’s addiction can consume your thoughts and become your identity, but you can choose self-recovery and a new perspective.
- Trying to control someone’s addiction is draining; releasing them to God and focusing on what you can control brings relief.
- Learning about codependency, enabling and boundaries is crucial for protecting your wellbeing and teaching your children healthier patterns.
- Simple daily habits, such as giving God the first five minutes of the day and slowly reading Jeremiah 33:3, can support ongoing recovery.
- Your identity is not "wife of an alcoholic" or similar labels; your identity is as a child of God, loved and invited to rest rather than carry every burden.
“Your loved one’s addiction becomes your addiction because that’s all you focus on… but you can release them to the Creator and let God handle what He already made.”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This episode centres on Candace Belton, a wife and mum from South Carolina whose life has long been touched by addiction in her family, marriage and childhood. She opens up about reaching a point of exhaustion and isolation, sitting at her desk, "ready to give up", and then stumbling across the Finding Hope Bible plan on the YouVersion Bible App.
That simple search for "addictions" became, in her words, "life-changing" as she found a support group where "everybody knew exactly what I was talking about" and prayed for her. You’ll hear Candace talk about how her husband’s addiction – and addiction running through the men in her family – once felt like her whole identity.
She shares how joining Finding Hope groups, attending retreats and leaning into faith shifted her focus from trying to fix her loved one to letting God work in her own heart. "Your loved one’s addiction becomes your addiction," she says, describing how constant worry and control can consume your day, from waking up to walking back through the front door.
The conversation with host Amy LaRue is aimed at anyone who loves someone in addiction and feels stuck, guilty or overwhelmed. Together they unpack themes like self-recovery, codependency, enabling, boundaries and the idea of releasing loved ones "to the Creator" rather than carrying the weight alone. Candace explains how addiction has "grew me up spiritually" and how she now models healthy boundaries and forgiveness for her children.
One practical highlight is her simple daily practice: giving God the first five minutes of the day, slowly reading Jeremiah 33:3, asking what He wants her to see, and then handing the day back to Him at night. It’s down-to-earth, faith-filled and honest about the ups and downs. If you’ve ever felt like your loved one’s addiction has swallowed your identity, could five quiet minutes and a new perspective be a place to start?
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